Written by new-contact on Oct 3, 2012. Posted in On Location

New Zealand Prime Minister promotes NZ film industry in US ahead of Hobbit release

New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key will be promoting his country’s film industry when he travels to the US this week. Part of the Prime Minister’s trip will include meeting with Hollywood studio executives, with the release of Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film only a couple of months away.

Two years ago New Zealand agreed to change its law to ensure that the Hobbit films did not shoot elsewhere in the world. The change was considered a seminal moment in how far national Governments will go to secure major Hollywood productions. Mr Key says that more filming incentive changes are not being explicitly considered.

The Prime Minister spoke to Radio NZ ahead of his US trip: "If somebody [in America] put up a [filming incentive] suggestion we'd always look at it, but we're not going there with the intention of reshaping the offering we've got; we're going there to sell the offering we've got."

Part of the original Hobbit deal also involved New Zealand agreeing to shoulder some of the cost of promoting the films. Two movies were originally budgeted at around USD500 million and have filmed all over the country, but this expenditure will rise now that the project is being expanded to a third film.