Peter Jackson has issued a swift and decisive statement in answer to
recent suggestions by the IFA and affiliated actor’s unions that their
members turn down parts in “The Hobbit” movie unless all New Zealand
actors are allowed to bargain with the movie-makers collectively as a
part of a union. Peter made the interesting point that this may be
against current New Zealand law:
More worrisome for Hobbit fans is his assertion that this may delay
the making of “The Hobbit” even further and/or force the production to
move to eastern Europe:
The MEAA is the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, or the actors
union in Australia. The IFA and New Zealand Actors guild solicited the
help of the Aussie organization in 2006 to help the unionization process
of New Zealand actors. Keep reading to see the entire statement and be
sure to join the discussion on our message boards.
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.)
