The Hobbit gets green-light and announces February start

[Nerwen]

I mean, you have to remember that a lot of entertainment journalism is just one big game of "Chinese Whispers", further complicated by bluffing.

[doug*platypus]

Merry Christmas to you all! Browsing my favourite news website down here in Aotearoa (New Zealand), I chanced upon this...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...workers-rights

It seems that this movie... sorry... these movies are embroiled in the depths of more prolonged controversy, and may well live in infamy, at least in the minds of some, for reasons other than non-canonical travesties!

[Mister Underhill]

It is crazy -- and more than a little scary -- the sheer scale that these modern "vertically integrated" conglomerates operate on. In this case, the union leadership played right into WB's hands. You don't whip up a labor action on a film until after the studio has already committed and started spending significant money, and after they've already started shooting. That's page one of the union playbook. If I were the conspiracy-minded type, I'd be tempted to wonder if this was only gross incompetence... or something even more insidious.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

It is crazy -- and more than a little scary -- the sheer scale that these modern "vertically integrated" conglomerates operate on. In this case, the union leadership played right into WB's hands. You don't whip up a labor action on a film until after they studio has already committed and started spending significant money, and after they've already started shooting. That's page one of the union playbook. If I were the conspiracy-minded type, I'd be tempted to wonder if this was only gross incompetence... or something even more insidious.

Well, I'm not conspiracy-minded, so I doubt this was all a plot to ensure there'd be no union trouble once filming started, if that's what you mean. I think more likely they just jumped the gun, and, perhaps naively, didn't allow enough for the relative size of Warner Brothers vs the New Zealand economy.

Mind you, I did think much of the coverage of the original dispute was peculiarly biased in Jackson's and WB's favour– since it didn't in fact seem to me that the unions were making outrageous demands.