According to Radio New Zealand:
at a rally in Wellington on Monday Sir Peter Jackson delivered another strong blast against an Australian trade union that has been advising New Zealand union Actors' Equity and was behind the international boycott [threat]. He warned against turning New Zealand into another state of Australia under the sway of a "destructive" organisation.
Last week Sir Peter accused the Australians of being "bullies who want to impose their will on New Zealand," and on Wednesday he said that what made him "really angry" was the involvement of the Australian union.
What gives? Well, the issue behind all this is quite simple. New Zealand does not have a collective bargaining agreement for actors. NZ Equity wants collective bargaining so its members dont get ripped off, as apparently they did with Lord of the Rings. (And although Sir Peter called LOTR a wonderful New Zealand home movie, remember that he personally made over 100 million dollars from that fun family project.) NZ Equity are being supported by Australian Equity (hence the bizarre "Australian bully boy" remarks). Sir Peter claims collective bargaining is bad because it means that actors will get paid more and the cost of making The Hobbit will go up and become uneconomic. (Anyone who has read nineteenth century labour history will recognise this doleful argument). Sir Peter insists that the actors stance has put the whole film in jeopardy and Warner Brothers might move production to Eastern Europe, the UK or Ireland. I doubt that. Ireland is out of the question because of the strong Euro, Eastern Europe is utterly impractical and the UK is also too expensive. I think Sir Peter is trying to pull the, er, wool over the eyes of the people of NZ. If you are going to start production in February 2011 you would need to have booked studio space at least a year in advance, the only studio space that has been secured has been in Wellington. Whether the actors get a few more dollars an hour or not will not determine if The Hobbit gets filmed in NZ or not. (Tax breaks and a change to the labour laws banning strikes and residuals might). You have to admire the Sir Peter's cojones, though, casting Australia as the enemy not Warner Brothers or indeed himself. The Aussie villain always plays well in chippy New Zealand which sees itself as the little brother who doesn't really get the attention it deserves from mummy and daddy. The bluff has worked. A terrified and brow beaten NZ Equity has now withdrawn all boycott threats and the Screen Actors Guild has said that its union members are free to appear in The Hobbit.
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You'd think from the news coverage that all New Zealanders are behind Sir Peter over this, but that is definitely not the case. Brian Rudman has a good piece in the NZ Herald, here.
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The clip of course is from Flight of the Conchords. Brett, incidentally, was in Lord of the Rings where he played an elf. (This is off topic and I may be wrong about this, but after watching a lot of Australian TV over the last two years it seems that New Zealanders are quite a bit funnier than Aussies whose humour seems a little broad and slapsticky for my taste.)
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21 comments:
This is a strange story in that its odd to see a director going after the unions instead of the studio head; surely Hollywood is supposed to be full of pinko liberals who would be standing on the picket line with their minimum wage colleagues. I wonder what his motivation is. Perhaps he's annoyed at having so much extra work after the original director pulled out.
As for Australian vs Kiwi comedy, I would have to agree with you. Apart from Chris Lilley and The Chaser I don't think there is anything brilliant in Australia comedy.
p.s. why the insistence on using "Sir" every time you mention the bearded oppressors name?
Rob
Using Sir purely for the ironic value, I dont think PJ is like Ben Kingsley who insists upon it (at least I hope not).
As for solidarity, I'm sure that good leftie Sir Ian McKellan will insure that his colleagues in NZ wont get stiffed.
Clive James is a purveyor of subtle comedy but I'm not sure he really counts anymore, does he?
Hollywood's pinko rep may be overplayed. They've been coming to Canada for the cheaper labour and tax breaks for years (and I've put a little of their money in my pocket).
I've worked for producers who are expert at finding the best exchange rate and government incentive, from Romania to Hungary to South Africa. I have a friend, a location manager, who's moving from Calgary to Colombia because the government there has made him such a good deal.
It sure seems in this case that there's enough money to go around, but I bet that every department has been asked to trim their budget.
Clive James disappeared up his own arse years ago.
The latest Barry Humphries book is surprisingly subtle.
When Ian McKellan was filming the LOTR films he approached Orlando Bloom on his first day and said, "Tell me, do you know the difference between a quiche and a blow job?" When the response came back in the negative, McKellen said "Oh, well. Fancy a picnic?"
