Uncertainty continues to hover over the saga of The Hobbit despite a move by SAG to defuse a tense situation that has been mounting between the unions and the film’s producers.

SAG and AFTRA have ended their call for a boycott of the production over terms and conditions, in line with a request by their New Zealand counterparts.

However Warner Bros and New Line are yet to make a decision about where the two films – The Hobbit and an original prequel – will shoot.

Project director Peter Jackson is understood to be angry over the way New Zealand Actors Equity has handled the situation in recent weeks.

Jackson and partner Fran Walsh issued an irate statement from Wellington today [21] in which they berated unions for having “never acted in good faith towards our film” and claimed Warner Bros was about to move the production to another country.

Warner Bros and New Line sources did not comment last night.