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"A little madness helps"
In an NYT essay Peter Jackson describes the 14 months it took to film the Rings trilogy as a "protracted bout of willful madness [...] with seven units shooting multiple elements simultaneously for the three different movies ... Fate, hard work, good will and yes - madness - saw us through". The singular vision is paying well-deserved dividends.
(16 December 2002)

Paquin: Make mine a double
Anna Paquin joins an ensemble cast including Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Spike Lee's latest film, The 25th Hour. Advance screenings of the (typically) dark drama have sparked talk of likely Oscar nominations. Toronto Star feature hails Paquin as "a true-life Hollywood success story." Canny film choices and a close-knit family have spared the Kiwi actress the usual fate befalling former child stars: namely drug-addled anonymity.
(5 December 2002)

"I'm from New Zealand, I only know about rugby."
Andrew Adamson, NZ co-creative behind hit movie Shrek, is reportedly confused by the green ogre's latest claim to fame - as unofficial mascot of the New York Jets. Adamson: "are the Jets baseball or football?" co-director Vicky Jenson asked. "I'm from New Zealand, I only know about rugby." proclaimed Adamson.
(December 2002- January 2003)

Tyler no diva
Liv Tyler talks to The Scotsman about making movies Middle Earth-style. "It was a labour of love for everyone. There weren't a lot of perks. We didn't have these huge trailers and all these excessive things. It was really kind of down and dirty in that way." Tyler had no qualms about roughing it: "[Making the trilogy] was one of the most amazing things that's ever happened to me [�] I still can't quite believe I'm a part of it."
(30 November 2002)

Dr Grant, I presume?
Sam Neill has hinted he will reprise his role as Dr Grant in Steven Spielberg's fourth Jurassic Park installment. The Queenstown-based actor is sufficiently impressed by the script that he would consider "[exposing] his rugged antipodean frame to the dino's bite" one more time.
(November 2002)

Girls, gadgets, action
Bond director Lee Tamahori qualifies his license to thrill: "A Bond movie has conventions: girls, gadgets, action. It's not that you must stick with them, but if you don't, you may be doing the film - and the genre - a disservice." Above: Tamahori at the Royal Premiere with guest.
(October 2002)

Rebel with an Emmy
Ex-Wellingtonian Rob Pearson received a Creative Arts Emmy for his contribution to TNT's James Dean biopic. The award was for outstanding art direction on a movie, mini-series or special.
(16 September 2002)

Edge People of Middle Earth
"[LOTR], for all its knockout grandeur, is but the trailer, the preview of the country. NZ doesn't need to be digitally enhanced. It has an orchestra replete with special effects all of its own." Headlining feature on NZ marvels at the diversity and splendour of the landscape. The drive from Christchurch to Southland is for writer Clive Irving a surreal journey through "the world in one country." The people impress as well as the places. He writes: "It is, literally, the jumping-off point for what I will henceforth call the Edge People - all those who can't wait to leap off the edge of the earth in as many ways possible."
(September 2002)

Giant spiders terrorise public
Campy, 50s sci-fi inspired Eight Legged Freaks achieves what it set out to do: "scare the pants off the viewer." Written and directed by NZer Ellory Elkayem, Freaks delivers thrills aplenty, while remaining "knowing in a post-modern way." However, the film's pre-release advertising has not been nearly so well received in some quarters. Giant 3D posters of the angry arachnids have prompted more than 50 complaints to England's Advertising Standards Authority - "one arachnophobe [�] nearly crashed his car when he drove past one of the huge roadside posters."
(August 2002)

Maximus vs. Hannibal
NZ-born Russell Crowe has beaten Hollywood heavyweights including Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Robert DeNiro to be voted favourite Best Actor Oscar winner of all time, according to a poll by US magazine Biography.
(5 June 2002)

Mount Taranakiyama
Taranaki's eponymous mountain is a suitable double for Mount Fuji, or so thinks Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) who will direct Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai later this year. New Zealand's pristine looks make it the spitting image of 19th century Japan, the setting for the story of an American Civil War veteran who travels to Japan to teach them the art of war and comes away learning a thing or two himself.
(22 May 2002)

