The Hobbit films greenlighted

[neomaine]

Wow... That's kind of.. sad.

I like Kiwis. All that I have met were pretty cool people. To think Warner can sort of push them around like that... Sure, I can understand them wanting to keep their film industry expanding. But, to actually push through legislation? I guess I'd have to see what it was first, before I felt good about it.

Read the first page of the thread. Quite a lot of detail from both sides of the story. Personally, I gravitate towards the post with Jackson's take on the whole issue.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Read the first page of the thread. Quite a lot of detail from both sides of the story. Personally, I gravitate towards the post with Jackson's take on the whole issue.

I agree with Jackson's statements regarding the Unions and such as well as the Union's power plays amongst themselves. It's just a bit unsettling to see the issue effect National policy.

 

[dryson]

I grew up reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring's Trilogy. An epic story wirtten by an epic writer ruined by unintelligent roll player's trying to make corrrelation's between Tolkien's world and seemingly real world religion's.

Hopefully people wont forget that "The Hobbit" is just a fantastically created epic and has never been part of the history of the world.

 

[keeper96]

screw dem kiwis. If NZ doesn't want to let them film, to hell with them. The Scottish highlands are just as scenic

 

[SJQ]

I grew up reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring's Trilogy. An epic story written by an epic writer ruined by unintelligent roll player's trying to make corrrelation's between Tolkien's world and seemingly real world religion's.

Hopefully, people won't forget that "The Hobbit" is just a fantastically created epic and has never been part of the history of the world.

Errrr.... Wait a minute. Is this a posting by Dryson? I mean The Dryson, he of the divide-by-zero fame?. This posting is actually coherent and lucid. Is he on or off his meds?

What's really worrisome is that I actually agree with Dryson.... Tolkein's works are indeed epic; the knock-off artists who came later aren't Tolkein's equal. And Dryson's distinction between reality and fiction in his last sentence is indeed uncharacteristic.

 

[docm]

Interesting tidbit about how the unions lost the Hobbit War -

Hollywood Reporter....

Analysis: How the Guilds Lost the 'Hobbit' War

As more and more U.S. productions are made in other countries, Hollywood studios are determined to limit guild influence as much as possible

Will entertainment workers of the world unite? Probably not any time soon.

They just tried, and it blew up in their faces.

The two-month Hobbit affair in New Zealand began with local actors attempting to organize the film and ended with a smackdown from U.S.-based Warner Bros., which extracted an additional $25 million in incentives from the island nation and secured passage of antiunion legislation, apparently negotiated directly between the government and key Warners executives including New Line president Toby Emmerich and Warners Home Entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara.

As labor leaders (including SAG, which boycotted in solidarity) withdrew under a barrage of negative publicity and even death threats, they were left to wonder: what went wrong?

Just about everything:

• The local union, New Zealand Actors Equity (NZAE), never made clear to the public why it was trying to organize the production. Were working conditions the issue? Pay rates? Residuals? There was never a detailed or consistent answer.

• Early on, a key legal issue arose: Could actors be engaged as employees rather than independent contractors? The union never developed a clear response to this question, instead focusing on odd stopgaps for protecting actors engaged as independent contractors.

• NZAE failed to develop significant support from local actors. A planned meeting -- canceled due to a counter-demonstration -- was expected to draw only about 90 attendees. Meanwhile, meetings and rallies of industry workers, including actors, who opposed the union¹s actions attracted thousands.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

These two paragraphs pretty much say it all :

..Ultimately, the country retained the production it could ill-afford to lose. New Zealand has become a popular filming location because of its scenery, and skilled (and obviously English-speaking) crews -- but also because of its lower wage rates and lack of unions. Keeping the project in-country was do or die for the local industry: as Prime Minister John Key put it, "If you can't make The Hobbit here, frankly, what movies are you going to make here?"

Whether Warners would ever actually have pulled the project is impossible to know. But one thing is clear: As more and more U.S. movies and television programs are made in other countries, studios are determined to limit guild influence as much as possible. Hollywood may be a union town, but New Zealand is not.

(Emphasis Mine)

They're right. If you can't make The Hobbit in New Zealand, the home of The Lord of the Rings, what the heck are you going to film there? If the country isn't amenable to the one of the most widely acclaimed blockbuster series EVAR, how are they going to get even a remake of That Darn Cat done in New Zealand?

On the Union issue, it's clear NZ will do what it takes for its tourism industry and P.R. But, I'm somewhat mollified that it wasn't just a case of the studios muscling NZ.

The Unions simply picked a battle that wasn't worth fighting. They really didn't have anything. If they had come forward with evidence to support a claim that "Extras are being eaten by the gaff crews with Warner Bros supplying ala cart side-dishes." then maybe, just maybe, it would have been a different story. But, their complaints didn't seem to hold much water and amounted to nothing more than using The Hobbit to kickstart a power-play attempt. They chose.. poorly.

