Hollywood stars including Elijah Wood have praised an Italian Lord of the Rings fanatic who now lives as a hobbit and is turning his land into a Middle Earth 'Shire'.
Wood was yesterday joined by actors Sean Aston and Billy Boyd who played hobbits in the trilogy praising Nicolas Gentile, 37, in videos posted to his Instagram page 'My Hobbit Life'.
The actors appealed for funding for the ambitious fantasy project, which Wood described 'a perfect replica of Bag End' and Samwise Gamgee actor Aston branded 'amazing' and 'incredible'.
Gentile, a pastry chef, is planning to turn five acres of land in Bucchianico in central Italy into a hobbit village called Gentile County - it cannot be named The Shire because of a copyright issue.
He already lives on the plot in a hobbit house he built from scratch modelled on descriptions of Bag End burrows in JRR Tolkien's books after he purchased the land in 2018.
Hollywood stars including Elijah Wood have praised Italian Lord of the Rings fanatic Nicolas Gentile (pictured) who now lives as a hobbit and is turning his land into a Middle Earth 'Shire'
Nicolas Gentile, a pastry chef, is planning to turn five acres of land in Bucchianico in central Italy into a hobbit village called Contea Gentile - it cannot be named The Shire because of a copyright issue
Nicolas Gentile was praised by Frodo actor Elijah Wood, who described his hobbit house as 'a perfect replica of Bag End'
Elijah Wood was joined by actors Sean Aston (left) and Billy Boyd (right) who played hobbits in the trilogy praising Gentile, 37, in videos posted to his Instagram page 'My Hobbit Life'
Gentile now hopes to build an entire hobbit village on the plot boasting environmentally friendly hobbit houses with solar power and an adjoining farmhouse, Gentile told the Guardian earlier this month.
He hopes to cover an estimated $1.78 million construction cost by crowdfunding.
Wood and his fellow hobbit actors have thrown their support behind the project, which Gentile says he does not want to become a tourist attraction, in a series of heartfelt messages.
'Hi Elijah Wood here', the actor says in the footage. 'I hope this finds you happy, healthy and well... I went to your Instagram page and it is incredible what you're doing.
'I love all of the costumes and the individual set photos that you've done in front of fires and smoking pipes. It's so beautiful but also the design, the re-design, a perfect replica of Bag End. How did you do that?
'Looking at the 3D mock-ups it is absolutely perfect, from what I remember Bag End to be. So, well done. I can't wait to