Acid Rain
"This New Zealand coming-of-age movie isn't really about anything. When it's this rich and luscious, who cares?" Direction and acting applauded in Christine Jeff's debut feature adaptation of Kirsty Gunn's novella Rain. "A richly detailed movie." Salon's Stephanie Zacharek writes, "Jeffs uses her camera to poke into the shadowy corners of this potentially disintegrating family, and comes out not with a glum, depressing portrait but with glimmers of a fragile, fleeting intimacy. That's a rare quality in a director."
(26 April 2002)

Wellywood Story
LA film producers look to the edge for inspiration in an attempt to reverse the trend of productions increasingly being shot in foreign locations to cut costs: "Los Angeles is not like Wellington", says Lord of the Rings executive Mark Ordesky. "To make the movie they said how can we help? No wheels needed to be greased. LA is too complex a place for that to truly happen".
(28 March 2002)

Actor Kevin Smith dies
One of New Zealand's best loved screen stars, Kevin Smith, dies aged 38, in a Beijing Hospital. Best known for playing Ares in the hit series Xena: Warrior Princess, Smith suffered head injuries in a fall on Feb 6 after filming in the Chinese capital. He was an icon and resident heart-throb in NZ TV, theatre and film with over a decade's worth of roles from Desperate Remedies, Gloss, Shortland Street, Hercules and Channelling Baby. Smith was a charismatic leading man on the brink of wider acclaim who was happy enough to laugh at his beefcake image as "New Zealand's Sexist Man". RIP.
(18 February 2002)

Are you looking at us?
PJ helmed, NZ-made Lord of the Rings...Russell Crowe in Beautiful Mind...Andrew Adamson co-directed Shrek. The Oscars go antipodean as the edge gives Hollywood a prod in tandem with a strong Australian presence. LotR is front-running, gaining 13 nominations. "The hit movie was made in New Zealand and has given the country its highest profile in the film world for years". Jackson: "The awards are a by-product, they are not the reason you make a film. But I'm thrilled that so many Kiwis have been nominated."
(13 February 2002)

Bafta - Remembered Gold
Lord of the Rings is ready to cast its spell on the Oscars after bewitching the Baftas with five awards, including best film and best director, for Peter Jackson: "I wanted to make films ever since I was 10 years old and I used to watch the Baftas on TV, but I never thought I'd get one". Guardian's Peter Bradshaw on LotR: "Peter Jackson's dashing and supremely competent orchestration of the humid fantasy extravaganza was clearly deserving of acclaim." Meanwhile Crowe wins Bafta Best Actor: "I love my job and I don't think I do it that well - but keep on disagreeing with me".
(24 February 2002)

Crowe: Edgy Actor
Front-running for repeat Oscar victory Crowe would rather have a beer according to this excellent Independent profile that plays on Rus's ANZAC roots, "Like the classic guy from Down Under, he's very happy to display his lack of education or couthness, his general disdain for all lifestyles and philosophies formed beyond Australia or New Zealand, and his merry, insolent scorn for the way things are done in Hollywood [...] How many people in the Oscar theatre will know, or know how to rate it, that he is a cousin of the former New Zealand cricket captain, Martin Crowe?"
(27 January 2002)

"Cook me some eggs James"
NZ-born Lee Tamahori, is charged with the license to uphold pop-cultural iconography, as he undertakes the directorship of the 20th James Bond installment, taking over from another Kiwi Martin Campbell. "To me the Bond film is a kind of impregnable fortress of film making ... It used to be about girls and gadgets and a good-looking spy and then it changed shape and is now about girls, gadgets, a good-looking spy - and big action. It is a timeless thing and is constantly evolving". The name's Tamahori, Lee Tamahori.
(11 January 2002)

Gilding the director
Peter Jackson is nominated for the Best Director award as judged by the Directors Guild Association. Jackson, however, doesn't seem very interested in taking home any coveted gold trophies: "Its the icing on the cake. Every day in NZ people send us letters...that is the best, to feel the audiences are being entertained. Its not really about awards".
(23 January 2002)

