John Key is into networking and schmoozing with the wealthy & influential. He’s given special attention to the entertainment industries, GCSB, intellectual property & commerce. He crossed paths with Warner’s people the year before the Hobbit dispute, but never played golf with Dotcom.
OIA papers show how the Nats prostrated themselves for Warners. $6K was spent treating the movie execs like foreign dignitaries – ministerial cars, customs ‘facilitation’. Nats wanted to “present an image of an effective government that is worth working with“. All they showed was they had fallen for Warners’ hollow threats. Cost us $33 million.
Lucky John Key – he’s going to have a great week! It’s hard to see how he can lose. He’ll either be the man who single-handedly saved The Hobbit, or he’ll be handed a big stick to beat the evil unions with forever. In reality, however, the decision to keep the movies here is probably already made. Key’s ego will be just another tool used against him in negotiations as the studios go for the best deal they can get…
After days of trying to read the media and rumour mill tea-leaves on the Hobbit it was time to do some fact checking.
It turns out this has been a hard lesson in how the international film industry works.
