 Wellington, the centre of the films' production, was sometimes called Middle-earth, and for about a week around the release of the first movie the local newspaper "The Evening Post" renamed itself to "The Middle Earth Post".The town of Matamata, near the location of many of the Hobbiton scenes, unofficially renamed itself "Hobbiton".The flourishing of the film-industry in Wellington has led to the nickname "Wellywood", and a proposal to erect a "Hollywood" style sign near the airport was overturned due to public resistance and possible copyright infringements.