Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, April 3rd, 2012 - 10 comments
Something to do in Auckland tonight: What: Special screening of The Muppets Where: Hoyts Sylvia Park, Mt Wellington When: Tonight, April 3rd, 6.10pm to 8.30pm Don’t let those muppets at the Ports of Auckland get you down, come laugh at the real Muppets instead! Some door sales will be available, or you can email julie.fairey@gmail.com …
Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, June 21st, 2011 - 14 comments
My producer partner Lyn is back from Eire and has a theatrical release of their documentary underway in NZ. Director Briar March and producer Lyn Collie, along with two Australasian earth scientists specializing in oceanography and geomorphology looked at the effects of a rising sea levels and changing climate patterns are having on the people of the small Polynesian atoll Takuu in Papua New Guinea. Well worth watching on the big screen while you can.
Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, May 27th, 2011 - 17 comments
I have been bemoaning that I’d missed the Operation 8 documentary. But there are more screenings around the country. Catch a showing near you because by the sound of the current state of the court case, this will not be resolved until next year at the earliest. It has been over three and half years …
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, April 19th, 2011 - 15 comments
Last night walking into the film screening in Auckland I was a bit apprehensive about how it would all be put together. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the film did justice to the complex issues involved.
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, January 20th, 2011 - 14 comments
Mallard has laid a Privileges complaint over Brownlee’s Hobbit lies. Good. Brownlee and Key deserved to be hammered for their part in the Warners/Jackson shake-down that cost just $34m and work rights. Lockwood won’t uphold the complaint though. He hates Brownlee. Not enough to severely embarrass his party in election year though.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, January 19th, 2011 - 73 comments
In 1951, New Zealand temporarily became a police state. Civil liberties were curtailed, freedom of speech denied, and the Government used force against its own citizens. This film tells the story of the infamous lockout of waterside workers and the nationwide strike which followed. The film won Best Documentary and John Bates was named Best Director, Documentary, at the 2002 New Zealand Television Awards.
Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, December 29th, 2010 - 12 comments
From the ‘I told you so’ file comes IrishBill’s first post on the Hobbit dispute after Jackson suddenly announced that a settled dispute with a small union was forcing Warner Bros to abandon a $100m investment and move overseas. We now know Jackson was lying to extort more money and a law change but Irish called it at the time, resulting in 516 comments – a record.
Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, December 23rd, 2010 - 78 comments
Peter Jackson yesterday did what the government has refused to do and commented on the revelation that he told Gerry Brownlee the Actors’ Equity blacklist was no threat to the Hobbit movies being filmed here. Unfortunately, Jackson has just further sullied his reputation by revealing the true motives for the Hobbit Enabling Act.
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, December 22nd, 2010 - 44 comments
It seems we don’t have a government at the moment. John Key is incommunicado in Hawaii. The Acting PM, Bill English, and Key’s press people refuse to speak for him. Someone needs to front up because serious questions are emerging about the honesty of statements Gerry Brownlee and Murray McCully made in Parliament and to the New Zealand people.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, December 10th, 2010 - 17 comments
OIA papers show how the Nats prostrated themselves for Warners. $6K was spent treating the movie execs like foreign dignitaries – ministerial cars, customs ‘facilitation’. Nats wanted to “present an image of an effective government that is worth working with“. All they showed was they had fallen for Warners’ hollow threats. Cost us $33 million.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, December 2nd, 2010 - 11 comments
Remember how Peter Jackson and Warner Bros pulled the old Hollywood shakedown on us? By making a hollow threat to film elsewhere they got an extra $30 million and a law passed just for them. This was supposedly necessary to save a vital economy gain for the country but the Government knew that was bollocks all along.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, November 3rd, 2010 - 31 comments
I went to see Made in Dagenham last night. The parallels between the dispute, that began when female workers at a Ford plant in the UK struck for better pay, and then equal pay with men, and the Hobbit fiasco were striking. But it’s the dissimilarties in the outcomes that I was left pondering. Let’s take a look at the two events:
Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, October 29th, 2010 - 77 comments
Today we learn just how extreme some of the anti-union nutters in our country are, with news of death threats to unionists and actors involved in The Hobbit fiasco. I hope we hear soon of a sustained police effort to track down the perpetrators. Or are we as a country going to effectively condone these actions by ignoring them?
