Thanks to The Hobbit, New Zealand’s government is now offering additional incentives to attract other big-budget productions. According to Variety,
The changes to the Kiwi incentives have opened up the country’s Large Budget Screen Production Grant (LBSPG) to allow for an additional grant for very large productions ($200 million-plus) as a direct result of the tussle over the “The Hobbit” films last year, when Warner Bros. sought financial incentives to make the big-budget production more attractive.
Now, an additional $NZ9.75 million ($7.75 million) is available to these big productions, and this new grant covers expenditure that may be excluded under the current LBSPG rules.
This move merely formalizes the negotiations thrashed out by the government last year, when it fought to keep the Hobbit pics in N.Z., and is the same deal that Warner Bros. negotiated at the time.
From stuff.co.nz: The latest phase of filming for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has kicked off with the arrival of several Kiwi stars to the King Country. But there were no international stars – Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett or Elijah Wood – to be seen. Crews have spent many weeks filming in Matamata and are expected to finish this week and it’s the small King Country town of Piopio that the multimillion-dollar movie will now focus on. Yesterday, more than a dozen Kiwi actors and extras flew in to Hamilton International Airport on their way to Te Kuiti.
They included former Shortland St actor Dean O’Gorman and comedian Mark Hadlow, who also starred in King Kong and Meet the Feebles. Hadlow, who is starring as a dwarf in The Hobbit, said the crew were looking forward to their time in the area. “It’s a great place to come. I come here an awful lot with my shows, too. They’re fabulous people.” Hadlow was looking forward to a round of golf yesterday before an unrelenting schedule of filming, which will continue in various locations around the country over the next seven weeks. The premiere of the first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, will be in Wellington before its general release on December 14 next year.
This week’s ‘Hobbit in 5’ gives us the details on the Hobbit shoot in New Zealand, the new video game ‘Lord of the Rings: War in the North’, and the recent Hobbit reunion as seen in Empire Magazine. Take a look!
Keen eyed viewers on our message board have spotted something interesting in the recent press conference video coverage from Hobbiton.
Watch out for a lot of furniture outside of Bag End around 40 seconds in the video. This is not a confirmation that the auction of Bag End at the end of the story will be in the movies but looking at this short clip I think it is not just a wild guess that it will be included. What do you think? Comment below.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to premiere in Wellington in late November 2012, director Sir Peter Jackson and Prime Minister John Key announced today at the Hobbiton set in Waikato. Wellington previously hosted the world premiere of the final Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King, in December 2003. Over 100,000 people packed into the city’s CBD to watch the preceding parade. “I think Warner Bros in particular were blown away by the Return of the King premiere – no one in the international industry could quite believe how the country got behind that,” Sir Peter said today.
See the full 11 minute press conference here. More..
Quint from Aint it Cool News has been embedded with the film crew and will be posting photos and stories every few weeks from New Zealand. Be sure to check out the ‘Behind the Scenes’ or BTS posts on the website. More..
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to premiere in Wellington in late November 2012, director Sir Peter Jackson and Prime Minister John Key announced today at the Hobbiton set in Waikato. Wellington previously hosted the world premiere of the final Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King, in December 2003. Over 100,000 people packed into the city’s CBD to watch the preceding parade. “I think Warner Bros in particular were blown away by the Return of the King premiere – no one in the international industry could quite believe how the country got behind that,” Sir Peter said today.