Production on The Hobbit has given way to an entertaining game of “He Said, She Said” between director Peter Jackson and CTU President Helen Kelly. Mark Sainsbury recently interviewed the pair along with producer/writer Phillipa Boyans in regards to the problematic production (or lack thereof) on The Lord of the Rings prequel.

Sainsbury seemed keen to get an answer on whether or not the film could be saved.  And if so, could the production be relocated to the United States, away from New Zealand? While no one ever directly answers that specific question, a visibly fired up Jackson --- who stated he had lost confidence in the actors of New Zealand --- pointed out that he just wanted to save his movie. All signs point to Warner Bros. displacing The Hobbit where they will presumably enjoy tax cuts and better profit margins. Hit the jump for more:

If The Hobbit ever gets a Blu-ray release, it will likely contain the most jam-packed supplemental material of all time as disputes between Jackson and everyone from New Line Cinema to that damn Balrog have hampered production. Of course, in order to get a Blu-ray release the damn thing must get made first, which doesn’t appear likely to happen anytime soon given the strenuous altercations between Warner Bros., Peter Jackson and this whole Union dispute with some unnamed villain in Australia.

The video features a lot of heated discussions about Unions, actor strikes that may or may not resemble “a lynch mob”, tax cuts, and the potential $2.8 billion in revenue New Zealand stands to lose if the production heads elsewhere. So, those of you expecting some information on the production itself will most likely want to skip through the business babble and check out the 2:50-mark where Jackson refers to some wooden boards and what appears to be a tarp as Gollum’s cave. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Check out the video below – Jackson and Boyans turn up a minute into the proceedings, with some truly heated comments from Jackson arriving at 3:45 mark:

While no clear cut answer is given, it’s safe to say that all signs are pointing to The Hobbit getting filmed elsewhere, with already established unionized actors as Helen Kelly humorously pointed out.

Then again, perhaps this film is just not meant to get made. Maybe it shouldn’t. With The Lord of the Rings trilogy standing high as the finest film series of all time (yep, I straight-up said it), perhaps more entries, particularly those coming off such a troubled production, will only mire perfection. Or maybe Jackson’s true passion will arise and The Hobbit will become the most sensational cinematic experience – more mind blowing than sex, rock n’ roll, and sex and chocolate – of all time. What do you think?