New Line, Warner Bros and MGM are pleased to have concluded successful discussions with the New Zealand government this past week. We’d like to thank Prime Minister Key, his Cabinet and the other dedicated New Zealand officials for their support and cooperation, which helped assuage our concerns and enabled us to keep The Hobbit in its proper home of New Zealand.
We’d also like to express very special appreciation to Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and the people of New Zealand for their tireless support of The Hobbit and their commitment to maintain and grow their vibrant film industry. Filming is scheduled to begin in February 2011 and we look forward to returning to Middle-earth.
From stuff.co.nz: Brett Hodge, owner of Matamata Post and Rails, which has supplied the timber for The Hobbit duology since construction began in February, told the Waikato Times that Sir Peter Jackson’s company Three Foot Six was building the home of the Hobbits to last.
What they did last time was build a temporary set, but now it’s a permanent set.
It will begin a perpetual celebration around the party tree, on the set, where The Fellowship of the Ring began with Bilbo’s disappearance.
The Green Dragon, where the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield awaits Bilbo Baggins ahead of their quest, will include a real thatched roof and the nearby Bywater bridge, made from polystyrene blocks resembling stone for The Lord of the Rings, is being rebuilt in permanent stone.
Read more of the article over at stuff.co.nz that ends with quotes from none other than members from our very own message boards.
It’s been five months since GDT departed The Hobbit, but now that the movie has finally been greenlit and is on schedule for a February 2011 shoot, there’s little doubt he still feels the loss of what might have been.
ContactMusic caught up with Guillermo and questioned him concerning his quitting The Hobbit, and as the man’s said to various people numerous time before, he reiterates that leaving the director’s chair was indeed the hardest decision of his life.
It’s the hardest decision I’ve ever taken. I have incredible heartache. I feel terrible about it. It’s very hard. It’s getting a little easier to talk about it, but essentially it’s like you’ve been recently widowed and everybody (is) asking you how exactly your wife died. It’s pretty morbid.
There was no other choice, I kept postponing, I kept fending off the problems, I kept compartmentalising, I kept with it, everything we could (do).
I’ll be able to watch it and (I will) probably enjoy it. But you know, with The Hobbit, I feel like the guy (survival mountain climber Aron Ralston) in the real-life experience that Danny Boyle just did his movie (127 Hours about). I was hanging by a thread on my arm for so long that at the end of the day you have to cut it off. Do I like having one arm less? No. But did I have to? Yes.
Excerpted from an article at ContactMusic.com.
From broadwayworld.com: Today, we present a particularly thrilling taste of the forthcoming InDepth InterView in this BWW WORLD EXCLUSIVE with one of the finest actors of stage and screen – and, now, thanks to the Scissor Sisters NIGHT WORK album, recording studio – the foremost Shakespearean interpreter of our age and star of two of the biggest film franchises of all time – LORD OF THE RINGS and X MEN – Sir Ian McKellen! In this portion of the complete discussion, we discuss his second year hosting the ONLY MAKE BELIEVE gala to benefit hospitalized children, as well as discuss how he became involved with the Deana Hammerstein-founded charity. We also discuss his participation in Peter Jackson’s forthcoming LORD OF THE RINGS prequel THE HOBBIT and his cameo in the epic music video for his Sister Sisters collaboration “Invisible Light” – plus thoughts on Shakespeare, stage, screen and monster movies (and not just GODS & MONSTERS). All god, no monster, Ian McKellen is as renowned and respected as it gets. And rightfully so. More..
Parliament has passed the government’s new law to clarify the position of contractors within the film industry. MPs have voted 66 to 50 in favour of the law, which is part of the deal brokered with movie producer Warner Brothers earlier this week to keep production of The Hobbit in New Zealand. This was that the Employment Relations Act would be amended to make sure a worker engaged on an independent contract will not be able to go to court and claim employee rights and conditions.
Labour fought the Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill to the last clause, arguing it isn’t necessary and the government is “sticking it to the unions”. During the debate, Labour’s David Parker accused the government of playing a “political game”. “I don’t even think Warner Brothers demanded this. There wasn’t a problem to be fixed, there have been no problems in the film industry for the last five years,” he said. Labour and the Greens are accusing the government of capitulating to a foreign company, abusing parliamentary process and making a mockery of democracy. But ministers say Warner Bros would have pulled out of New Zealand without the commitment to change the law. Read More…
The MGM, Lions Gate drama continues. The latest from Bloomberg.com: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is suing billionaire Carl Ichan over the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. studio deal in federal court in New York, alleging the financier was “secretly plotting” to merge the studios. In the lawsuit, Vancouver-based Lions Gate, the studio whose films include “Crash” and “Precious,” alleges that Icahn realized by June that Lions Gate was in advanced negotiations with two unidentified studios. Aware that the deals might dilute his stake in Lions Gate, Icahn “took drastic and improper action,” the studio said.
Icahn, 74, the studio’s largest shareholder, undermined any proposed transactions by making false and misleading statements, Lions Gate said. He told the investing public that such a deal would be a “financial debacle” and issued press releases vowing to challenge any transaction and sue any entity that interfered with his tender offer, the studio said.
“Icahn opposed a merger with MGM not because it was bad for Lions Gate shareholders, but because it was good — so good, in fact, that he wanted to postpone it until he could buy as much of both companies as he could and thus extract for himself as much of the value stemming from the merger as possible,” Lions Gate said in the complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court in New York. Thanks to message board member Owain for the link. Read More…
