A growing movement is affecting New Zealand’s movie industry, and now claims that the production of The Hobbit rumoured to start filming next year in New Zealand is unfairly hiring non-union actors and is calling for a boycott of the film production.
The makers of feature film The Hobbit – to be shot in New Zealand next year – have refused to engage performers on union-negotiated agreements.
Members of Canadian Actors Equity, U.S. Actors Equity, the Screen Actors Guild, UK Actors Equity, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (Australia) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists are advised not to accept work on this non-union production.
If you are contacted to be engaged on The Hobbit please notify your union immediately.
So in case you are not reading that right, they are saying, you non-union out of work actors? You don’t deserve to be in The Hobbit. And you other out of work actors that happen to be in a union? If you are offered a job on this production, fuck em. You don’t need it.
I like how they name drop all of these other actors guilds, unions and organizations – but only to encourage them to back their Boycott
Uh… yeah. I can see this movement being very popular and it feels like the unions there are attempting to position themselves for more power. What this movement needs is for you to ignore common sense, and not take a paying job from a production hiring non-union and union workers.
But Peter Jackson has responded in a very well stated and responsible rebuttal.
Statement regarding The Hobbit and claims by the Australian Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA)
:The Australian Labour Union, the MEAA is using our production The Hobbit in an attempt to widen it’s membership, and power within the New Zealand film industry. As a New Zealand filmmaker, who has nothing to hide or be ashamed about, I’m not going to see this threatening behaviour continue without some form of sensible discussion about the “facts” and “truth” behind their various allegations.
It’s incredibly easy to wave the flag on behalf of workers and target the rich studios. It’s not hard to generate an emotive response, nor is it hard to sway public opinion, since nobody seems to like the facts to get in the way of a good story in these situations.
Behind the claims of exploiting actors who are cast in the “non-Union” Hobbit production, and claims that various high-profile stars will refuse to take part in the films, there are clear agendas at work. As usual with these agendas, they are based on money and power.
I am not a lawyer, nor am I an expert in unions and how they operate – but I like to think I have a degree of common sense, and that’s what I’m basing my observations on. Let me run over a few facts:
– Personally speaking, I’m not anti-Union in the slightest. 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 (SAG). All these organisations (I must confess I’m not entirely sure what the difference is between a “Guild” and a “Union”) do terrific work on behalf of their members.
– Many Actors are members of SAG, but many are not — especially younger actors and many Australian and New Zealand performers. MEAA claims we are “non-Union”, but whenever we hire an actor who belongs to SAG, we always honour their working conditions, their minimum salary agreements and their residuals.
– The SAG residuals is a small pot of money that comes from the movie’s profits. The DGA and WGA have similar schemes. An agreed upon percentage of movie profits is placed in a pot, which is shared amongst the members of the guild who worked on the film in question. Despite MEAA claims that The Hobbit is “non-Union”, our studio, Warner Brothers, is honouring these residuals, and making the profit sharing available to all the various Guild members – just as it did on The Lord of the Rings, and Universal did on King Kong.
– These residuals can be worth tens of thousands of dollars to an individual if the film is successful – however the normal situation is that if an actor is not a member of SAG, they do not share in the profit pot.
– This has always struck us as unfair, since most Kiwi actors are not lucky enough to be SAG members. For the Hobbit, Warner Brothers have agreed to create a separate pot of profit participation, which will be divided up amongst non-SAG actors who are cast in the film. This was not done because of any pressure from Guilds or Unions – it was actually Warners doing the decent thing, and New Zealand and Australian actors will be the principle beneficiaries. SAG members have their pot, and non-SAG members now have theirs. We have introduced the scheme to Kiwi agents and it’s now part of all our Hobbit cast deals.
– Whatever damage MEAA is attempting to do — and it will do damage, since that’s their principal objective in targeting The Hobbit – we will continue to treat our actors and crew with respect, as we always have.
– As I said earlier, money and power lies behind this threatening behaviour from our Australian cousins, and to fully understand that, you simply have to step back and look at the greater picture in context.
– It starts with “NZ Actors Equity”. This is a tiny organisation that represents a small minority of New Zealand Actors. They are not a Union, and have none of the legal status of a Union. They are a … well, a smallish group who have some New Zealand actors as members. How many actors are members of NZ Equity? They guard that information very closely, but various reports I’ve seen put their membership at 200, although somebody in the know swears it’s nearer 100.
– How many professional actors are there in New Zealand? Somewhere between 2000 and 4000, depending on just how you describe a “professional actor”. Obviously most Kiwi actors have other employment too, but there’s certainly over 2000 actors available to cast in a film production.
– So taking the most generous numbers, NZ Actors Equity represents 200 out of 2000 Kiwi actors, or 10%. Perhaps I’m wrong, and if so, NZ Equity will no doubt reveal their real membership numbers.
