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My, how things change.
Three days ago the New Zealand film industry was teetering on the edge of disaster, waiting to see if The Hobbit would stay and anchor it back to safe ground, or move off-shore and leave it to crash into oblivion.
(Or so many people would have you believe. Others are of the rather sensible opinion there would have still been an industry without The Hobbit, albeit a less flush one).
But now it's safe. And even better, Avatar has been greenlighted for two sequels - reportedly set to be made in New Zealand.
Fantastic news!
Except - and I don't mean to be a party pooper - but I can't help but wonder how exactly Weta Digital is going to turn out four major motion features in two years.
The Hobbit is set to be the most expensive film ever made, usurping Avatar for the title.
A large part of that budget will go into the hours of intensive post-production, making those funny little creatures look real. It's a hugely labour-intensive process.
In fact, Weta Digital had to turn down work on another Peter Jackson project - District 9 - because they were too busy with Avatar last year.
Instead, Jackson (who produced the film) had to enlist a Canadian effects company, Image Engine, to complete the work for him. It was that team that earned this year's Oscar nomination for best visual effects.
They might have missed out on the Oscar to the Weta Digital team that worked on Avatar - but they still got the sizeable pay cheque for the work.
My question is this: If Weta Digital was at full capacity working on the first Avatar film - how on earth will they cope with two more, plus two Hobbit films?
I have posed this question to both Weta Workshop and Weta Digital but have yet to receive a reply. They're probably all too busy to answer.
It could be they're planning on trebling the facilities and employing a host of new staff, which really would be great news.
Or we might yet see some of the post-production work moved off-shore. Which would be pretty damn ironic given recent events.
