Executives from the Warner Brothers studio in Hollywood are on their way to New Zealand to prepare to move the film production to another country, according to director Sir Peter Jackson.
Jackson, who is New Zealand-born, did not elaborate on the new location, but previously mentioned options include the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland.
However, while Sir Peter may not have spilled the beans, his co-producer wife, Fran Walsh may have let slip the secret of the new locations: “They have had people in the UK taking location photographs. They’ve got a huge studio there that Harry Potter has vacated, the ex-Rolls Royce factory, that they say would be perfect for us,” she said on a rare radio interview with Radio New Zealand.
The studio she mention, the Rolls Royce factory has been used to film three Star Wars movies as well as the Hsarry Potter films, and obviously lends itself well to huge, intergalactic or out-of-this-world productions.
The move comes amid a bitter feud between Jackson’s Wingnut Productions and the New Zealand actors union, which last year invoked a boycott of the film over issues of conditions and pay.
“It appears we cannot make films in our own country even when substantial financing is available,” a dejected Jackson said in a recent statement.
“New Zealand Equity’s unjustified industrial action against The Hobbit has undermined Warner Brothers’ confidence in New Zealand as a stable employment environment, and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their US$500 million investment.”