– Now there’s nothing wrong with NZ Actors Equity representing 10% of the actors in this country. It’s great that they offer that service, and if an actor chooses, there’s a supportive group they can join. Obviously the more actors that join NZ Equity, the better, since these organisations usually survive by taking a small percentage of their members acting fees. I’m guessing that Equity do something like that. Recently they have been part-funded by MEAA.
– Over the last 10 years our relationship with NZ Equity has been rocky — whenever we cast an “overseas actor”, we get a letter telling us why such and such Kiwi actor would be so much better in the role. In most cases we have already auditioned the actor in question, and formed our own opinions — but what strikes me as unfair, is how this “helpful” service of suggesting better choices only includes the “Equity 200″. If you happen to be a good actor who doesn’t belong to NZ Equity (and many don’t), you’re automatically not good enough to be put forward.
– What really does strike me as wrong, and this is my personal opinion, is the why that the MEAA is using NZ Actors Equity as a vehicle to represent the voices and opinions of New Zealand actors. A couple of years ago, the members of NZ Actors Equity voted to join some kind of alliance with the Australian MEAA group. At the time, there were voices of alarm at how this relationship could damage the interest of Kiwi Actors, but the merger went ahead – and now we’re about to find out just how damaging it’s going to be.
– As far as I know, the membership of NZ Actors Equity was allowed into the MEAA, meaning that the Australian MEAA organisation represents 200 out of 2000 Kiwi actors. I don’t believe it represents non-Equity NZ actors. It speaks on behalf of a tiny minority of our actors.
– The management of NZ Equity are clearly happy to be used as a political football by the Australians — but my sympathy goes to the 1800 New Zealand Actors who are not part of the “Equity 200″, but who are going to suffer the fallout if this Hobbit thing goes nuclear.
– I also feel a growing anger at the way this tiny minority is endangering a project that hundreds of people have worked on over the last two years, and the thousands about to be employed for the next 4 years. The hundreds of millions of Warner Brothers dollars that is about to be spent in our economy.
– Why is this endangered? Because the “demands” of MEAA cannot be agreed to, or even considered – by law – and therefore the only options that remain involve closing the Hobbit down, or more likely shifting the production to Europe. It could so easily happen. I’ve been told that Disney are no longer bring movies to Australia because of their frustration with the MEAA.
– The MEAA is demanding that the Hobbit production company (Warners owned, 3foot7 Ltd) enter into negotiations for a Union negotiated agreement covering all performers on the film.
– I personally have a problem with any organisation who represent a small minority, but attempt to take control of everyone – but that’s not the real issue. The complex web of NZ labour laws are the reason why this demand will never be agreed to.
– NZ law prohibits engaging in collective bargaining with any labour organisation representing performers who are independent contractors, as film actors clearly are. The NZ Commerce Act claims it would be unlawful to engage with an Australian Union on these matters.
In closing:
My personal opinion is that this is a grab for power. It does not represent a problem that needs a solution. There will always be differing opinions when it comes down to work and conditions, but I have always attempted to treat my actors and crew with fairness and respect. We have created a very favourable profit sharing pool for the non-Union actors on The Hobbit — and now the Union is targeting us, despite the fact that we have always respected SAG conditions and residuals.
I can’t see beyond the ugly spectre of an Australian bully-boy, using what he perceives as his weak Kiwi cousins to gain a foothold in this country’s film industry. They want greater membership, since they get to increase their bank balance.
The conspiracy theories are numerous, so take your pick: We have done better in recent years, with attracting overseas movies — and the Australians would like a greater slice of the pie, which begins with them using The Hobbit to gain control of our film industry. There is a twisted logic to seeing NZ humiliated on the world stage, by losing the Hobbit to Eastern Europe. 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.
– Others gain from that too. SAG would much rather have it’s members hired on movies — as opposed to non-SAG actors. The easiest way to control that, is to stem what are called “runaway productions”, which are American funded films made outside of America. The Hobbit is one of them, as was King Kong and LOTR. SAG, which is naturally supporting MEAA, would see it’s own benefit in studios having a miserable experience in Australia/New Zealand. That may well be pushing the conspiracy theories one step too far, and it’s perfectly natural that one Union would support another – but the point is that in the complex web of Hollywood intrigue, you never really know who’s doing what to whom and why.
But it sure feels like we are being attacked simply because we are a big fat juicy target – not for any wrong doing. We haven’t even been greenlit yet! It feels as if we have a large Aussie cousin kicking sand in our eyes … or to put it another way, opportunists exploiting our film for their own political gain.
Peter Jackson
(NB: This represents Peter Jackson’s opinion as a Kiwi filmmaker, and not that of Warner Bros or New Line Cinema, who were not consulted about this statement.)
