New Zealand Rallies Around The Hobbit

In a quest to keep The Hobbit in New Zealand citizens took to the streets to show their love for the Lord of the Rings. Considering the various rallies were planned on a few days in advance, the turnout from the various reports seems quite good. A sticking point remains the issue of the Australian MEAA (the main union that NZ Equity is part of) and the UK Actor Unions (which most of the recently announced cast are likely members of) have yet to revoke their blacklist of The Hobbit indicates that both countries feel they are still in the running for the re-location of the films. Below are links and videos of some of the coverage. Whether or not this has any impact on Warner Bros. executives who are currently in the country remains to be seen.

Links: The Guardian | Wellington Report I | Wellington Report II | Robert Catto Gallery | Wellington Report III | NZ Herald | BBC
Videos: One News (also below) | Channel 4 | Wellington Rally

Of note in the New One report is a reoccurrence of the talking point from NZAE members that the boycott was about being allowed to meet with their employer, what is wrong with that? Small problem is no actors had yet to be hired, so it would be like you getting a bunch of your friends to boycott Google, just in case you might get hired there. Since the press continues to avoid it, it must be noted that NZAE only represented a tiny fraction of the actors in the country so despite their claims, they are not the voice of an entire job class. However, that job class did fail to speak against the union, which can be read as approving the blacklist.