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The Hobbit To Be Filmed In New Zealand After All
An anonymous reader writes "John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has confirmed this afternoon that The Hobbit will be filmed in NZ, after weeks of uncertainty. From the article: 'The future of the $670m production hung in the balance after an actors union issued a no-work order on the films last month. Talks were held overnight with studio executives from Warner Brothers to resolve concerns about industrial laws in New Zealand.'"
I can't wait to see the Duke Nukem Forever trailer that's debuting with it.
If Flight of the Conchords taught me nothing else, it's that New Zealand is the happening place to be (it's like Scotland, only further) and a great place to film The Hobbit. It's an excellent location for more walking.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Talks were held overnight with studio executives from Warner Brothers to resolve concerns about industrial laws
Uh-huh.
"Industrial laws"? Nice euphemism. Yet another example of how unions exist to keep unions existing.
You could say that New Zealand bribes Warner to get the Hobbits. From TFA: "Mr Key also announced The Hobbit will get a $20million ($15m US) tax rebate - US$7.5m per film" and "The Government will also offset U$10m of Warner Brothers' marketing costs."
...and Bilbo paid the actors union the funds they wanted, and everyone lived happily ever after.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
They are a very happy folk.
What do you mean, films? There's more than one? The Hobbit isn't a particularly big book, so why is it being made into more than one film?
While some of what you say is true, as one who works in a forced union environment, I can tell you that currently the main goal of unions is not protection of the worker, but the protection of the lazy and incompetent so they, the unions, can continue to siphon money from the workers.
The unions will use any excuse for why someone who literally does nothing all day should not lose their job. It's job protection, pure and simple, and has nothing to do with making the workplace safer. It's to protect their own interests which is money from nothing so they can party. Period.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
as one who works in a forced union environment
So much for Land of the Free...
(I won't respond to the rest of what you say, since that kind of thing doesn't happen here anyway.)
Where management has a hostile attitude towards their workers and labour laws are week --- unions are the only thing that can protect the works from abuse. But... there does come a point when they no longer serve any meaningful purpose. Instead of going away they tend to become corrupt and expansionist.
And get off my lawn.
If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
Yeah, that's why the conservatives and libertarians are all for these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Work
i have a great example from my beautiful country - coal mining in Poland.
Situation is simply ridiculous. I don't know if the Polish coal mines have been profitable for more than 2 years in the last 2 decades. They are not a private business, they cost the budget a metric fuckton of cash in taxes they can't and don't pay, yet the miners are the holy cows - they get 13th and 14th salaries, have shitload of other bonuses and can retire much much earlier than the ordinary taxpayer. And there is way too many of them. IIRC in the last 20 years coal mining sucked in something between 10 and 20 gigadollars of taxpayer's money, which is a respectable score for a rather poor by european standards sub-40million country. I've found some data from 2003 - in the Coal Company which manages several mines there were 28(!) unions.
When they don't like the ideas discussed in the parliament, they gather in Warsaw, demolish the streets, burn tires, throw stones and bricks and in the end they get any shit they want from the spineless politicians. Nobody can touch miners and their unions.
At least in this case worker unions are a fucking parasite and should be blasted into oblivion.
Huh? Please explain...
Free Martian Whores!
I always assumed that unions where a honored group due to the role they played in bringing down communism.
It is interesting to read what you wrote as I am an American with Polish heritage and love Polish history but haven't really payed attention to the country for the past 10-15 years.
I saw the art movie The Centurian earlier this year. The plot was basically a hybrid of Gladiator and James Bond. The scenic vistas of horse and foot chases through the Scottish Highlands (Cairgorms NP) were breathtaking mountains and valleys. Reminded me a lot of the LOTR stuff.
It sounds to me like you need to get yourselves a Maggie Thatcher, she was able to sort out the corrupt mining unions here in the UK good and proper.
Or maybe the story could stick to one set of currency to keep confusion to a minimum.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
670million...for the Hobbit? Is Smog a transformer?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Funny, I don't see that in my union. I've seen people let go for a variety of legitimate reasons. And not doing work is a legitimate reason. One that gets taken care of very quickly.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
as one who works in a forced union environment
So much for Land of the Free...
(I won't respond to the rest of what you say, since that kind of thing doesn't happen here anyway.)
The only thing free in the "Land of the Free", is where you can be buried...for a price. On the other hand, unions receive union dues from the competent as well as the incompetent. A truly no lose situation.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
Hollywood is extremely, EXTREMELY heavily unionized. For such a specialty kind of setup it is rare to see that many unions. Everyone is in a union, the actors, directors, writes, casting agents, etc, etc. Been that way for a LONG time too, it isn't like they unionized a couple of years ago. The Screen Actors Guild started in 1933. Also many of the unions have larger union connections. The SAG is part of the AFL-CIO, as an example.