As if this film needed MORE complications?
Peter Jackson has always raved about filming The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in New Zealand, and even he is more than willing to take this production somewhere else if they plan on enforcing this boycott.
PJ wants to see this movie made, and of course so do the fans. He has overcome a LOT of obsticles to even get this far, and if they were in fact planning on filming next year I do feel bad for these film unions that would do more harm than good with this boycott.
A great place to shoot a film? Awesome. Oh, I can do it somewhere else without all this mafia power struggles? Ok, sorry New Zealand.
Film it in Europe if you have to. Hell, do it in Canada. Just get it done and tell these busybodies to go to hell!
I believe the “Hobbit” drama is not really what it appears.
Let me begin by saying that I agree in the ability of ‘staff’ to be able to either discuss or negotiate working conditions or terms with an employer.
This should never have been a problem, and if there is to be any commonality or collectivism in the movie industry, then this ‘negotiation’ ideally should happen with a governing body, who represent all or most movie studios or producers. Trying to negotiate with individual producers, or over individual projects is fraught.
For whatever reason, this became about “The Hobbit”, and became about Sir Peter Jackson. Unfortunately, the dispute escalated until somebody decided to place a ban on signing up for the movie until it was resolved. This had to be the most serious error of judgement in this whole sorry affair.
I would just like to mention for a moment, the motives of overseas unions in influencing or supporting this decision.
Unlike other industries, actors in Australia or the USA actually compete with NZ actors for work. It is actually in the best interests of overseas actors for the industry to collapse in another country. As a result, the motives of the Australians (or any others) in supporting (or even suggesting) the boycott, are very suspect.
Whoever really made that decision, it was made. It had to be the most outrageous example of one group over-playing their hand, in any industrial setting I have heard of.
They were not holding a local manufacturer to ransom. They were antagonising a worldwide conglomerate, which was planning on filming in NZ only as a favour to Sir Peter. They would not give a second thought to using a more amenable workforce, in another country.
So, not only have the unions involved embarrassed themselves, they have weakened the positions of their members dramatically.
Let me make a prediction. Filming in this country has never been in jeopardy. There, I’ve stuck my head above the wall and said it.
By the local union making this stupid and unsupportable demand, they have handed complete control of the dispute over to Sir Peter Jackson. He can now say that the entire project has been put in jeopardy. He can invite people from Warner Brothers on a junket to visit NZ, and ask them to act angry and distrustful, and to pretend that they are here to decide on our future as a filming destination.
Added to that, the government is running scared by this situation as well. They are offering to change employment law, to remove the actors’ ability to negotiate with any strength at all. No National government has ever been supportive of the union movement, and this has just played into their hands. The lawmakers will happily castrate any union that Sir Peter tells them to, to ensure that the movie stays here. They will probably throw in some extra tax breaks to boot.
But it was always going to stay here.
Sir Peter Jackson wants to make his movies down here. His production company is down here. His family is down here. He’s a very, very big fish down here. He is also very very influential when it comes to any Tolkien movie. Nobody would make the Hobbit without him, especially when it will be the most expensive movie ever made. His touch is gold right now. If he wants it made here, it will be. He now has the government in his pocket, and the actors under his heel.
I apologise to Sir Peter if my cynicism makes him sound tyrannical, because clearly he is not. But he is a businessman. He will do whatever is necessary to ensure things are done the way he wants. That’s business. He has worked very hard to get where he is, and he certainly deserves it. As New Zealanders we are justifiably proud of what he has achieved, and we are now all behind him in repelling these damned communist unions, who want to hold everybody to ransom.
This was a gift to Sir Peter. The actors clearly had no clue what they were doing. If they were cajoled or supported by the Australians, then more fool them. Any chance of improving conditions for their work has just been put back decades.
In fact, if they don’t back-pedal very quickly, the entire union movement in NZ will be in jeopardy.
Seem to me Peter Jackson is being reasonable and fair.
Let him get on with his project and leave unions out where they are not needed i.e. with contractor negotiations.
If the Hobbit films didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.
How do you even respond to that? What argument could the MEAA possibly make to justify their stance?
“For the Hobbit, Warner Brothers have agreed to create a separate pot of profit participation, which will be divided up amongst non-SAG actors who are cast in the film. This was not done because of any pressure from Guilds or Unions – it was actually Warners doing the decent thing, and New Zealand and Australian actors will be the principle beneficiaries.”
NUFF SAID. Seems the NZ Equity group will do more harm for future movies IMO. Bad Idea considering that there has never been anyone who has come close to getting NZ actors and actresses to work like PJ.
wow people just have to do something to ruin a good movie that we have been waiting way to long for.