Movie of the year
"The most heartbreaking thing about faithful movie-going is that awe, beauty and excitement, three of the things we go to the movies for, are the very things we're cheated out of the most. The great wonder of Lord of the Rings is that it baths us in all three....It would be an insult to say the picture merely lives up to its hype; it crashes the meaning of hype ... advertising is dead: Long live moviemaking!".
(01 January 2002)

Marketing Middle Earth
"Historically isolated by geography, NZers are working to reap a publicity bonanza from [Lord of the Rings], marketing their nation around the world as a destination for family tourism and 'a second Canada' for Hollywood productions seeking to save money on location." From advertising NZ as "best supporting country" in The New Yorker to offering Safari of the Rings 4WD tours, NZ industries are making the most of a 3-year international focus on the country.
(31 December 2002)

Rings blitzes box-office
The Two Towers has set new box-office records around the globe, breaking those set by its predecessor last year. The film made $5.2 million on its first day of release in Australia, and �13.1 million over its initial five days' screening in the UK. The Two Towers also broke opening day records in Germany, Scandinavia and, of course, NZ.
(28 December 2002)

Frodo Air
An Air NZ Boeing 747 has become the latest (and largest) Lord of the Rings billboard. The plane sports a 36m image of the hobbit leads down either side of its fuselage. The advertising is part of a two year promotional deal with New Line Cinema, plugging Air NZ as "airline to the Middle Earth."
(14 December 2002)

Sundance spot for Whale Rider
Fresh from an award-winning stint in Toronto, Niki Caro's Whale Rider is to feature at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Other entrants in the World Cinema category include Bend It Like Beckham and the latest Dogme instalment, Open Hearts.
(4 December 2002)

Ringing its praises
"A rare perfect mating of filmmaker and material" (NY Times). The Two Towers has been released with a series of glitzy premieres and press reviews which more than match the hype. Variety: "It's hard to imagine a much better version of this material on screen." BBC: "It is a film that never lets the audience down, it touches you emotionally and it makes you think." Guardian: "The battles and sieges are conducted with the ferocity of the Crusades, Agincourt and Stalingrad." The Sun: "For the entire two hours and 59 minutes, the only thing that mattered in my life was a plain gold ring round the neck of a short guy with pointed ears and hairy feet."
(December 2002)

Frosty the Crowe-man
Indie film website Film Threat has voted Russell Crowe 2002's Coldest Person in Hollywood. Crowe topped the annual poll, his "bad-boy big mouth" beating out Winona Ryder and Robert DeNiro for the dubious honour. Guardian: "The accolade is perhaps surprising, given that Crowe is more famous for impassioned discussion and accesses of temper than lofty reserve."
(29 November 2002)

UN Children's Television Workshop
A New Zealand production features in the International Children's Television Festival in Manhattan this month. The Kiwi entry in the UN sponsored exhibition, The Dress-Up Box Wonder, was written on the morning of the Sept 11 attack. The program "never addresses the events directly but presents an antidote to despair." Says curator, Jenna Alden: "It's about preserving the wonder and curiosity in life."
(1 November 2002)

From soaps to splatter-flicks
New York-based Kiwi, Martin Henderson (Shortland Street, Windtalkers), co-stars in October's US box-office No.1 - The Ring. The thriller is a re-make of the cult Japanese Ringu series, and revolves around a video-tape curse. Keeping it in the extended family, the film also stars Australian actress Naomi (Mulholland Drive) Watts. SMH gives the chill assessment: "Watts and Henderson give adequate, workhorse performances, and both of them [...] manage to keep their accents on straight and show the required amount of shock at each new development".
(20 October 2002)

Lord of the travel agents
It is official: NZ is the most popular long-haul destination for Britons. From January to June, a record 228,000 British travelers visited - 8.9% more than in 2001. The Guardian puts the increase down to the "Hobbit effect" and expects next month's America's Cup to have similar impact.
(14 September 2002)

"A passionate love affair between two great minds"
NZ filmmaker Christine Jeffs (Rain) is to direct a British production about the turbulent marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and British actor Daniel Craig, the film was inspired by the success of Hughes' tell-all, Birthday Letters, published in 1998 (the year Hughes died). Filming begins in November.
(14 September 2002)

