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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Thanks to Ringer Kookie for this heads up from the NY Times:
Sahara India Pariwar, an Indian conglomerate with real estate and media holdings, says it has made a $2 billion bid to buy the debt of the struggling Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was unclear how MGM’s committee of creditors viewed the offer. A spokeswoman for the studio declined to comment. The offer came a day after MGM said it had received another extension on an agreement to put off interest payments on about $4 billion in debt until Oct. 29.
[Full Story]
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While we await further news of what today, 15th September 2010, has in store for MGM, it being the deadline for the studio’s sixth debt extension, there’s behind-the-scenes rumblings that seem to indicate good tidings might be on the way.
In an exclusive over at Deadline regarding a film titled “The Hunger Games” slated to go into production next year, Mike Fleming reports that director Sam Mendes (who had been tapped to direct the next film in the James Bond franchise) was one of the candidates met by studio chiefs over at Lionsgate, the producing studio for the film “The Hunger Games”. However, the report goes on to say that Sam Mendes,
“bowed out of contention last Friday… because the MGM picture is clearing up and it looks like production on 007 could begin by late summer or early fall, 2011 with Mendes at the helm and Daniel Craig back in the Aston Martin.”
It might be recalled that a couple of months ago development of the new James Bond film had been suspended indefinitely due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM. The turnaround of the Bond situation probably means good news for the Hobbit movies too.
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Things are moving in the Hobbit world; there are rumors afoot of castings, contracts, scripts and even start dates. It’s all very exciting and if you were at TORn’s panels at DragonCon this year, you were prepared for it!
Yes, TheOneRing.net was present again this year at one of the world’s biggest fan-based convention. Staffers from TORn ran a table over the course of the weekend, where we had the great pleasure of chatting to fans, meeting regular TORn visitors, catching up with old friends and faithful supporters, and introducing newbies to the joys of the website. Over the four days of the convention we gave out freebies, distributed candy to those brave enough to answer Tolkien trivia, sold t-shirts to help keep the website attending conventions and events, and provided the fun of the ‘Don’t you know you’re [sic] Sam?’ photo opportunity! Apologies Samwise fans, but we decapitated Sam in a hobbit standee, so folks could pose with their head in his place; and all kinds of aliens, cartoon characters, heroes and villains stepped up over the weekend to
offer to ‘share the load…’ For images from the weekend click here. Lots more written details after the break! Continue reading “The official ‘DragonCon 2010’ report (and photos!)”
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Close on the heels of the news that Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum of Spyglass Entertainment had signed a non-binding letter of intent to take over the management of MGM, there’s news by Bloomberg hitting the interweb that points to more progress in that direction:
MGM creditors will be asked to approve a restructuring and pre-packaged bankruptcy plan for the studio within the next week or two, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
Under the plan, MGM would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after obtaining creditor approval, with the goal of emerging from court protection by the end of the year, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public.
Thanks to messageboard member Eruonen for the heads-up.
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