The solution started in the Weta workshop, Jackson and his team “creating iconic silhouettes” for each dwarf – different hairstyles and weapons (“Dwalin has axes crossed on his back, as if they’re sticking out of the side of his head”).

Costumes and instruments of pain sorted, it’s now down to the actors to work up their characters’ quirks to distinguish themselves within the group. “It’s an ensemble from hell really,” Jackson chuckles.

“I thought nine members of the Fellowship was a problem; but here, with Gandalf and Bilbo, we’ve got 15. It’s working out fine though. The dwarves give it a kind of childish, comedic quality that gives us a very different tone from The Lord Of The Rings.”

Still, continuity is key. “I want it to seem like we’ve gone back on location into Middle-earth; that these two movies feel like they belong at the beginning of the other three. We’re the same filmmakers going into the same world.”