Jackson blasts ‘Aussie bullies’ in Hobbit row

The New Zealand director Peter Jackson has blasted his "Australian bully-boy" movie rivals, accusing them of trying to muscle in on the Kiwi film industry amid a row over working conditions on The Hobbit.

Australia's Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has joined the powerful US union the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and six other international labour unions in calling for its actors to boycott Jackson's big-budget Lord of the Rings prequels.

The dispute is threatening to derail The Hobbit, which is to be divided into two films, and could see Hollywood stars such as Cate Blanchett, Sir Ian McKellen and Hugo Weaving pull out of the project.

The unions, acting under the umbrella organisation International Federation of Actors (FIA), argue that The Hobbit producers have refused to negotiate a deal guaranteeing wages and working conditions for performers in New Zealand.

The FIA also said that the current non-union contracts provide no payment for future broadcasts and no cancellation payments. Actors could also be sacked from the project with just one day's notice, MEAA national director Simon Whipp added.

Last night Jackson hit back at the allegations in an angry four-page statement, lambasting the MEAA for trying to cash in on the success of the New Zealand film industry by holding the film's studio, Warner Brothers, to ransom.

"I can't see beyond the ugly spectre of an Australian bully-boy using what he perceives as his weak Kiwi cousins to gain a foothold in this country's film industry. They want greater membership, since they get to increase their bank balance."

Jackson, whose Lord of the Rings trilogy put New Zealand on the map as a film-making destination, also warned that such a move could see the country not only lose The Hobbit to a rival country's film industry, but also its ability to attract other international film productions. "If The Hobbit goes east – East Europe in fact - look forward to a long, dry, big-budget movie drought in this country."

The Hobbit films were being attacked for being "a big fat juicy target - not for any wrongdoing", he added. "It feels as if we have a large Aussie cousin kicking sand in our eyes ... or to put it another way, some might see this as opportunists exploiting our film for their own political gain."

The dispute is just the latest setback to hit the Hobbit films, which are still to be officially green-lit due to ongoing financial problems. The delays have already led to the film's original director, Guillermo Del Toro, pulling out in June. Jackson is tipped to replace him, although no official announcement has been made. ·