Director Peter Jackson has released the following statement in reaction
to the seven unions that have told their members not to work for The Hobbit
films in New Zealand:
Here is Peter Jackson’s statement:
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.