New Zealand is Officially (Still) Middle Earth

Just when logic and common sense dictated the next step for The Hobbit and its troubled path to the silver screen, here comes another surprise.

After several days of intense negotiations (and various television/radio interviews painting the bleakest of pictures), the two Hobbit films will stay in its home-stead of New Zealand after all, according to THR. Color me shocked.

Things were getting quite ugly in the press and the multiple statements from the likes of Peter Jackson and Kiwi officials suggested the writing was on the wall and the Lord of the Rings prequel was headed the fuck out of there ASAP. Had these arguments been kept to a faint pulse away from the press (and handled at the very start of the dispute with the local New Zealand actors' unions), then perhaps I'd have been more optimistic.

There have been so many set-backs for The Hobbit it's hard to imagine there won't be another problem on the horizon. For their sake, I hope that isn't the case. Nonetheless, its great news for the local hard-working film economy that would have, no doubt, been crippled had the production up and moved to the UK as many of us suspected.