Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Yet More Hobbit

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  • Kumara Republic,

    @Nick Shand:

    It feels like we are being exposed to an IRL rehash of Meet the Feebles with regard to how AE are shamefully operating.

    Maybe also the Peoples' Front of Judea, methinks?

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Nick Shand,

    Maybe also the Peoples' Front of Judea, methinks?

    Certainly there is an element of Group Think in any community of people but I'll quote 'Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)' @ ya DeepRed ;)

    Nobody joins a cult. Nobody joins something they think's gonna hurt them. You join a religious organization, you join a political movement, and you join with people that you *really like.*

    [this doco scores 8.1 on the IMDB = added to my list of films must watch]

    auck • Since Aug 2008 • 79 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Cox,

    In a positive note, there are still a LOT of very reasonable actors who are engaging with this debate more actively.

    Anyway, and on that note (it's an actor friend who informed me of this): The Court Report is going to have a debate entitled: 'Is there a legal solution to The Hobbit dispute?'

    The actor describes it as:

    'We deal with the real legal and business cases for both sides of the
    Hobbit argument, without getting emotional!'

    Looking forward to it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 312 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I don't entirely agree with him, but Gordon Campbell makes a considerably more robust case for the actors' perspective than Chris Trotter's witterings did.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Pat Hackett,

    Shorter Gordon Campbell: It's no big deal if we lose the Hobbit since we'll still get the Weta work ala Avatar.

    In other words, we'll still get most of the production work. The only real losers will be the...um...actors.

    Auckland • Since Oct 2010 • 95 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    In other words, we'll still get most of the production work. The only real losers will be the...um...actors.

    Well, and the makeup artists, set-builders and all the other skilled people who'd have worked on location. But, yeah.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    I'm still rather gob-smacked that Trotter and Campbell seem to think expanding the Large Budget Screen Production Grants Scheme would be some kind of magic bullet. Apart from the bleeding obvious political fish-hooks involved (especially when we're around a year out from a general election), I don't know if it's that simple.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Well, and also the "NZ exposure to the world" tourism angle.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Well, and also the "NZ exposure to the world" tourism angle.

    Good point. Tourism NZ traded very heavily on the Middle Earth pitch.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Good point. Tourism NZ traded very heavily on the Middle Earth pitch.

    Wot! You mean a billboard of Sam Worthington in front of a green screen wouldn't make you want to come to New Zealand on holiday? :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Campbell does make an interesting point, though, regarding the cost of any settlement with actors being "chump change for Hollywood", and the real issue being the actual tax incentives. I read in Campbell a suggestion that Jackson's real target in all of this is the government, and tax breaks, and he may be playing on the natural desire of the Nats to use it as a casus belli for union bashing - so long as they can bash the unions, he gets his tax break.

    But I'm not actually convinced Jackson is that cynical. If it were all the same to Jackson, he would just take it where the incentives are best. I think he wants to make it here, quite badly, for reasons that go well outside of just the money. And I think he's taken especial umbrage at the highly unprofessional dealings he's had with the Australian union.

    I'm also not sure whether the cost of this industrial action is just to be measured in the chump change Campbell is talking about. Delays, and threats of more delays in a massive production are never chump change for a company desperate for cash flow.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    Wot! You mean a billboard of Sam Worthington in front of a green screen wouldn't make you want to come to New Zealand on holiday? :)

    I'd love to see some figures on what BBC Wales has done for Cardiff tourism in the last five years or so.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Delays, and threats of more delays in a massive production are never chump change for a company desperate for cash flow.

    True. But this is just the last in a long line of things to hit this production, and certainly not the thing that will have delayed or cost it the most. The moderately heavy straw that broke the camel's back possibly.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Neil Morrison,

    Campbell continues to make the same fundamental mistake that AE are making - Jackson is the wrong target. It's bizarre how much people aren't listening.

    Also, arguing that LBSPGS is the reason for this trouble when it patently is not is hardly a good argument for increasing it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    I'd love to see some figures on what BBC Wales has done for Cardiff tourism in the last five years or so.

    A week with Smithy and Nessa, you reckon?

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Well, and also the "NZ exposure to the world" tourism angle.

    I do think that the actors have a bit of limited liability here. They can bear some flak if the movie doesn't get made here and colleagues in the film industry lose work.

    But the upsurge in interest in tours around a Matamata farm? You can draw that link, I'm just not sure it's a link of "you are responsible for this". If that was the case, the reverse would be true and the actors and crew should have got a small cut from every NZ tourism operator over the past decade.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    A week with Smithy and Nessa, you reckon?

    I suspect Emma was thinking more about hanging around on Roald Dahl Plass in the hope that some combo of John Barrowman, James Masters and Matt Smith would amble past and offer to show you their sonic screwdrivers. Or something like. :)

    BTW, don't blink and you'll see three Doctors, the late commander of Bowie Base One, an Operative, a Major in the Colonial Fleet (ret.), Tyler Durden's weirdo girlfriend, and Dr. Lazarus of Tev'Meck:

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Cox,

    Was nice of him to link through the Standard as the bastion of sensible discussion on this...

    However, I must admit the thread he's linked through to is starting to get a bit towards the nub of the issue. Aside from Irishbill's lapses into personal attacks of course.

    (of course, I'm probably just being optimistic and at any second it will just dissolve into outright chaos and hysteria)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 312 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    I am extremely curious to hear where The Lonely Mountain is, though. Tolkien's description just doesn't match any actual mountain I've ever seen anywhere. There is no implication that it's a volcano, which would after all be a fucking stupid place to build a massive mine complex, not least because there would be no jewels to be mined, and the chances of the entire thing flooding with hot magma would be off-putting. He wasn't quite so into his geographical accuracy in The Hobbit as he was in LOTR. I think it's mean to be a magic mountain. Which suggests backdrop CG for about half the story.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Tolkien Heads...and other Little Creatures

    Good point. Tourism NZ traded very heavily
    on the Middle Earth pitch.

    oh well, if it all ends in tears and ruins
    there's always Midden Earth to pick over...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • David Hood,

    no implication that it's a volcano, which would after all be a fucking stupid place to build a massive mine complex

    I blame dwarvish cowboy builders, and lax building regs, for leaky lava problems.

    Dunedin • Since May 2007 • 1445 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    I suspect Emma was thinking more about

    Eve Myles

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    For balance, you understand

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    For balance, you understand

    What are you saying about Emma -- don't forget Gwen Cooper is a married woman with a bub, and she's pissed off to the States to boot. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    I think he's talking more about how dwelling for too long on the idea of a week with Nessa and Smithy could cause one to become unbalanced. Possibly terminally. In the same way as thinking about things from beyond which seem to exist in too many dimensions at once can cause mental imbalance.

    Therefore, a counter is needed to bring one back into balance.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

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