Kiwis of tomorrow
The prestigious Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland) dedicated its short film section - "Leopards of Tomorrow" - to NZ and Australian film-makers. 8 NZ short films were accepted for competition; Cow, The French Doors (winner of the "Leopard of Tomorrow" prize for Steve Ayson), Junk, Still Life (special mention for Sima Urale), The Platform, Trust Me, and Donuts For Breakfast. 13 others were shown as part of the retrospective section, including Lemming Aid and Kitchen Sink.
(1-11 August 2002)

Scarfies in Shanghai
Five recent NZ films - Once Were Warriors, Scarfies, The Price of Milk, Magik & Rose, and Jubilee - hit Chinese screens June 8 - 22 in China's first NZ film festival.
(5 June 2002)

On the edge of your ... chair
Following in the Popstars tradition of ghrand contributions to global pop culture NZ's gift to the gameshow format has former tennis star John McEnroe signed on with the BBC to front a ten-series run of The Chair. Developed by Touchdown the gameshow has also sold in Germany, France and Spain and a copycat version is being produced in the US. Contestants have to answer questions correctly and keep their heart rate below a certain level to keep their winnings.
(16 May 2002)

Rain: "The Ice Storm on defrost"
The LA Times: welcomes Rain as an 'important' and 'stunning' feature debut: "Jeffs has that paradoxical gift of maintaining complete and crucial control of every aspect of her film while allowing it to seem spontaneous. No wonder Jeffs, one of New Zealand's top directors of commercials, has made Variety's "Ten Directors to Watch" list." And Nerve.com finds Rain: "a striking and unsentimental story of sexual discovery ... The film is beautiful, shot in descending tones of brown, which makes its characters look like bees in amber and the New Zealand setting like The Ice Storm on defrost."
(3 May 2002)

Soft edge scenery?
BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan-Doyle's dinosaur romp The Lost World: shot "against the glorious backdrop of New Zealand's South Island ... New Zealand offered diverse landscapes in relatively easy conditions. "New Zealand has a very varied landscape in a relatively small area and it's a very benign environment ... you can film in the jungles and not get eaten to death."
(25 April 2002)

Sir Ian swoons for our free land
Sir Ian McKellen: "I fell for New Zealand rather heavily. It's not just the environment, though that does do something to your head...it's discovering the culture, one which is extremely relaxed and liberal". And as Best Supporting Actor nominee Sir Ian draws attention in the style stakes for his pounamu pendant.
(25 March 2002)

Oscar post-script
Solace for those lamenting that the southern cross didn't shine brighter on Hollywood's star spangled banner: "A Beautiful Mind was a Good Film. Not a brilliant film. If Peter Jackson had directed it, it might have been a revelation." The Guardian's Xan Brooks describes the predictable best pic/director trump as comfort food. And Best Supporting Actor nominee Ian McKellen draws attention in the style stakes for his pounamu pendant.
(25 March 2002)

Raining at Sundance
Christina Jeff's evocative feature Rain screens at the Sundance Film Festival with Merata Mita's portrait of painter Ralph Hotere, Hotere, and short bursts of edge cinema in Adam Steven's Beautiful, Tainui Stephen's The Hill, and Sima Urale's Still Life: "The acting in Rain is superb, and the child actors (Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki as Janey and Aaron Murphy as Jim) are beyond comparison. Not your usual adultery/coming of age film, Rain's portrayal of the dark and complex interaction between mother and daughter, as well as its virtuoso command of mood, tension, and surprise, and its powerfully artistic sense of visual image, puts it in a class of its own".
(20 February 2002)

The tyranny of distance
...didn't stop Russell Crowe...talking at the Berlin Film Festival about his edge: "Growing up in New Zealand or Australia you look outwards, fully aware you're living in the last two major land masses to be discovered". Luckily, he went on, both countries were economically able to keep up with world technology. "Just because we're from the Antipodes doesn't mean we can't contribute". And the Locarno Film Festival announces that its focus this year will be on New Zealand and Australian film-making.
(14 February 2002)

