The once peaceful and pleasant country of New Zealand is a land on the brink of disaster.
Theyre protesting in the streets!
The Prime Minister has been forced to issue an emergency statement!
Ah yes, the fact thatThe Hobbitmight not be filmed there.
Reports suggest thatThe Hobbitalone is worth potentially $1.5 billion to New Zealand.
Power to the people, I guess.
Concentrating purely on the financial side of things, are the tax breaks necessary?
After chatting to my New Zealand friend (part of that aforementioned brain drain!
They are not, however, involved in the production of the content.
That pretty much sounds like one of the sweetest deals going.
However, how many of these films can you name?Whale Rider.
Once Were Warriorsand probablyEagle Vs. Sharkare as far as most people would get.
So, enter the tax breaks.
The government subsidises a big production and suddenly everyone wants to come and play.
Everyone being the Hollywood studios, in this case.
New Zealand is in no way the only country to offer these tax breaks to filmmakers.
In fact, the practice is so widespread that studios regard them as part of a films budget.
(Step right up, Uwe Boll.)
