The Hobbit leaving New Zealand?
by Doc on Oct.20, 2010, under Movies
Never mind Bilbo’s adventure out of the Shire…it looks like Warner Bros. is picking up the Shire and going home…or at least somewhere else. Due to the unsettled union issues surrounding production in New Zealand, Warner Bros. is planning to move the production to possibly the studio used for Harry Potter in the U.K., and is getting offers from other countries for breaks to move the production to their locations. “Next week Warners are coming down to New Zealand to make arrangements to move the production offshore. It appears we cannot make films in our own country even when substantial financing is available,” according to Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Although the matter could still be settled, it is not an uphill battle for New Zealand to keep the production.
Update: It appears that the acting union has now dropped their plans for a boycott…which should allow other unions’ actors to join the cast, but the bridge may have been burned already…