Dead chuffed
The A-list from the cinematic, corporate and consulate worlds turned out for a deliciously irreverent Sam Neil tribute honouring his 25 years in film and his contribution to New Zealand, Australian, and American culture and commerce at the Qantas Australia Day Ball hosted by the Australian American New Zealand Association (AANZA) at the St. Regis Hotel, LA. Tributes flowed from Mel Gibson, Rob Lowe, Tim Finn, Peter Jackson. Above: Neill and Billy Zane.
(26 January 2002)

The Crowe road to Oscar success?
Russell Crowe is named Actor of the Year by the Broadcast Film Critics Association for his lead role in A Beautiful Mind. Crowe has won the award for the last three years.
(15 January 2002)

Jackson: Hobbit or wizard?
Boston Globe: "Who would have guessed that it would take a woolly bear horror-flick director from New Zealand to restore our faith in epic moviemaking?" Praise for Peter Jackson reaches epic proportions of its own in the wake of The Two Towers' release. The Age: "To sustain the illusion of the lost world of Middle-earth [�] requires generalship, vision, and magical skill - the qualities of a master sorcerer." Sydney Morning Herald dubs Jackson "man of the year" for "[eclipsing] Spielberg and Lucas without leaving NZ."
(29 December 2002)

Co-host Clark
Helen Clark appeared on America's top-rating Today Show to promote an upcoming Discovery Channel program on NZ. New Zealand: The Royal Tour sees the PM take American presenter Peter Greenberg on a guided tour of Aotearoa; caving, abseiling et al. Tourism NZ expects the show to add to the attention swell heading NZ's way.
(16 December 2002)

Lord of FX
Wired profiles Stephen Regelous, the Wellingtonian behind The Two Towers' jaw-dropping battle scenes. Regelous created a program - Massive - which would supply "smart crowds" to supplement the on-screen action. Each agent has an individual brain, with thousands of different modes of being. "When an animator places agents into a simulation, they're released to do what they will. It's not crowd control but anarchy." The results have been so successful that even Regelous "can't tell what's Massive and what's not anymore."
(13 December 2002)

Best Actor
New Zealand born actor Gary Day, renown for roles in soap operas Gloss and Shark in the Park, wins Best Guest Actor for his cameo performance in Aussie drama Blue Heelers at the AFI Awards in Melbourne.
(16 November 2002)

Independent film in the wars
An independent British film telling the story of a New Zealand WW2 hero has ignited a "trans-Atlantic row over Hollywood movie muscle." Two Men Went to War is to be screened in a paltry 6 out of over 3,000 cinemas in the UK because its makers and distributors are unable to foot the �200,000 promotion bill. The film, praised by critics as "a cross between a classic Ealing comedy and Dad's Army, brings to the screen the adventures of Private Leslie Cuthbertson, a 20-year-old trainee dental technician, and Sergeant Peter King, a 55-year-old New Zealander. The odd-couple mounted a two-man invasion of occupied France in 1942, two years before the official D-Day landings.
(5 November 2002)

Cook sails into prime time
Captain Cook is the inspiration behind America's latest hit reality TV show. The Ship follows a group of ordinary folks in their bid to sail a replica of the Endeavour from Australia to Indonesia. Described as "a rather brilliant piece of synoptic history," The Ship focuses simultaneously on the explorer's achievements and his controversial legacy. The 21st-century crew includes women, Maori, and Australian Aborigines; "people Cook was more likely to pepper with birdshot than invite onboard."
(14 October 2002)

Whale Rider: People's Choice at Toronto
Whale Rider swerves past Bend it Like Beckham to win the prestigious AGF People's Choice award at the Toronto Film Festival - an award previously won by Amelie and Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon. Directed by Niki Caro and based on the book by Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider received standing ovations at both its public screenings. First-time actress and star of the movie, 12 year old Keisha Castle-Hughes, was widely praised for her, "quietly heroic performance as a Maori girl who assumes a mythic mantle of leadership over the objections of her traditionally minded grandfather." Sydney Morning Herald: "one of the film world's minor miracles".
(13 September 2002)

Children subject of Her Majesty
The Edinburgh International Film Festival screens the "quirky New Zealand film" Her Majesty. Mark J Gordon's feature (from a Sundance award-winning script) tells the story of an impassioned young Royalist during the Queen's 1953 tour of NZ. Festival publicity describes Her Majesty as "a delightful, heart-warming film for all ages [�] the story of one little girl's dream."
(14 August 2002)

