Economics Minister visits Waitakere City film set

The Minister of Economic Development visited Waitakere recently for a look around the set of the movie he helped to secure for New Zealand.

Jim Anderton made a point of visiting the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe set at the Waitakere City-owned film studios in Henderson Valley Road and the Air Force hangars at Hobsonville Airbase.

He played a key role in making sure the film came to New Zealand, through the government’s tax incentive scheme.

The multi-million dollar film by Disney and Walden Production employs up to 500 people.

Later in the day, he discussed general business issues with prominent Waitakere business players including Peter Babich, Graeme Douglas, John Barnett (South Pacific Pictures), Julie Salthouse (Salthouse Marine), Mark Gunton (Westland Developments), Tim Livingstone (accountant) and Murray Spearman (CEO of the Trusts).

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>