(CNN) — Here’s an airline safety video passengers might actually watch.
Air New Zealand has published another in its recent series of “Hobbit”-themed videos, complete with cameos by director Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood, star of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
The slick, 4-minute clip, cheekily titled “The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made,” features costumed figures from the “Hobbit” movies cavorting in a mountainous Middle-earth like setting while urging passengers to buckle seat belts, use oxygen masks and so on.
Shot in New Zealand, the video also is a not-so-subtle plug for the third and final film in Jackson’s “Hobbit” trilogy — “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” set for worldwide release in December.
It’s also latest example of a creative push by airlines to make in-flight safety videos more entertaining so that passengers won’t ignore them. Delta, for example, released a playful, ’80s-themed video in January, its fourth new safety video in two years.
Air New Zealand’s first “Hobbit”-themed video two years ago earned almost 12 million views on YouTube.
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