Wild West Coast designs production
Sam Neill films in NZ for the first time since The Piano on South Island's rugged West Coast. Perfect Strangers, directed and produced by noted NZ documentary maker Gaylene Preston (Bread and Roses), also stars Australian actress Rachael Blake (Lantana). "It doesn't get more beautiful than this", Neil remarks on the setting of the romantic thriller.
(6 June 2002)

Ludic love
Harry Sinclair film Toy Love applauded in Indiewire: "I love how deftly it hides surprisingly dark themes beneath its very sexy and funny depiction of love and lust. It's a screwball comedy that's quite twisted."
(4 June 2002)

Bug Movie 2002: Eight Legged Freaks
"What do you get when you cross toxic waste with a bunch of exotic spiders? Eaten." The Washington Post gives the skinny on Eight Legged Freaks - the feature debut for Kiwi director and co-writer Ellory Elkayem. Starring David Arquette, from the producers of Independence Day and Godzilla, it's a spun-out araction genre-happy, "intentionally campy movie, which combines special effects with humor." "Help me!" (above, Elkayem on set)
(10 May 2002)

Good morning USA from NZ
Wake up! To coincide with the 'Amazing Race' visiting New Zealand, roaming New Zealander ambassador of down under adventure, Phil Keoghan, will be staging ' Kiwi Week' on the CBS Early Show. Including Queenstown bungee, sheep shearing, fly-fishing lifestyle getaway, Hokitika Wildfood's Festival and Lord of the Rings. Phil is currently looking for stories of off-island Kiwi experience for an upcoming 'slice of life' show: E-mail here.
(April/May 2002)

The empire strikes back
The SMH finds Tem Morrison carrying the antipodean banner in the new Star Wars blockbuster, Episode II: Attack of the Clones - the latest installment of George Lucas's epic fantasy: "The best chance to shine falls to New Zealand's Temuera Morrison, best known for Once Were Warriors, who plays an evil bounty hunter." Morrison appears with fellow NZers Daniel Logan as a young Boba Fett ("impressively acted" according to the Houston Press), and Jay Laga'aia alongside thirteen Australians in the cast and "stormtroopers with New Zealand accents".
(14 April 2002)

Edge Triple play
Three New Zealanders - Russell Crowe (no. 28), Peter Jackson (no. 41), and Tim Bevan (no. 51=) feature in Premeire Magazine's 2002 Power List of the most influential people in Hollywood.
(April 2002)

Best Supporting Landmass
Tourists lured by LotR: "Too bad they don't give Oscars for 'best supporting landmass'. If they did New Zealand's role in Lord of the Rings would have swept that award", reports travel editor Anne Chalfant in a 3 page NZ feature in San Francisco's Bay Area Daily. And in The Guardian more Tolkien facsimile: "These are islands where the earth still spits boiling water and mud, with the volcanic plateau in the central North Island becoming Tolkien's fiery Mt Doom, peaceful pastoral Matamata in a starring role as Hobbiton and the majestic fiords of the deep South standing in for the Misty Mountains."
(30 March 2002)

Oscar Post:
They'll need a nui kete: The technical and creative talent of the NZ film industry acknowledged with Oscars. The Andrew Adamson directed Shrek takes best animated feature. Peter Jackson's first installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy secures the largest-equal haul of the night to take four Oscars: for make-up, visual effects, cinematography and best musical score, but misses out on the best film and director awards.
(25 March 2002)

King of the Rings
"New Zealand has always reserved its greatest adulation for sporting giants like Richard Hadlee and Jonah Lomu, but a place must now be found on the victory dais for director Peter Jackson [...] What elevates him to hero status is his success in persuading the Hollywood backers (of Lord of the Rings), New Line Cinema, to film the NZ$650 million project in New Zealand, a country many Americans would have trouble locating on the global map".
(24 February 2002)

Edge power play
"Are [NZer] Tim Bevan (43) and Eric Fellner (41) the most powerful London-based film producers in history? As Working Title (of which they are co-chairmen) is responsible for Bridget Jones's Diary, Billy Elliot, Notting Hill, Elizabeth, Bean and Four Weddings and a Funeral, the answer is almost certainly yes. No one in the British film industry has an international hit-making track record that comes close. And as Working Title is also home to the Coen brothers, they have the arty side covered, too". Visit the NZEdge Hot profile on Bevan.
(17 February 2002).