The actors certainly seemed cowed in the BBC clip I saw. It was along the lines of, "No, we promise never, ever to boycott anything that Peter Jackson proposes. And we're really, really sorry."
Although, actually, this seems to be the position of labor everywhere these days. It is a sad regression.
I'm not sure how Jackson is going to explain how New Zealand Middle Earth has morphed into the Romanian one, though.
John
I'm not sure Columbia is the best move, esp from Canada, from a work perspective. Maybe I'm wrong but it still seems like things there are pretty fragile.
Rob
I thought it was a pretty funny trick they played on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. "I'm Prime Minister."
"No, you're not."
The shoe throwing thing yesterday was less original.
Seana
They're not going anywhere. It's a total bluff. PJ lives in Wellington, his kids go to school there, he has so much good will in that place he's not going to screw it all up by taking The Hobbit out of country.
Though from meeting a few of them I will say that there's no truer bluer Australian than an Australian who used to be a Kiwi.
Also, what about that cute little hobbit house? Whose going to leave that set behind?
By the way, I did get to see that Sherlock Holmes episode the other night. I like it although the ending was kind of a cheat. On the other hand, it was a good bit for Watson. I hope he is Bilbo.
Aha!
the whole thing was a bluff
If you read the story its pretty scary. The NZ government will implement special laws overturning a decision of their own Supreme Court so that Warner Brothers and Peter Jackson can be assured of a trouble free shoot and no one will be able to sue for residuals.
You called it. And yes, it is scary. Maybe you should write Jackson and tell him you refuse to be an extra in such a movie.That'd teach him.
Yeah, Adrian I don't know about Colombia, even the government is really upfront that some of the country is safe and some isn't. They told my friend that they have an 'arrangement.'
And Seana, you're right, labour has been defeated pretty much everywhere. Labour had a brief golden age after the second world war when they were the "Greatest Generation" and had some strut, but the Red Scare and all that put them back in their place.
Pete Seeger even wrote a song called, "Now That It's All Over," that has the lines, "Plenty of men are strutting
around, that'll have to be put back down" and enter McCarthyism, right on schedule.
Remember, in Hollywood ten writers actually did jail time over it, so there's the connection to get me back on topic ;)
Seana
Well I'm no union buster or scab so I wouldnt do it now on principle. This whole thing really depresses me.
John
I've been reading some of the comments on the New Zealand Herald, there are few funny ones that say that martial law should be declared for the entire shoot etc., but most seem to be supportive of the government.
Maybe it'll be like Cuba in 1959. Warner Bros = the United Fruit Company.
Well, good to see you standing on principle, Adrian, but I thought there was no conflict with the union, in that they had caved just like everyone else.
I think there are some unions that still have some sway here, John, like teachers and nurses, but any kind of manufacturing job you can forget about it. They showed a clip about some stalwart factory workers who were striking some plant back east somewhere, and even the news program was basically discounting their chances. The constant refrain you hear around my part of the world is, 'well, at least I have a job', which is probably a realistic take, but hardly enlivening.
Seana, teachers and nurses have to be dealt with a little because those jobs can't be outsourced. It gives those unions a bargaining position not many others have.
Although the attack on teachers' unions has started to get louder. Now when we hear about what's wrong with the education system unions are in the top five, pretty soon they'll be the number one "problem" and the decertification will start.
You know, it's not fun to be this cynical ;)
Let's see: Peter Jackson is now New Zealand's labor secretary, Bono is Ireland's foreign secretary, George Cloony is, what, U.S. secretary of education, maybe?
Peter
And we all laughed when an actor became President.
Now these arseholes can rule the world without the expense and effort of running an election campaign.
By the way, that should be Clooney in my previous comment. I don't like to misspell any name, much less that of so important a person.
Yes, for the teachers and nurses in the U.S. Cheers.
Mott workers at an apple processing plant in New York State, only they now work for a Dr. Pepper/Snapple conglomerate, went on strike for over 100 days. The corporation wanted direct wage cuts, cuts in health care benefits, and more.
The workers are in a union. They finally went back to work, after winning most of their demands.
The attacks on the unions are everywhere though, in the media, too. Cuomo is campaigning for governor in New York; one of his themes is undoing the unions. The NY Times had a big article on that this week, that Cuomo is going to defend "big business" against labor. Real fun stuff. The unions are not suggesting their members vote for Cuomo. I'm not.
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