By Liz Puranam and 3news.co.nz staff / NZPA
There has been fury and frustration on the streets of Wellington tonight.
Head of Weta Workshop, Sir Richard Taylor, says the future of the Hobbit films - and the $700 million that comes with them - are in peril because of the "actions of a very limited few".
He is referring to the New Zealand Actors Equity union, who are calling for a boycott of the films as they hold out for better conditions and a collective agreement.
The workers say the standoff between the unions and The Hobbit director Sir Peter Jackson is going to cost them their jobs and their livelihoods.
3 News has spoken to technicians working on The Hobbit who said that New Zealand is on the verge of losing the opportunity to film the movis in New Zealand. These sources, who wish to remain anonymous, say that the Australian union MEAA - the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance - have made a well-governed situation unreasonable and unworkable for investors.
Workers on Wellington streets chanted 'Keep the Hobbit!', desperate to keep film's production in New Zealand. But is it too late?
And if the production of the movie has been moved offshore, who is to blame?
"It will be because Warner Bros have decided they can make more money elsewhere," says Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly.
"That's bullshit. Bullshit!"
The CTU, along with Actors Equity, have maintained they're unhappy with the working conditions for actors and the contracts on offer.
But some actors say they're with Sir Peter, and resent an Australian union - headed by a man called Simon Whipp - speaking for them.
"Peter didn't ask for help from Australia when he came to make films in New Zealand," says Jed Brophy. "We make great films in New Zealand with New Zealanders, so why should we get unions over there to tell us what our working conditions should be?"
Fifteen hundred workers, including directors, technicians and crew who also support Sir Peter, met at his Miramar Studios at 5pm for an emergency meeting this evening.
By 7pm, they were storming the Actors Equity meeting in the city.
"Stop the insanity that we're experiencing at the moment in New Zealand," says Weta's Sir Richard Taylor.
"I have no idea whether we can stop [the film going overseas], but we would feel very poor about ourselves if we didn't make an effort."
The two Hobbit films, a prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, are expected to cost about $US500 million (NZ$669m) to make, the most expensive ever, and will be filmed in 3-D.
Workers on the film say they have everything to lose. They've driven the actors out of the Actors Equity meeting.
Sir Richard said that when the actors cancelled the meeting the technicians instead chose to march through the streets of Wellington, ending up at the cenotaph near Parliament.
"Everyone gathered felt that they had done their part in assuring the New Zealand film industry that they care passionately about seeing the Hobbit made in New Zealand and that the industry as a whole should be left as it is for the successful and ongoing future of film making in New Zealand.
"We have had a pledge from the Government that they are focused on helping us," says Sir Richard.
"They do understand our concerns and they are going to do all they can to assist us in stopping the madness that has proceeded over the last few weeks."
3 News / NZPA