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Wellington, New Zealand - New Zealand may lose filming of The Hobbit movies, with financial backers Warner Brothers making arrangements to shift the production offshore, director Peter Jackson warned on Thursday.
Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films, and the union Actors' Equity have been at loggerheads over pay deals for actors in the New Zealand $660m two-film prequel to the highly successful Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Shooting of the two 3-D films is due to begin in February.
No indication
Wingnut Films said in a statement that the actors' move in threatening to boycott the production had undermined Warner Brothers confidence in the industry "and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their $500m investment".
"Next week Warners are coming down to New Zealand to make arrangements to move the production offshore," Jackson's production company said. "It appears we cannot make films in our own country even when substantial financing is available."
The statement gave no indication of where the films' production might be moved to.
Jackson said while they would fight to keep the films in New Zealand, the decision ultimately rests with Warner Brothers.
Technicians marched
Production of The Hobbit was given the green light from US studios Warners and New Line Cinema at the weekend, with Jackson as director.
Late on Wednesday, more than a thousand film technicians marched through the capital, Wellington, demanding actors end their dispute over contracts. They chanted "Save The Hobbit" and waved banners that said, "Keep it Made in New Zealand" and "SOS Hobbits."
The group had planned to attend an actors' meeting and "verbalize their concern" outside, said the head of Wellington's Weta Workshop film production house, Richard Taylor.
When the actors cancelled their meeting the technicians marched through the streets to show their concerns, he said.
Three years
"Everyone present within the Wellington technicians' community wanted to see our industry continue under our own management as it has in the past," Taylor said in a statement.
After the huge success of the Lord of the Rings series that were shot in New Zealand, Jackson has spent the past three years working on adapting the JRR Tolkien fantasy novel set before the trilogy.
As well as union issues, the ongoing restructuring of flailing Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, which owns half the project, has contributed to delays.
In May, Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro quit after working on the project for nearly two years. Jackson, who directed the Rings series, has taken his place.
Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films, and the union Actors' Equity have been at loggerheads over pay deals for actors in the New Zealand $660m two-film prequel to the highly successful Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Shooting of the two 3-D films is due to begin in February.
No indication
Wingnut Films said in a statement that the actors' move in threatening to boycott the production had undermined Warner Brothers confidence in the industry "and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their $500m investment".
"Next week Warners are coming down to New Zealand to make arrangements to move the production offshore," Jackson's production company said. "It appears we cannot make films in our own country even when substantial financing is available."
The statement gave no indication of where the films' production might be moved to.
Jackson said while they would fight to keep the films in New Zealand, the decision ultimately rests with Warner Brothers.
Technicians marched
Production of The Hobbit was given the green light from US studios Warners and New Line Cinema at the weekend, with Jackson as director.
Late on Wednesday, more than a thousand film technicians marched through the capital, Wellington, demanding actors end their dispute over contracts. They chanted "Save The Hobbit" and waved banners that said, "Keep it Made in New Zealand" and "SOS Hobbits."
The group had planned to attend an actors' meeting and "verbalize their concern" outside, said the head of Wellington's Weta Workshop film production house, Richard Taylor.
When the actors cancelled their meeting the technicians marched through the streets to show their concerns, he said.
Three years
"Everyone present within the Wellington technicians' community wanted to see our industry continue under our own management as it has in the past," Taylor said in a statement.
After the huge success of the Lord of the Rings series that were shot in New Zealand, Jackson has spent the past three years working on adapting the JRR Tolkien fantasy novel set before the trilogy.
As well as union issues, the ongoing restructuring of flailing Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, which owns half the project, has contributed to delays.
In May, Hollywood director Guillermo del Toro quit after working on the project for nearly two years. Jackson, who directed the Rings series, has taken his place.
