It’s Wednesday morning in New Zealand, and the Hobbit director kicked off the day by producing an August 17 letter from the International Federation of Actors where they said they would instruct actors not to participate in the Hobbit movies until the producers entered an agreement with the union.
Jackson is using the letter as proof that the union had already voted to blacklist him before they even tried to meet. “They are attempting to characterise their actions as an innocent request for a meeting, but the truth is they kept a loaded gun to our heads the entire time.†he wrote in an angry statement that veered into New Zealander nationalism (a potent force when it comes to Hobbits), when it blamed an Australian union honcho for causing the mess by pursuing an “international strike action against our film with no prior vote from the Kiwi membership?†This time, he did not threaten leaving the country)
New Zealand unions have sided with their comrades, so it looks like the battle in the Shire is still at a stalemate.
Jackson: Hobbit union ‘had gun to our head’ [New Zealand Herald]