Unions are The Hobbit’s latest foe to slay

Good lord, I can’t remember the last time there were so many roadblocks holding up a movie. It’s a film everyone wants to see, but obstacle after obstacle keeps preventing THE HOBBIT from getting made. First it was the MGM fiasco, then it was Guillermo leaving, and now it’s something else entirely, unions. From Variety:

The boycott’s organized through the Intl. Federation of Actors, of which the unions are members, to support the New Zealand actors. The unions asserted that those performers — repped through the Australian actors union, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance — have been working under contracts providing no minimum guarantees of wages or working conditions, no residual payments and no cancellation payments.

In other words, it isn’t worth much to be a background Orc these days. Jackson is having none of this, and despite his support of unions, says that this isn’t right. He also threatens to move shooting of the film to somewhere else entirely if this isn’t resolved.

“Personally speaking, I’m not anti-union in the slightest,” said Jackson. “I’m a very proud and loyal member of three Hollywood unions — the Directors Guild, the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild. I support the Screen Actors Guild.”

“There is a twisted logic to seeing NZ humiliated on the world stage, by losing the Hobbit to Eastern Europe,” he said. “Warners would take a financial hit that would cause other studios to steer clear of New Zealand. Seriously, if the Hobbit goes east (Eastern Europe in fact) – look forward to a long dry big budget movie drought in this country.”

THE HOBBIT in Eastern Europe huh? I’m sure it could be done, though New Zealand’s landscape has been pitch perfect for the series thus far. And that’s quite the threat from Jackson, saying not only he would move his film, but the entire country would lose interest from filmmakers altogether.

JUST GET THIS THING MADE ALREADY!