Delayed Peter Jackson movie The Hobbit has shown signs of life with a preliminary casting call in Wellington.
The movie has been held up by the sale of the MGM studio, which owns half of the production.
Budding film stars of all shapes and sizes arrived from around the country.
A preliminary casting call is great news for Wellington’s film industry, but it wasn’t the happiest of days for some Hobbit hopefuls.
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Variety reported today that the seven major actor’s unions have told members not to work on “The Hobbit” due to the refusal of producers of the feature film to sign a deal with local New Zealand performers. A SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) Member Alert published on SAG’s website yesterday states:
“Members of Canadian Actors Equity, US Actors Equity, the Screen Actors Guild, UK Actors Equity, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (Australia) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists are advised not to accept work on this non-union production. If you are contacted to be engaged on The Hobbit please notify your union immediately.”
The alert comes after repeated attempts by Australian actor’s union, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (Alliance), to negotiate minimum wages and other working conditions for New Zealand actors who are currently not unionized. The International Federation of Actors (FIA) finally stepped in to urge their affiliates worldwide to flat out refuse to work on “The Hobbit” in a show of solidarity for their New Zealand counterparts. With offers to actors rumored to be “imminent,” the initiative is undoubtedly timed to put maximum pressure on the film-makers to negotiate. It remains to be seen whether playing what they think is their strongest hand now will have the results the FIA desires.
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In the past few days, several stories have surfaced around the internet claiming that, in addition to his co-writing duties, Guillermo Del Toro is also now one of the producers of “The Hobbit.” Today we happen to have it on very good authority that this is not the case. Our good friend GDT stopped by our message boards to clear the air and state that he is: “not a producer of any kind.”
When the news first broke here on TheOneRing.net of Guillermo leaving “The Hobbit” as director, Peter Jackson confirmed that GDT was staying on as co-writer:“Guillermo is co-writing the Hobbit screenplays with Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh and myself, and happily our writing partnership will continue for several more months, until the scripts are fine tuned and polished.” According to Del Toro, currently on tour to promote his new book “The Fall,” producing is definitely not an additional part of those responsibilities. Read Guillermo’s comments and join in the discussion here.
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Empire Magazine asked their readers to vote on their favorite movie trilogies and Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has taken the top spot. LOTR beat out other film trios such as the original Star Wars films (2), Back to the Future (3), Toy Story (4) and The Godfather (5). Not that we are biased or anything, but we believe the results came out as they should! Check out the full list over at Empire Online. Thanks to Ringer Mikstan for sending us the link. [33 Greatest Movie Trilogies] [LOTR Top Spot]
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In celebration of the Two Towers concert at Radio City Music Hall next month, I will be tweeting the entire text of ‘The Two Towers’ on the official Twitter page. Join in on the fun and see if I can make it in 3 weeks time!
Visit the Radio City Music Hall page for updates, pictures and more!
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A leaked memo last week informed us that an MGM buyout wouldn’t go through. MGM is on target for a planned bankruptcy and association with Spyglass that will likely allow two ‘Hobbit’ movies to go forward. Today we have info directly from the once potential buyer reported by the Associated Press which says:
Indian conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar says that its offer to buy out the creditors of struggling Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for more than $2 billion has been rejected.
Subrata Roy Sahara, the company’s chairman, had a conference call with creditors on Tuesday. The company said late Thursday that the offer was rejected within hours.
A spokesman for Houlihan Lokey, an investment bank that is advising MGM’s creditors, declined to comment. You can read the rest right here.
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