Bollywood or bust
Lush locations, talent and technology make NZ an ideal shooting location for Bollywood. Its almost monsoon season down under with the production schedules over-flowing, "the total number of song and dance routines filmed in NZ has gone up to 80"... Already New Zealand earns almost as much income from cinema as it does from wool.
(1 February 2002)

Middle Earth homestay
"I just want to stay in NZ making my stuff." PJ interviewed by PBS's Charlie Rose. Listen to the interview here for a fascinating conversation as Peter Jackson talks candid camera for an in-depth hour about the LotR experience. Extensive BBC Film coverage of the Rings' Circus, including PJ on why he choose to film the trilogy in NZ. And Japan Times asks a question intended for Frodo and Boromir, but one as relevant for New Zealand on the Edge? "Is it possible to defeat the evil without, while not succumbing to the evil within?"
(February 2002)

A beautiful mind
Wellington-born Russell Crowe, who last year won an Oscar for his lead role in Gladiator, pulls off the second biggest win of his career - a Golden Globe for best actor, in A Beautiful Mind. Winning both these awards puts Crowe in the company of such superstars as Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson. "G'day folks. How ya doin'?", he says on taking the platform to accept the award.
(20 January 2002)

Young stars
Australian Ex-Monty Python director, Maurice Murphy, stars students from Toi Whakaari New Zealand drama school in his latest feature film, Zenolith.
(5 January 2002)

Muss vs. Hollywood
"It is not just Lord of the Rings that is ushering in a golden age of Kiwi cinema. Everywhere you look, NZers are taking over Tinseltown." From Peter Jackson, Lee Tamahori and Vincent Ward, to Anna Paquin and Laurence Makaore, the list just keeps getting longer. The writer has the perfect analogy in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, with Temuera Morrison's Maori multitudes: "If that's not taking over Hollywood, I don't know what is."
(28 December 2002)

Tall poppy keeps his head
"A genius masquerading as an ordinary person, a creative whirlwind, financial powerhouse and folk hero rolled into one." LA Times applauds Peter Jackson's phenomenal success, not only in film circles, but in the eyes of his hard-to-please compatriots. "Perhaps because of the nation's egalitarian pioneer roots, underdogs are championed here, highfliers cut down to size. But that's not the case with Jackson..."
(8 December 2002)

Middle Earth to the masses
Te Papa's Lord of the Rings exhibition (opening 19 December) is set to go global. The interactive collection of costumes, props, sets, and gadgetry mounts a two year international tour from February 2002, which includes stop-offs at prestigious science museums in Toronto and Boston.
(8 December 2002)

Gender studies 101
Guardian writer Julie Burchill questions Russell Crowe's status as "sole standard bearer" for old-school Hollywood hell-raising in the wake of his latest public brawl. Back in the bad old days, she notes, stars did without the "semi-official conga lines of minders-cum-hangers-on" upon which the modern day tough-guy depends. Fellow gender issues reporter Peter Bradshaw doesn't even believe in the bad boys of old. Crowe, he claims, is "just the latest in a line of posturing pugilists [using] drink and brawling to distract both us and himself from the fact that he does a girly-boy job"!
(15 November 2002)

Russell Crowe: "From dud to stud"
Russell Crowe makes the grade in a run-down of Hollywood's sexiest men by People Magazine. From unlikely beginnings "sporting high heels and lipstick" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Crowe has come to epitomize all things macho: "Russell's emotion comes straight from the gut, uncensored and uninhibited [�] that's what makes him hot." Or not - as a less noted recent off screen performance (dubbed, Gladiator vs Warrior) grabbed press attention ...
(11 November 2002)

Giving new meaning to wildlife
NZ production The Most Extreme has proved a hit with international Animal Planet viewers. The series, made by Dunedin-based Natural History New Zealand, involves a countdown of the world's weirdest animal trivia. Due to the quirky show's immense popularity, Animal Planet has commissioned a further 13 episodes, making Most Extreme NHNZ's largest and most successful series to date.
(November 2002)