Written By: - Date published: 3:39 pm, October 28th, 2010 - 18 comments
Scoop’s Gordon Campbell has written a long piece on the Hobbit settlement and its implications. Key said that we couldn’t match the tax deals offered by other countries, but according to Campbell’s calculations that’s exactly what we have done. Campbell also has harsh words to say about Key’s “skill” as a negotiator, and advice about strengthening the film industry in NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, October 28th, 2010 - 24 comments
There was some expenditure that didn’t qualify under the old scheme…We’ve looked to broaden that out. John Key on Warner Brothers, 27 Oct 2010
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 pm, October 27th, 2010 - 178 comments
The Government will give the Hobbit producers an extra $33 million to stay in New Zealand and it’s going to use this ‘crisis’ as an excuse to slam through more anti-worker laws. New Zealand has been played like naive hicks. The Hobbit was never leaving. We let Jackson and his Hollywood mates whip us into a frenzy of fear – now we’re paying the cost.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 pm, October 27th, 2010 - 178 comments
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 27th, 2010 - 7 comments
Wallace Chapman has a thoughtful Open Letter to the visiting Warner Brothers executives on his blog, inviting them to front up to the New Zealand public: We have a small segment called “Soapbox” and we’d just love you to come over and join us and speak your mind to camera for 60 seconds. We know …
Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, October 27th, 2010 - 87 comments
The Hobbit ‘crisis’ is just the latest in a series of capital flight threats from Jackson and Hollywood. We’ll end up paying more to stave off the threat of capital flight because the wider economic benefit makes it worthwhile. Key is trying to talk down how much we can pay but he bears responsibility for talking up the ‘crisis’ to put the boot into unions.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 26th, 2010 - 27 comments
Otago Law Professor Paul Roth says possible law changes by the Key Government to provide more tax-payer funded charity to corporate giants Warner Bros Entertainment is ‘Third-World’ lawmaking and a ‘race to the bottom’ in an attempt to compete against developing nations with little or no labour rights. Roth says if we ’lie back and prostitute ourselves …
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, October 26th, 2010 - 155 comments
Lucky John Key – he’s going to have a great week! It’s hard to see how he can lose. He’ll either be the man who single-handedly saved The Hobbit, or he’ll be handed a big stick to beat the evil unions with forever. In reality, however, the decision to keep the movies here is probably already made. Key’s ego will be just another tool used against him in negotiations as the studios go for the best deal they can get…
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, October 25th, 2010 - 40 comments
One of the strange things about helping to run a left blog like this is looking at the varied opinions of those on the left of the political spectrum, and then looking at the monolithic opinions that the right seem to have of the left. I was musing on this while reading Matt McCarten’s excellent Saturday article. Now you have to understand that Matt and myself are almost at the ends of the spectrum when it comes to politics on the left….
Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, October 24th, 2010 - 70 comments
The Hobbit ‘crisis’ is all about money. It’s about the producers of this long-troubled production, who are in financial difficulty, wanting to minimise their up-front costs. The mark in the con is the only one with cash to offer on the scale they need – the Prime Minister. He’s the one with the most to lose and the most ability to pay.
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, October 22nd, 2010 - 59 comments
It was not until last night that we received confirmation of the retraction from SAG, NZ Equity and AFTRA through press reports.
New Line Cinema
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 21st, 2010 - 516 comments
It looked like Actors Equity and Peter Jackson had come to an agreement.
They’d even written a joint statement to announce the boycott was off.
So why has the whole thing blown up?
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, October 3rd, 2010 - 16 comments
Wondering who Actors’ Equity are and what they do? Well here’s a video from AE explaining just that. Actors’ Equity also have a good website that lays out their position in Peter Jackson’s Das Hobbitski fiasco. It’s been funny watching the msm contort itself while struggling with its rarely conflicting predilections for both celebrities and …
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, October 3rd, 2010 - 27 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, July 14th, 2010 - 15 comments
The documentary “There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho” that my partner Lyn Collie has spent her ‘spare’ time producing for the last four years is about to get it screened in New Zealand at the film festivals starting this weekend. This documentary directed by Briar March has won multiple awards at its festival screenings worldwide. I still find it pretty good myself even after having to sit through it many times during post-production. Tickets are selling fast.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 23rd, 2010 - 4 comments
I wonder who is paying for this ad pleading for people to join the pro-Wellywood Facebook group. The pro-Wellywood group has the bland artificial feel of a piece of astro-turfing, probably from Prendergast or the airport judging by the content. And it stands to reason that the ad is paid for by the creators. Is ratepayer money being used to try to get people to join a Facebook group?
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, February 21st, 2010 - Comments Off
Briar March and Lyn Collie have gained another award yesterday for their documentary There Once Was an Island:Te Henua e Noho at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Montana USA.
I’m personally rapt at the recognition it has been getting and I can’t wait to see it on the big-screen in New Zealand myself. Should be better than showing on our TV.
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, February 12th, 2010 - 10 comments
Update: Link’s dead but I found this trailer on youtube
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