The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) says it is furious at Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Chris Finlayson for “taking sides” in the debate over The Hobbit. Mr Finlayson said yesterday that the Government had sought legal advice from the Crown Law Office confirming that The Hobbit producers had the law on their side in refusing to enter into a union-negotiated agreement with performers who were independent contractors. CTU president Helen Kelly said that advice was biased towards Jackson and as a lawyer, Mr Finlayson would know that. “That’s like saying, ‘I can’t talk to you because this conversation would be illegal,'” Ms Kelly said. Just because there would be contractors working on the project that did not rule out having a union contract, she said. More..
Category: Peter Jackson
Opposition politicians were today urging the producers of The Hobbit to start talks with an actors’ union to ensure the movie gets made in New Zealand. The movie’s executive producer Sir Peter Jackson has threatened to move the shooting to eastern Europe after NZ Actors Equity said it wanted a collective contract for New Zealand actors appearing in the movie. Actors Equity president Jennifer Ward-Lealand said, following a meeting last night, a delegation would seek to meet the producers of The Hobbit to hold negotiations in good faith. More..
Since the news broke this weekend of actor unions putting pressure on the producers of “The Hobbit” regarding wages and working conditions of non-union actors, hundreds of stories, and re-hashes of stories, have hit the internet. It’s enough to boggle the mind! So, we thought we’d provide a recap of what’s happened so far, complete with a number of useful links. Bear in mind that the ‘facts’ presented in one story may conflict with the ‘facts’ presented in other stories. Our goal here is not to take sides, to separate the fact from the fiction, nor to link to 100% of the related articles. Rather, our goal is to give our readers some basic resources as a starting point for their own research. Keep checking TheOneRing.net for the most recent updates!
(Thanks to many of our readers and message board members for their diligent work locating many of the articles linked below. Special thanks to Kristen Thompson at the Frodo Franchise blog for sharing her extra-diligent research with us. Be sure to keep sending updates as you find them to spymaster@theonering.net!)
(Note: dates are based on U.S. time zones)
Sep. 24 – SAG (Screen Actor’s Guild) and other actor unions worldwide (including the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance of Australia) issue statements to their members regarding non-union actors who may be hired to work on “The Hobbit.” Statements range from encouraging support for non-union actors to urging an all-out boycott of the production. NZ Actor’s Equity urges supporters to attend a meeting in Auckland on Sep 27. Links: Offical SAG Alert ; UK Equity Alert ; MEAA Hobbit Fact Sheet ; NZ Actor’s Equity Articles ; TVNZ interview
Sep. 25 – the story breaks on the internet. Links: TheOneRing.net ; Variety
Sep. 26 – Peter Jackson issues a response. Links: TheOneRing.net
Sep. 27 – official response from the studios. Links: Deadline Hollywood
Sep. 28 – statement released from NZ Actor’s Equity meeting. Links: NZ Actor’s Equity Articles ; YouTube Video interviews of NZ Actors re: NZ Actor’s Equity Meeting
Other useful links: NZ Employment Law: Contractors vs. Employees ; NZ Dept. of Labour definition of an Employee ; Ruling on Bryson vs. Three Foot Six ; Karl Urban backs Union Stance ; Movie Studios Look at Other Options for The Hobbit ; TVNZ – The Plot Thickens ; SPADA on Hobbit Battle ; Gordon Campbell on Trade Unions vs. The Hobbit ; More from PJ on stuff.co.nz ; stuff.co.nz on Unions having No Legal Standing
New Line, Warner Bros. and MGM have issued a combined statement regarding the current ‘Hobbit’ headlines:
New Line, Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures are concerned by the recent allegations of unfair treatment of actors in New Zealand and instructions from the performers’ guilds to their membership to withhold services from the producers of “The Hobbit” in New Zealand. We are proud to have good relations with all of those performers’ guilds and value their contribution to the motion pictures produced in their respective jurisdictions throughout the world. But we believe that in this case the allegations are baseless and unfair to Peter Jackson and his team in Wellington who have been tireless supporters of the New Zealand motion picture community.
Peter Jackson has issued a swift and decisive statement in answer to recent suggestions by the IFA and affiliated actor’s unions that their members turn down parts in “The Hobbit” movie unless all New Zealand actors are allowed to bargain with the movie-makers collectively. Peter made the interesting point that this may be against current New Zealand law:
“NZ law prohibits engaging in collective bargaining with any labour organisation representing performers who are independent contractors, as film actors clearly are. The NZ Commerce Act claims it would be unlawful to engage with an Australian Union on these matters.”
More worrisome for Hobbit fans is his assertion that this may delay the making of “The Hobbit” even further and/or force the production to move to eastern Europe:
..”the “demands” of MEAA cannot be agreed to, or even considered – by law – and therefore the only options that remain involve closing the Hobbit down, or more likely shifting the production to Europe. It could so easily happen. I’ve been told that Disney are no longer bring movies to Australia because of their frustration with the MEAA.”
The MEAA is the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, or the actors union in Australia. The IFA and New Zealand Actors guild solicited the help of the Aussie organization in 2006 to help the unionization process of New Zealand actors. Keep reading to see the entire statement and be sure to join the discussion on our message boards.
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!)”
- Casting Rumors
- Characters
- Collectibles
- Conventions
- Director news
- Director Rumors
- DragonCon
- Events
- Fans
- Guillermo Del Toro
- Hobbit Book
- Hobbit Cast News
- Hobbit Movie
- Lectures & Education
- Locations Sets
- Martin Freeman
- Meet Ups
- Merchandise
- MGM
- Peter Jackson
- Rumors Spy News
- Sean Astin
- Sideshow Collectibles
- Studios
- The Hobbit
- WETA Workshop
