Image Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/PR PhotosSome day, someone is going to make a movie about the attempt to make a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but instead of wizards and swordplay and stirring derring-do, it’ll be filled with lawyers and picket signs and angry e-mails. Today alone, director Peter Jackson and producing-and-life partner Fran Walsh reportedly issued a blistering statement condemning the local New Zealand actors’ union, NZ Actors’ Equity, which last month had called on fellow international actors unions (including SAG) to boycott The Hobbit to pressure the production for a new contract for local actors. Jackson and Walsh called the union leadership “gutless” and “self-centered,” and noted ominously that next week execs from Warner Bros. “are coming down to NZ to make arrangements to move the production off-shore.”
Within hours of that statement, NZ Actors’ Equity, along with the larger Screen Production and Development Association, issued their own statement announcing that they would not boycott The Hobbit, and they were imploring all other actors unions to follow suit.
Which would be great news, if the first line of Jackson and Walsh’s earlier statement did not start with this declaration: “The lifting of the blacklist [i.e. boycott] on The Hobbit does nothing to help the films stay in New Zealand.”
Their point: The damage is already done; Warner Bros. execs are “quite rightly very concerned about the security of their $500 million investment.” Jackson and Walsh conclude with this rather tepid rally cry: “We will continue the fight to keep the film in NZ, but ultimately this decision belongs to Warner Bros.”
So. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, and New Zealand can still call itself Middle Earth when the first of the two planned Hobbit films start shooting as announced this February. But good grief, PopWatchers. Back in the bygone Age known as the Early 2000s, I thought The Lord of the Rings was a Hollywood miracle, what with its then-obscure cult director and seemingly gutsy back-to-back-to-back filming schedule and the utter lack of any successful fantasy feature films this side of Willow. Apparently, massive critical and commercial success, tremendous global audience interest, and an equally beloved prequel novel with a comparatively simpler story make a feature film production more difficult to mount, not less.
Hooray!
Tolkien would be horrified to hear LOTR characterized as a set of WW II novels. He saw himself writing about eternal themes, and any parallels or similarities between events on Earth and Middle Earth were irrelevant.
The biggest change Jackson, et. al. made was to give many of the characters a need for psychological growth to accomplish their tasks. In the novel, the only major character we see undergoes a change of heart is Gollum (except for people like Saruman and Denethor who become corrupted by Sauron while resisting him). Tolkien wrote in a classical mythological style for an audience that was accustomed to it. Jackson assumed (rightly, I think) that modern audiences demand some psychological complexity of their heroes. In my view, this did not ignore the larger issues Tolkien addressed–but then, I had the advantage of knowing the novels quite well before I saw the movies. Also, I doubt the public would have been enthralled by the long philosophical/theological dialogues that would have been necessary to explore the themes you allude to.
Tolkien himself forcefully & vehemently denied that WWII was the inspiration. Remember, he started working on LOTRin the 30′s, not the 40′s.
As for all those “themes” mentioned above, they are more correctly referred to as sub-themes. The religious subthemes are actually pretty scanty in LOTR. The Silmarillion us actually the more layered, religion-wise, and the morality inthe books is pretty much lifted whole hog from 19th or 18th century English village life (idealized, admittedly).
In the end, Tolkien produced a rip-roaring good yarn & Jackson realized the books brilliantly. My only sense of unfulfillment comes from the absence of the “harrowing of the shire” which Jackson chopped off, resultng in a tighter movie.
If he had gone from the climatic crowning scene to the Harrowing, then , cinematically the endingwould have be ant-climatic. I can see his point.
Also, the LOTR books are chock full of descriptions of what s being dismissed so casually as
I bet you are under 25 and read the books after seeing the movie. If were only one interpretation of every book… well.. Cristians would be united.
The harrowing of the Shire was alluded to when the Fellowship was in Lothlorien and Frodo was looking into the mirror at the “…things that were… things that are… and some things… that have not yet come to pass.”
Denise is spot on… Also, He didn’t write it about WWII, he wrote it following his horrific experiences in WWI.
While I’m sure the actors union had good intentions for the actors, they picked the absolute worst target. Jackson and Co. essentially opened up the New Zealand film industry to major Hollywood productions by actually financing the state of the art sound stages and post-production facilities. On top of that, he’s been incredibly loyal to the New Zealand film industry by filming all of his movies there. Both “King Kong” and “The Lovely Bones”.
There was no good intentions by the Australian Union who should of never of had their nose in there,Jacksons films are the best paying gig in that country and the Union saw as a way to fill their pockets.I hope Jackson doesn’t venture into Australia for casting.
Huh? Perhaps you should get your facts sorted first. Why on earth are you blaming the Australian Union? It was a joint effort by many unions INCLUDING SAG. It wasn’t about the location.
that EW links to in this article… it states: “…NZ Equity, represented by the Australian trade union, the MEAA, urged several international actor’s unions to gang up on our production in an attempt to bully us into illegal collective bargaining. MEAA’s representative, Simon Whipp, admitted in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, that it was his intention to use The Hobbit as a way to ‘unionise other productions’ in the New Zealand film industry – presumably whether we want it or not. This unilateral decision, made by an off shore union, we assume with Equity’s blessing, is the reason why our film industry is now in dire jeopardy.”
So it has nothing to do with location, the Australian Union is trying to get into the NZ scene.
This entire thing is so cursed it’s not even funny anymore.
This isn`t even a news. Boycott was set to fail the moment WB pulled the “We`ll shoot somewhere else and leave you without work, muahahaha” bluff that all companies pull when faced with a strike. And, as always, panic spreads quickly and people agree to anything the company offers just to keep the job.
So moving production was an effective bluff even though one has to be really stupid to believe they would move the production from the country that has more than half of needed sets already built. Like that`ll happen ever.
BTW, Jackson should shave his head. That`s much better solution to hiding baldness than that “`im so not combing over” combover bangs of his.
Oh I hope things do work out and I think it will. The NZ Actors Union will need to suck up to PJ and the gang though because by picking this time to boycott is removing a big investment for the NZ people.
Peter Jackson has done a lot of good for NZ and I hope he is able to continue to do so.
And of course I hope he makes a kicka$$ Hobbit film!
As much as this pains me to say, I am quickly getting over these movies already and they haven’t even started filming! I don’t know if I can deal with another few years of this.
Once the first footage comes out, you’ll change your mind
Well said.
It’s “derring-do,” Mr. Vary, despite what your spellchecker may say.
I still can’t wait to see it.
maybe time to move the film to more friendly territory…like china; its where everything else is made
I let the dogs out.
Film it in Mexico!
Should be filmed in Wales, Britain, and France.
It’s so hard to believe how long and how hard it has been to get this movie into production.
Ughhhh. This will be a crushing blow to New Zealand if this doesn’t work out. The films need to be made in NZ. It’s the most beautiful country in the world.
Im a Kiwi and I agree, it is the most beautiful country in the world, but im glad i dont live there anymore,wages in NZ are $#!T and its no wonder skilled workers are moving abroad,and if this production goes off shore than that will be a big blow
Wages in NZ are actually really good in comparison to other countries, especially since the tax rates have decreased. Minimum for everyone is now $12.75 which is pretty damn good even if it is NZ dollars