Amazon has retained its leases on Auckland's biggest film studios, locking out other productions but offering worried workers some confidence that it will film further seasons in NZ.
The massive Amazon Lord of the Rings TV series wrapped shooting of season one in NZ this week, leaving nervous crew with no promises it will return to film the second and subsequent seasons here.
Amazon announced this week that the first series will go to air on September 2, 2022, and it has already green-lit production of a second season. But despite the Government announcing in April that the series would be filmed in New Zealand, Amazon has not confirmed where the next four seasons will be shot.
Both Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash and the NZ Film Commission are expressing hope the production – said to be the most expensive ever made – will be back.
Nash said in April that the TV series was expected to be a multi-year production and filming on location is provincial regions would extend the economic impact further across New Zealand, especially in the South Island. On that basis, the Government had agreed to a 25 percent rebate on money spent in New Zealand – about $162.5 million on the projected $650m expenditure for season one. That's a big chunk of this country's small screen production industry.
So some of the 1200 people who worked on season one have boldly put all their eggs in the Amazon basket, moving to Auckland in the hope and expectation of working on the production for five seasons.
But sources say that when filming wrapped last week, they were told producers had no idea where or when series two would happen. And at Amazon Studios in Culver City, California, today, the production publicity team declined to offer any assurances.
What the 1000-plus Kiwis who have worked on the production do know is that there is expected to be at least a one-year hiatus while the directors complete post-production work on season one, here and overseas, and finish scripting and prepping season two.
There is one good omen for Amazon's return: Newsroom has been told that it has retained its lease on Auckland's biggest fit-for-purpose studios, Auckland Film Studios and Kumeu Film Studios, and possibly also Studio West, for the duration of the hiatus.
“The screen sector is a highly competitive, global industry.... Emerging from Covid-19, New Zealand has the potential to develop further our growing reputation in the global industry. This infrastructure investment provides an opportunity for Auckland to demonstrate industry leadership to existing global players and domestic production companies." – Stuart Nash, Economic Development Minister
That allows Amazon to keep its reportedly vast sets, like city-scapes from the Second Age of Tolkien's Middle Earth. There would be little appetite to deconstruct and rebuild them somewhere else entirely.
But that also means that the rest of NZ's domestic and export screen production industries are locked out of Auckland's biggest studios for the next year.
This week, Stuart Nash announced $30 million funding from the Government's Covid-19 response infrastructure fund, for Auckland Film Studios to build two new 2000 sq metre sound stages.
“The screen sector is a highly competitive, global industry,” he said. “Emerging from Covid-19, New Zealand has the potential to develop further our growing reputation in the global industry. This infrastructure investment provides an opportunity for Auckland to demonstrate industry leadership to existing global players and domestic production companies."
Nash's spokesperson said the Government had no advice on decisions by Amazon about season two, and the minister was not involved in any negotiations.
"Obviously the Minister hopes New Zealand will continue to be the home of the Lord of the Rings given the significant economic benefits the world’s biggest TV production brings to the country," she said.
Subsequent seasons would be governed by further season-by-season Memorandums of Understanding, she added. The 25 percent tax rebate for season one applied to “qualifying NZ expenditure” for that specific production, based on actual spend in New Zealand.
"It would be optimal – but not mandatory – for the terms of each season memorandum of understanding to be agreed prior to the commencement of principal photography for that season." – Jasmin McSweeney, NZ Film Commission
NZ Film Commission marketing head Jasmin McSweeney told Newsroom that the Commission would, of course, welcome Amazon to New Zealand for future seasons. There is a memorandum of understanding for the whole series, but it requires that a new memorandum be agreed for each season. That's not yet been done for season two.
"It would be optimal – but not mandatory – for the terms of each season memorandum of understanding to be agreed prior to the commencement of principal photography for that season," McSweeney told Newsroom.
Amazon Studios says its as-yet-unnamed TV series is set thousands of years before the events of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Beginning in a time of relative peace, Amazon says it will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
McSweeney traced out the scale of the production in Auckland and New Zealand. She said the sets and visual effects plates had included Hauraki Gulf, Bob’s Beach and the Coromandel, the Denize Bluffs in the King Country, Mt Kidd in Fiordland, the cliffs at Piha, and parts of Rangitikei. Nearly a third of the filming had been done on location, with the balance in the studios.
She said a third of the 124 speaking roles had been cast to New Zealand actors, and of the 32 major recurring roles, seven were Kiwis. (The seven New Zealanders are Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant and Leon Wadham).
In total, the first season had contracted more than 1,000 New Zealanders, with about 700 more engaged indirectly providing services to the production. The production had rented about 51,000 hotel or serviced apartment room nights, paid for 76,000 days of car hire and 29,000 days of truck or van hire.
She listed some of the New Zealand companies expected to cash in on the production of season one: camera house Metro Film, drone vendor Ariel Camera, caterers Doof Doof and Carwyn’s Catering, dive safety operator Diveworx, safety company Lifeguard & Safety, helicopter company Glacier Southern Lakes Helicopters, casting company Catch Casting, access equipment vendor Pro Services, lighting company Xytech, technodolly vendor Grip HQ, vehicle supplier Snap Rentals, and Peter Jackson's well-known Weta Workshop and Weta Digital.
One of the local companies on the production is Auckland-based Rebel Fleet, which works on video and digital imaging technology.
Co-founder Mike Urban said Rebel Fleet started in 2015 and had since grown to be an established film and TV infrastructure business, servicing local and international like Mulan, Ghost in the Shell and Sweet Tooth, that used New Zealand as a shooting destination.
"The consistent growth and steady stream of film and television work in New Zealand has meant we have grown our company to seven full time employees with about 35 to 40 regular contractors working on-set across various productions at any one time," he said.
"The Rebel Fleet is one of the many film and TV businesses that outlay investment in infrastructure and people to deliver world-class services in an internationally competitive market.
"New Zealand is consistently rated as one of the top shooting destinations and we are proud to be part of it."
Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, announced this week that season one would screen on September 2 next year, which is the start of the Labor Day long weekend in the US.
That weekend has historically been successful for the company's new releases, with premieres such as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Carnival Row, The Boys and Cinderella.
Salke and the production team were excited to take their global audience on "a new and epic journey through Middle-earth", she said. "Our talented producers, cast, creative, and production teams have worked tirelessly in New Zealand to bring this untold and awe-inspiring vision to life."
