FINALLY!
Man, what a great video. I can't believe I had forgotten about the labor dispute that plagued the film's (pre?) production, and now that I watch this I realize how disgustingly scummy the actions of WB (and the NZ govt at the time were), basically crippling workers' rights while blackmailing Newzealanders with the production of a movie they wanted to see made.
But... that's capitalism.
As an aside, I really appreciated John Callen's perspective: not only he was basically right then and there when things were happening, he's also incredibly eloquent when presenting his points (and I agree with him).
So, all in all, not only the Hobbit trilogy was a missed opportunity in terms of filmmaking, it also (unnecessarily) bloated the narrative, focus-grouped major elements in a cynical and unsubtle attempt at pandering, shattered a lot of good will the original trilogy had and was made by exploiting all kinds of workers during production and managed to fuck up labor laws and workers' rights on a sovereign state even after production wrapped up, all because the suits wanted big profit above all else. God fucking dammit.