50-50 Chances For ‘The Hobbit’ To Be Shot In New Zealand

'The Hobbit' has been stumbling upon some nasty things and now it looks like they won't be filming it in New Zealand anymore

What’s going on with “The Hobbit,” people? The filming of the movie has again been stopped, due to technical problems. It seems that there are 50-50 chances for it to be filmed in New Zealand. Yes, it’s odd, because all the “Lord of the Rings” parts were shot there and now, just for the sake of it to ruin the ‘tradition’? Or is there something else behind the news?

Well, apparently money is always the problem when it comes to this king of things. New Zealand’s government said today that they couldn’t meet the financial offers made by other countries to Warner Bros. to relocate. Why relocate? Because of last week’s boycott. This made Peter Jackson look up some more location offers in countries like Scotland, Ireland, England, Canada, Australia and Eastern Europe. “We made it quite clear that we can’t bridge the gap that is on the table from other countries. It is simply too large and they understand that position,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told a news conference after talks with studio officials. “We have an opportunity to put the pieces back together. But there are no guarantees. I would say, at best, it is still very much 50-50.”

Taking into account that the ”Lord of the Rings” brought benefits both for New Zealand and the film makers (New Zealand made use of a widely international publicity, Warner Bros. sold almost $3 billion worth tickets at the box office and the film makers received their Oscars), if they decide to relocate, it’s going to be really bad for the country, as they could lose almost $1.5 billion. Still, there are many people who supported the idea of the film being shot in New Zealand and some protesters even dressed as hobbits to show how much they cared. However, studio execs will decide whether they are relocating or not only after this week’s meeting with the government officials.

It seems that the fact that Jackson has found some new and better location offers is not the only factor. The thing is that the New Zealand dollar is a third higher ($0.75) than when it was first looked upon as a potential site for filming “The Hobbit” and that’s also a very important issue. The truth is that the making of the film has stumbled upon some nasty things. First, there was the problem with Guillermo del Toro giving up the director’s position in May and now this. Hopefully things will work out well and the film starts filming as soon as possible.

For those who still don’t know, “The Hobbit” is the prequel for “Lord of the Rings” and it tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, who lives in a world full of magical creatures, like wizards, dwarfs and other strange things. He’s engaged in an adventure, trying to find a treasure, guarded by a dragon. The action also takes place in the Middle-Earth just like LOTR.

Maybe these differences will be solved soon, because everyone is totally excided to see how the film turns out to be, especially LOTR fans!11