There are two types of Lord Of The Rings fans in this world: those who are pretty fucking into it, and those who shamelessly take it to the next level – constructing a crowdfunding campaign for a casual £1.85 BILLION (around AU$ 3.9 billion), to build an IRL replica of Minas Tirith.
Led by Brit Jonathan Wilson, an Indiegogo campaign doing exactly that has emerged—“Realise Minas Tirith”—setting their sights on bringing J.R.R Tolkien‘s city to life. Because sometimes, when you want something truly ludicrous beautiful in your life, you just have to up and build the damn thing yourself.
The campaign reads:
“We are an ambitious team of Tolkien fans who are passionate about creating a beautiful, inspirational and fully-functioning replica of Peter Jackson’s depiction of Minas Tirith, as seen in his Lord of the Rings films.
We all share a love of Tolkien’s work, and a desire to challenge the common perception of community and architecture.
We believe that, in realising Minas Tirith, we can create not only the most remarkable tourist attraction on the planet, but also a wonderfully unique place to live and work. We aim to create both residential and commercial properties, allowing for sustainable growth and a high quality of life.”
There’s some pretty huge swings and roundabouts on the “perks” front.
The campaign has currently racked up £42,000 by over 1000 backers – with funds only being released to the group if they reach or pass the £1.8 billion mark, with the group conceding that the campaign thus has “virtually no chance of succeeding“.
Minas Tirith, it should go without saying, is essentially the first frontier in protecting Gondor from streams of ravaging Orcs. Naturally, a counter-campaign on Indiegogo has emerged, seeking £1 million to “DESTROY MINAS TIRITH”.
It reads:
“As loyal servants of the Dark Lord, we cannot allow this to happen. Join me in gnashing your teeth and stamping your feet.
Your gold will buy many pointy and shiny things which we can stick the humans with.
Let us tear the city brick from brick.
The Time of Man has ended.
The Time of the Orc has begun!”
You can support the Realise Minas Tirith campaign over here; or submit to the Dark Lord and support Destroy Minas Tirith over here.