So, that being the case, why the fuck is Hollywood Accounting still around if the unions can force change? You telling me that all those unions working together somehow just haven't been powerful enough? The unions that control essentially everyone on the production of a movie, including the big names and important talent?
Ya right.
Rather you find that they do as unions are wont to do today in that they work to better and perpetuate themselves within the system. They are fine with Hollywood Accounting fucking all kinds of people, including the government, they just figure out ways to work the system. Their members get paid, they can tell people how to work within the game, but they do nothing at all to change it.
Sorry man, but if ever there was an example of unions NOT forcing change, it'd be in Hollywood. They actively fight against change.
huh, only 78 posts, and the web video on the page played. I remember when the page would have crumbled under the slashdot effect for such a topic as this. Well I am happy to hear this hurdle has been overcome for the making of the movies.
and back again.
I thought the purpose of the unions was the protect the union leadership? The reason to help out the workers is so that they can get reelected. The days of local unions with local leadership solving local problems is history.
...and screw over the UK for years to come
Yeah, that's the way of a lot of human institutions. Religions often work in the same way. So do political parties and businesses.
You need unions, you just don't need to agree with everything they want. Just like politicians.
You might be interested to know that when communism fell, some of the communists who were in charge moved to the unions. The Romanian people I work with tell me how the unions have so much power, that they literally decide whether you get to work or not, and how much you will be paid. The unions are effectively communist organizations, in a democratic country. The stories they have of their experiences with the unions is amazing.
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yes, they are a honored group but it's slowly shifting. Honors are exactly what caused them to be a parasite. When you get carte blanche as a reward for your heroism, sooner or later you start to take advantage of this fact. It requires a lot of discipline to resist the temptation and not many people can. Long story short, majority of union leaders were not made of the finer kind of clay. Also many spineless creatures flocked to the unions because it's the dreamed up environment for them, rubbing backs and knowing the right people are more than enough to live a good life with no actual work.
Past deeds of unions are today mercilessly exploited to perpetuate the situation and silence everybody who claims that economic laws have to apply also in their overgrown unprofitable sectors. The fact that many of the union leaders and people from the political elite are good friends from the times of anticommunist activity doesn't help. There is no political will to change anything.
Mining industry, railroads, shipyards (especially famous for their Solidarity branches) and few others - all these industries are managed by the state. They bring heavy losses and suck the life out of the country's economy. Union workers of these industries are mentally stuck in the socialism of the past and are full of sense of baseless entitlement. The company can be dying or even almost dead (and many are) and the only thriving thing in it would be the unions.
Miners don't want to hear about any pay cut, raising the retirement age or layoffs in the times when mines are deeply in the red, but they are first to demand a bonus when the company shows any profit for the first time in last decade. WTF?! What about repaying your debts first? So I have to pay taxes for years so they can live in a bubble and enjoy privileges i can't even dream of?
Wait, so if a bunch of people with money get together, it's an honored corporation with all the rights of a person and none of the responsibilities. But some of the people working for that company meet together and it's an evil communist organization?
It always amazes me how three people assembling to screw as many people out of their money as possible is to be held to a high standard, but three people assembling to protect their interests are communists. And the people condemning these communists usually are the ones talking about freedom to assemble (as long as they like the people assembling, I guess).
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Wow, that's amazing, you've inferred a lot.
I don't see where I've said anything about the "honour" of a corporation, nor did I say that unions were "evil".
In fact, if you re-read what I was responding to, then re-read my response, then realize that what we're talking about isn't "unions" in general. We're talking about unions in post-communist countries, where it's well known that the communists moved into unions. Actual communists. Not "Obama is a communist" usage of the word "communist". I mean, the actual proper definition of the term, as in "I was a leader of the communist party in a communist country".
LOL. It's like you somehow made your way to my response, didn't read it, yet responded as if I had said something, that wasn't said at all.
I am actually all for the right to assemble in any fashion, I even extend this right to businesses, regardless of whether that makes them a monopoly. While I would never stop a union from forming a labour monopoly, I wouldn't be apart of one, as they are essentially useless, and not in my best interests. For the exact same reason that, were I running a business, I would never be apart of a business monopoly/oligopoly/cartel, except for a natural monopoly.
However, I bet you are for a monopoly on labour, and against a monopoly on business. Nothing like drawing arbitrary lines.
In conclusion, your response was hilarious, you're either insane or delusional, but definitely an idiot. Thanks for brightening my day.
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And you did even worse. You apparently agree with everything I said, but didn't like the tone or that it was in response to your post, and thus disagreed vehemently with ideas you find no fault with.
Yes, I'm apparently insane for pointing out that there are a large number of hypocrites out there who condemn the free association of workers, but support it for all others.
Even if it is a non sequitur to your comments, it is more on topic to the discussion of unions in general or unions in NZ than your comments were. I guess making an actual on-topic comment is insane when people are drifting off to rants about Polish unions in a discussion of NZ unions.
Learn to love Alaska
I am sad to read that but I thank you for the information.