Crisis talks on $1b TV show
Amazon in hardball negotiations with NZ, threatening to pull its Lord of the Rings TV series.
The Government has held a crisis meeting with Amazon TV executives as the network threatens to pull out of filming the Lord of the Rings series in New Zealand.
At US$1 billion (NZ$1.49 billion), it is touted as the most expensive television series in history – and accordingly, the most lucrative for the country where it is filmed.
Earlier this year, production company boss Jennifer Salke confirmed New Zealand was being considered as the location – but that prospect is now in jeopardy.
Amazon executives visited Economic Development Minister David Parker this week to express their concerns about a lack of studio capacity in Auckland. Both parties were tightlipped about the high-stakes negotiations when contacted this weekend.
The company has warned that studio capacity shortage is a problem, but it is understood there are still high hopes of announcing a successful resolution next month.
Kiwi director of the Lord of the Rings film franchise, Sir Peter Jackson, has said he will look over some scripts for the TV reboot. ‘‘I wish them all the best and if we can help them we certainly will try. It’s a big task,’’ he told Britain’s Metro newspaper this month.
The hardball negotiations between Amazon and the Government will spark memories of those between Warner Bros and John Key’s Government, when Warner threatened to pull the filming of Jackson’s The Hobbit from New Zealand if the Government did not meet certain conditions.
Warner Bros got its way: in 2010, the Government made an urgent change to employment law to prevent independent contractors from claiming entitlements as employees, and increased the tax concession for big screen productions.
A spokesman for Parker confirmed the minister met representatives of Amazon in his office this week to discuss possible productions in New Zealand. He declined to comment further. Amazon refused to comment. South Pacific Pictures boss John Barnett said he had been unaware Amazon representatives were in New Zealand. The availability of studio space would depend on when Amazon planned to start filming.
‘‘I guess they’d be looking at a couple of places and it’s a very big production and those productions are always good to get. It provides a lot of jobs for a lot of people for a lot of time.’’
In September, Auckland Council paid for a 20-page magazine to be distributed with the Hollywood Reporter, boasting of the city’s capacity to host major screen productions. ‘‘Auckland is the natural home for brilliantly realised film and television,’’ the headline read.
Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development refused to confirm whether it attended this week’s meeting at Parliament. It said it was constantly in discussions with numerous production companies but refused to comment further, citing confidentiality agreements.