 

[SpaceKiwi]

This entire situation was an embarassment for my country and ended up costing me, as a taxpayer, an addition 30 Million or something of that order. Well-played to Warners/New Line who seized on the opportunity to squeeze additional concessions out of the NZ government, as any smart company would have I hasten to add. As has been pointed out by various commentators closer to this than I, there was never any real danger of the production being shifted out of NZ ... it would have led to delays far more costly to the movie houses than the few additional bucks they have made out of the eventual compromise.

The cynic in me is almost inclined to believe that the unions and Warner Bros were in league together over this from the get-go, and that there should be a healthy kick-back cheque headed the way of Actor's Equity, etc in the not too distant future.



SK

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...The cynic in me is almost inclined to believe that the unions and Warner Bros were in league together over this from the get-go, and that there should be a healthy kick-back cheque headed the way of Actor's Equity, etc in the not too distant future.

SK

Hmm, that would be a disturbing thought.

What's the general consensus down there in Kiwi land? Is the general public still "Pro-Hobbit/LoTR" or has their taste been soured over this incident?

From what little I've seen of New Zealand, it is surely a beautiful country. I'd love to move there, but it's too far away from all my stuff... Kiwis need to get together, step outside and push New Zealand a little bit closer to the US.

 

[SpaceKiwi]

What's the general consensus down there in Kiwi land? Is the general public still "Pro-Hobbit/LoTR" or has their taste been soured over this incident?

From what little I've seen of New Zealand, it is surely a beautiful country. I'd love to move there, but it's too far away from all my stuff... Kiwis need to get together, step outside and push New Zealand a little bit closer to the US.

Hi a_l_p, oh unquestionably the vast majority of the country is behind Sir Peter and the LOTR franchise, including most of those in the NZ film industry who stood to be out of pocket if the production moved offshore. The general concensus has been that it was Australian film industry stirrers who initiated the trouble to begin with and I think where any public 'anger' ended up being directed.

As I said above, most here accept that Warners/New Line did what any of us would have done in using the melee to screw some additional tax breaks out of the NZ government. If you could read the private thoughts of the studio execs, I'm quite sure they saw it as manna from heaven when the ruckus broke out and they could rattle their sabres a little and threaten to move. I find it more than a little ironic and amusing that the unionist's efforts in trying to protect the rights of their membership against the 'evil' Studio employers only ended up in directly benefitting those Studios to the tune of another 30 mill.

As for moving NZ closer to the United States, there was a time when I would have been first in line to haul on a gigantic rope and move these Islands across the Pacific. But now, I'm quite content with where we are situated with respect to your fine nation. You're welcome down my way any time though, we've got plenty of room!



SK

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

I would love, love, love to go to New Zealand!

We Texans like to say that Texas is "God's Country"...but I believe NZ has got to be the most beautiful place on the planet.

You and me, a_l_p! Let's pack our bags and pay SpaceKiwi a visit!!!

 

[CalliArcale]

Just to wash the stain of Nimoy's voice out of everyone's ears...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbz9EYtzDEo[/youtube]

Note: Do a search on Youtube for "Tolkien Ensemble." They've converted all the poems in the Middle Earth books to music. Great stuff!

Add - Found their site. It's in German. There's a great clip with Christopher Lee introducing them. Watching them now... It's amazing that Tolkien's work has inspired so many people to do so many wonderful things.

Tolkien himself also set many of his poems to music. I have a copy of the book, complete with Tolkien's own illustrations. His version of "The Road Goes Ever On And On" is . . . well, honestly, a bit stodgy, but that probably has a lot to do with both his Catholicism (it sounds a tad liturgical) and the fact that music wasn't his profession.

 

[CalliArcale]

Another casting tidbit: Sylvester McCoy (known to Dr Who fans as the seventh Doctor) has been cast as Radagast the Brown. Radagast is a minor character, but he's a colleague of both Saruman and Gandalf -- another wizard.

http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/10/sylvester-mccoy-wins-role-in-hobbit.html

 

[neomaine]

...The cynic in me is almost inclined to believe that the unions and Warner Bros were in league together over this from the get-go, and that there should be a healthy kick-back cheque headed the way of Actor's Equity, etc in the not too distant future.

SK

Hmm, that would be a disturbing thought.

What's the general consensus down there in Kiwi land? Is the general public still "Pro-Hobbit/LoTR" or has their taste been soured over this incident?

From what little I've seen of New Zealand, it is surely a beautiful country. I'd love to move there, but it's too far away from all my stuff... Kiwis need to get together, step outside and push New Zealand a little bit closer to the US.

If I remember correctly, the whole thing was initiated by a minor actors’ guild in NZ with less than 100 members. This was their way of trying to increase membership (and dues) and getting their own actor’s in the film. If I’ve read everything correctly, this was not a major union bullying Warner or Jackson into something they didn’t already have. The Actors Equity sure did get some publicity though...

 

[KinectSensor]

I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone took on the Tolkien novel The Hobbit and run with it. Especially after the popularity and money spinner the Trilogy turned out to be at the cinema.