Marine advisors to Hollywood
A NZ father/son team is behind the submarine action scenes on Harrison Ford's latest film, K-19: The Widowmaker. Lance Julian and father, Harry, run Marine Team Ltd., an American-based company with strong ties to New Zealand. The Julians have lent their maritime expertise to such films as U-571, Titanic and Amistad. K-19 tells the fateful story of Russia's first ballistic missile submarine in the 1960s.
(October 2002)

xXx - factor
NZ actor Martin Csoka's sexy (Salon) villian praised in Vin Diesel action blockbuster xXx: Csokas is "the baddest of the baddies," "a splendid villain [�] whose brooding and commanding persona oozes onto the screen." Csokas in person is described as self-contained and calm, "the opposite of his aggressive bad-boy screen persona" in xXx. From Toi Whakaari to Speight's Man to Leonard Dodds to evil Russian anarchist, Urban Cinefile's sees Csoka's dramatic shifts as attesting to his caliber as an actor, calling the performance his "breakthrough to an international career."
(12 September 2002)

LOTR wins � again
The Fellowship of the Ring won the Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California. In attendance for the ceremony were Sean Astin (A.K.A Sam Gamgee) and NZer Sala Baker.
(1 September 2002)

Xenites unite!
7th Xena Fest held at the University of Hawaii-Manoa June 9. Activities included martial arts demonstrations, auctions, and battle-cry contests. See the NZEDGE hot story on Lucy Lawless for the person behind the breast plate.
(7 June 2002)

Scene stealing
The LA Times surveys an "invasion of American films by directors and stars from Down Under. The biggest star now working in American films who began in his native New Zealand is Russell Crowe [...] . New Zealand's Temuera Morrison has a more important role as Obi-Wan's foe [in Star Wars]. It was perhaps only logical that Peter Jackson, a native New Zealander, would celebrate the beauty of his country, Australia's neighbour, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy."
(June 2002)

Rain brightens reviews
Christine Jeff's "sexually potent yet understated" feature debut Rain continues to make splashes as it opens across North America. The Boston Herald reports that Jeffs "easily captures the rhythm of a summer break where drinking through lazy days leads to raucous parties at night". The review's warning on content could also serve as a pithy plot summary: "sexual suggestiveness and frequent scenes of drunkenness".
(24 May 2002)

The Piano makes all-time A-list
Jane Campion's The Piano seated in esteemed company in The A List: The National Society of Film Critics� 100 Essential Films, edited by Jay Carr.
(May 2002)

Rain: "under the surreal glare of a sunburnt hangover"
"A detached study of sleepy domestic torpor seizing up into tragic desperation, Christine Jeffs's debut feature, Rain, bears resemblance to The Virgin Suicides and Ratcatcher [�] Jeffs's compositions are clean and evocative; and aided by John Toon's cinematography, the film transpires under the surreal glare of a sunburnt hangover".
(30 April 2002)

Vanity Fair enough
Ex-Shorties original Martin Henderson, after a stint across the ditch, goes west to LA and hits the big-time featuring in Vanity Fair's annual hyping Hollywood photo essay for his part in the upcoming Windtalkers. And Lee Tamahori, (currently helming the latest Bond installment), features in veteran producer Art Linson's candid account of the trials, tribulations and ego clashes involved in producing Tamahori's 1997 film The Edge. "Lee looked back at me as if to say, "I'm from New Zealand. Don't leave me here alone."
(April 2002)

Tower de force
Pictures from Two Towers, the second instalment of Lord of the Rings, can be viewed in this Sun Online special.
(April 2002)

Flight of the Crowe
"To some, Russell Crowe is still a bit of a Hando [Romper Stomper] - there's that smouldering, explosive edginess". For Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard it was Crowe's "physicality and charisma...his intellect, his mental toughness and his soulfulness". Says Crowe: "I'm work obsessed. No, I don't conform, but I get on with what is required [...] "Playing extreme characters or characters that are hard to portray or things that challenge you personally � that's keeping your edge,"
(27 March 2002)