November 3, 2014
Sir Peter Jackson
Wingnut Films
Wellington, NZRe: Kiwi Dwarf Cast’s Inclusion in the BOFA World Premiere
Dear Sir Peter:
This last weekend I wasn’t sure what to think about the BOFA premiere controversy concerning the Kiwi actors. Facebook pages and fan websites are not the most accurate places to determine what’s going on. Oh, they can be at times, but they aren’t always, and with something this inflammatory, I withheld an assessment until a more reliable source came to the fore.
Yesterday morning I read the NZ Herald, and it became obvious the powers that be at Warner Brothers have made a faux pas, and it doesn’t matter what has gone before. It doesn’t matter if these actors did or didn’t negotiate travel expenses for a trip to the final premiere, or whether WB ever intended to send them or not. The important thing here is there has been an underestimation of the will of the fans — that the dwarves are all expected to be at the BOFA world premiere.
We fans have not only been on this journey to see where the Hobbit movies would take us, but we have also been on an odyssey with this cast through the video logs you so graciously provided and the other tie-in materials which shared quite a bit of these actors’ experiences making the movie. Given all of that, it only seems fitting to end this trip as it began — with the cast being all together in a sea of welcoming fan love at the premiere instead of being shunted off to a dark corner now that their usefulness is done for Warner Brothers. A comparison to the marginalization of the dwarves in Tolkien’s classic will surely not escape the fans’ notice if the latter is done.
You may wonder why I’m addressing this letter to you. Given that you understand the significance of fan fervor, I believe you are the obvious choice to hear this fan appeal, and to in turn characterize it for WB. And perhaps you have already pled the case. Whether you have or not, I come prepared to lend some help that hopefully will yank this situation into perspective at a glance and bring others into the collective thought that it’s only fair to include all of the cast at the world premiere.
To wit (click to enlarge):
Signed,
A crazy fan who appreciates fair play
Infographic courtesy of my collaborator extraordinaire, Armitage Besotted.
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RAFrenzy 
Reblogged this on budzbyme55.
Well done, well said
Reblogged this on Armitage Agonistes and commented:
Let’s get this out.
Hear hear!! *applauds*
I would put my name to this …how do we make sure Peter reads this ?
Well said. If Richard wasn’t in the movie I would boycott it.
Jane, retweet it or rebog it ir put it in facebook
This is magnificent.
I’ll share it in my little network, and hopefully it will make its way to a wider world.
Btw, I can’t refrain from pointing out that it will do no one any good (least of all the Kiwi dwarves) to boycott the movie. In fact, it could do harm to their careers (specifically John Callen, who brought this up).
Reblogged this on Prue Batten's Blog and commented:
Sad to think the money moguls have no vision.
I agree with this. Last year the same thing happened and they were not invited to LA either (with the exception of Dean O’Gorman). I believe they should all be at the Premiere in London. The story is about 13 dwarves, a Hobbit and a Wizard after all.
Attending London would also give them time to be back in their own country to celebrate the release in NZ with all the people ‘behind the camera’ who helped to make the movies happen. As it now stands there is nothing planned in Wellington to mark this important end of an era apart from the Fan Contest. I know the Kiwi actors were keen for an Australasian Premiere in NZ but that also has been denied.
What an amazing graphic. You really are too smart for your britches, aren’t you :) Only one reason why I love you! Kudos to you and Besotted!
How would you feel about posting a link to what you are specifically referring to in NZ Herald?
(Not like my startpage.com is broken or anything, I guess….but :)
YES!!! WELL-SAID!!! YES!!!!!….what were THEY thinkin’???!!!???
and here I thought Mr. Jackson was the smartest man in the world!! Yeah, I’ll give him break until we know for sure who made this highly unpopular and unwise decision. But…
BTW, having been out of the loop for a while, I am intruigued by all this hoorah. Indeed humma h….what the heck were THEY thinking?
Thank you very much to all of you who reblogged. I did not expect that. I figured you would use the graphic, and if you haven’t already, please take it and pass it along freely. That goes for the rest of you as well — take the graphic and use it.
[…] don’t have any fancy charts or nimble number play, as seen here (nice work, Frenz and AB) and on other sites throughout the fandom. Â I’m not that […]
@TheQueen: I doubt Peter Jackson had anything to do with it. Decisions like this are made by the studio. (I may have mentioned that Peter himself had to sue to get what was due him in profit-sharing from LOTR).
Go get em.
[…] An Open Letter to Peter Jackson […]
Reblogged this on Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Country Life and commented:
Did you know there is a Dwarfgate? Sure nuf. What were they thinking?
@RAFrenzy – I don’t follow – from whom or what does TW have to show independence in order to facilitate approval of the Comcast merger?
To keep a takeover from another company from happening. If the stock price is too high, then a takeover will be much harder
I didn’t make that clear. The point about Independence has nothing to do with facilitating approval of . It’s about their independence allowing a merger.
Is there some news that TW was in jeopardy of a hostile takeover, as opposed to a different deal or merger?
Rupert Murdoch run at them
That should’ve said “made a run at them”
At first he tried to offer them a deal, which they rejected, and then he made a run at them with a possible takeover
I’ll have to go back and look at the news articles because it’s been a few months ago since I read them but I think it was just talked about him making a run at them. I’m not sure he actually did but the potential threat was real
Yes, it was Fox, but that is old news and it seemed that what TW was waiting for was Comcast or something like it.
It was back in the summer. Not too old for Murdoch to regroup and try again at all.LOL!
In the meantime, it was wise to try to get that stock price up above what Murdoch was wiling to pay, and one of the ways to do that is to streamline, hence the headcount cuts.
Actually, it’s a bit typical for a merger like this to be held up especially one which will not doubt create a helluva oligopoly. There’s always a hue and cry from competitors, and so FCC put it on hold early last month to hear more input about it. But it will likely go through unless something is unearthed, which I doubt.
In this day and age, the parties make concessions in order to gain approval, as has happened here, with Comcast agreeing to reassign millions of cable subscribers. Maybe more concessions might be required.
The “reassignment” hasn’t happened because it’s a divestiture deal contingent on the merger and designed to appease interested parties that market share will be under 30%. There is also a run at Comcast to give free internet services in NYC. This demand happened in the last several days. Lots of groups are watching to see if Comcast is forced to do that to effect the deal with TW.
That’s what I understand so far and off the top of my head. I haven’t been following along super closely. Just what I read in business pubs, but mostly, I have an investment adviser who’s told me to jump one way or another based on various scenarios unfolding. That’s all I’m sayin’. LOL!
Of course no concessions, including divestiture would be effectuated until and unless the merger is approved. As to free internet, that’s just politics initiated by the lowest ranking, least effective NYC public official – the public advocate. I can’t know, of course, but I would be shocked if the demand for free internet for those in NYC public housing was met by the PSC. I can tick off 5 reasons such a demand would probably never fly, and shouldn’t.
It depends on who is behind it
This is interesting to watch:
http://qz.com/293904/barack-obama-says-the-internet-is-a-public-good-and-thats-why-the-us-needs-net-neutrality/
I can’t think of any reason why it SHOULDn’t be treated as a public utility, in the year 2014. Implications of the death of net neutrality are just as great , by the time it would play out, for the “1%” (or 5% or whatever we’re calling “the rich” this week) as they would be for the underprivileged. (Think back on the Patriot Act, smh.) It’s really a commonsense stance. Forgive me if I’m not convinced that the President is being truly ideological in taking this stance, though.