With the JLR meltdown rattling National, they haven’t had time to focus on manipulating the latest Lord of the Rings drama…
Plans to film $1 billion Lord of the Rings television series in NZ under threat
The Government has held a crisis meeting with Amazon TV executives as the network threatens to pull plans to film 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 now, that’s in jeopardy.
Amazon executives met this week with Economic Development Minister David Parker to express their concerns about a lack of studio capacity in Auckland.
…National had planned to use this with the same devastation they used the first LOTR drama, but with a leadership challenge looming against Simon Bridges, their eye is off the ball and now the Sroubek attack line has fallen flat they are scrambling to keep things from wildly exploding so they’ve lost a lot of time to make this latest LOTR drama into a political hit job.
That Labour have sent the smartest man in the room, David Parker, in to sooth the waters shows how important they are taking in shutting this down before it becomes an event.
You’ll know who is likely to challenge Simon for the leadership based on who picks this up as an issue to attack Labour with.