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Lord of the Rings special effects company Weta Digital launches inquiry into toxic workplace claims:
Weta Digital, the special effects company behind the orcs, dragons and battle scenes of the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, has launched an independent investigation into allegations of a toxic work culture including sexism, bullying and pornography being shared on its intranet.
The investigation was ordered by the company's majority owners, who include the director Peter Jackson, his wife, Fran Welsh, and screenwriter Phillipa Boyens. It followed a months-long investigation by local television station TVNZ that found complaints had been ignored by senior management at Weta Digital, and long-standing issues raised by staff had been covered up.
"The world's most beautiful toxic waste dump," is how one former employee described the award-winning company.
Allegations from former staffers include sexism, bullying, and harassment, as well as "pornographic mailing lists'", hosted on Weta Digital's intranet, in addition to staff openly viewing pornography in the studio.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @05:06AM (10 children)
What is the relevance to LOTR? To make a catchy headline? Is that the only thing they've done? The LOTR movies were quite a while ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @05:16AM
It's what made them big/famous, but yeah, they have done 140 movies since, according to IMDB. Not to mention some of the complaints cover that era.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 21 2020, @05:22AM
If they'd stay just at the making of LoTR, then they may have escaped with just a fine.
But they also shared porn on mailing lists, can you imagine?
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 21 2020, @05:36AM (1 child)
Yeah, they mention LOTR for the headline, more than anything. LOTR had little if anything to do with the internal culture of Weta. The almost three minute NZTV report on the problem never mentions LOTR. The second video, further down the page, includes some characters and scenes from LOTR, but doesn't mention LOTR in the commentary.
I don't suppose you could avoid associating the company with LOTR, but there's no need for the association being established in the headline.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @06:22AM
Wrong, TFT is spot on.
Those fucking dwarfs will always fuck you. Hard. Have you noticed how the elves look to them?
And don't get me started about orcs or goblins.
For most of the LoTR, there's only one white wizard. Guess what? He's a fucker too. Besides, no matter of white or grey, the wizards always carry that phallic symbol with them and use it in fighting.
Even those innocent looking hobbitses, they have a foot fetish.
Elves? All of them look like they suffer profoundly from gender dysphoria; and probably PTSD too, from their encounters with the fucking dwarfs.
I tell you, the entire LoTR reeks of sex. The poor guys a Wet-a-Digit-y'all never stood a chance.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @06:51AM
Trust me, this is just the very tip of a large pile of mature manure heap corruption, about 20+ years deep. Nobody in NZ wants to start poking on this too much as it will expose far too many of the power gang. The Queen would do well to de-Sir several people pre-emptively. But then with Andrew and Epstein, the dirt didn't seem to bother Buckingham too much.
Locally, the PC Club were warbling about "weta" meaning "shit" as the "correct Maori" spelling is with macrons on both vowels to mean the oversized cricket bug. Just BS upon BS.
A few years ago, there was a drought and farmers were begging for water. Who gets to pump 300,000 liters per day... John Key's "pal" who owns the Hobbiton farm. Nobody else may touch water. This is just one example. These deals go deep. For 20 years they have profiteered and exploited the tourist freedom-camper hippie idiots who keep on coming.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday September 21 2020, @08:40AM (2 children)
Maybe it was Elf porn? [gets distracted by Tauriel, no stop it, she's not real, er... I may be some time..]
Or Hobbit. [er hairy, ummm... feet]
Or Dwarf. [yeah, that brought me right back down]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @01:03PM (1 child)
Tauriel? Arwen's the one who gives me a chubby. The only thing that brings it down is picturing her daddy, Steve Tyler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @07:02PM
yeah, and you see it in her face every now and then.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 21 2020, @03:35PM
I believe they also did Narnia. No doubt other work also.
Is there a chemotherapy treatment for excessively low blood alcohol level?
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday September 21 2020, @10:46PM
It's a setup for troll jokes.
By the way, when will the troll jokes start arriving; they're overdue.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 21 2020, @10:58AM (1 child)
Sounds like it would have been a fun place to work if you were of a wage slave mindset.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday September 22 2020, @12:59AM
There is an element of slavery about the movie business.
Before LOTR began, the law of the country had to be changed to prevent poor, helpless Warner Bros from being exploited by those nasty workers who might want to ask for a payrise, or negotiate regular breaks or something (they can't), and taxpayers had to stump up 25% of the costs as well.
This continues to this day, and now we are going to shell out what I understand is $50 million to Disney to help them pay for that Chinese propaganda piece they've just released.
The movie business is awful.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21 2020, @04:23PM (1 child)
Them's mealy-mouthed SJW words.
(Score: 2, Informative) by hemocyanin on Monday September 21 2020, @05:05PM
The fascist left is winning and there is no end in sight. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs/616404/ [theatlantic.com]