Lord of PR
Pete Hodgson - AKA 'Minister of the Rings' - dubbed "the most intelligent politician I have ever met" by National Post journalist, Cleo Paskal, in her article on the government-supported LotR publicity machine. "It is his job to 'maximize the opportunities to NZ from the Lord of the Rings film project.' And he has done a very good job ... The goal was to use the films as nearly 10 hours of product placement for NZ's tourism, technology and film industries. It was an unprecedented, ambitious and innovative idea - much like the film itself."
(27 December 2003)

Rings-led revolution
"New Zealand has had a day like no other". The world premiere of The Return of the King in Wellington outshone all expectations, with a 100,000+ crowd lining the route of the spectacular grand parade in glorious Wellington sunshine. Actor Sean Astin described the event as "a moment of great national pride ... it feels like a little bit of history here." Massive world-wide coverage confirmed the hype: Guardian, Salon, Independent, CNN, Taipei Times, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Chronicle ... The Scotsman proclaimed "Forget Hollywood. Welcome to Wellywood, the new film capital of the world." A Sydney Morning Herald feature perfectly captured the magnitude of the trilogy in terms of propelling NZ onto a world stage: "The work that was put together to make Gollum or to do the orcs or to do the big military scenes is simply the world's best ..." Of all the industries brushed by Rings magic - from post-production houses to fabric producers - tourism has benefited the most; NZ's $6 billion tourism industry is expected to overtake dairy as the nation's largest export earner next year. For the man at the helm, Peter Jackson, the premiere was stunning affirmation as Wellington turned on the crowd and a perfect wind-less day. Even the usually sober Economist falls under the spell: "Wellington's film-makers are enjoying their close-up." PJ: "I'm feeling incredibly humbled by this wonderful reception."
(01 December 2003) 

      

Winning ways continue for Whale Rider
International plaudits continue to come for Niki Caro's 2002 hit, Whale Rider. Whale Rider beat Hollywood blockbusters 28 Days Later and The Wild Thornberry's to win the feature film category at the 2003 Environmental Media Awards in LA, was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Australian Film Institute Awards (first place went to Peter Jackson's The Two Towers), won the adult vote in the Bafta children's awards, and was tipped by Variety magazine as a "scrappy contender"  in the lead up to the 2003 Oscar nominations. The story of an East Coast Maori community also provided the focal point of a National Geographic feature on 'The Fight For Indigenous Films.' Frustrated by the rarity of such indigenous stories as Whale Rider and (Inuit) Atanarjuat  reaching the silver screen, National Geographic recently launched the All Roads Film Project, "to reflect the rainbow of faces that make up our cultural universe, and inject a broader range of experiences into mainstream culture." The film's soundtrack - by ex-Dead Can Dance lead, Lisa Gerrard - was praised in the September issue of Mojo magazine: "Gerrard couples her muezzin-like glossolalia with the rich Polynesian traditions of vocal music to paint an evocative picture of a culture in uneasy liaison with the 21st century."
(18 November 2003)

The price is right
New York Times feature addresses Peter Jackson’s record-breaking US$20 million salary for Universal’s King Kong remake, deciding he is more than worth the dollars. Jackson, with his collaborative team of Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens, provides the perfect package for today’s special effects laden blockbusters; by signing him to a project, a studio receives a tight-knit director/writer/producer unit, as well as one of the world’s leading effects houses (Weta Digital). “There aren't that many directors to whom studios would pay that kind of money. There aren't that many directors whose movies have stratospheric box office of $800 million to $900 million worldwide.” Jackson’s high-rolling stable-mates, as listed by the NYT, include Steven Spielberg, the Wachowski brothers (Matrix trilogy), Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), and George Lucas. An Observer feature identifies him as leader of the high-end Hollywood pack: "No director has masterminded three movies back to back like this, still less done so with such a giant commercial splash. The Wachowski brothers' Matrix trilogy - or rather hit Matrix movie with two sequels - did well financially but disappointed critically. And the jury is out on George Lucas's Star Wars prequels."
(28 October 2003)
   

“Dark fairytale” played out on the edge
Gaylene Preston and Rachael Blake – NZ director and Australian star of Perfect Strangers – speak to the Age about filming on the South Island’s rugged West Coast. Preston used the sense of physical unease to the film’s advantage: “I remember thinking during the shoot that it was so much better where we were than everybody being in comfortable green rooms and everything being done in a studio.” The Age critic agrees: “The result is a little like a dark fairytale … it’s clear that Preston pushes her characters as close to the edge as she does herself and her cast.”
(19 October 2003)
    

Watching wildlife world-leaders
Kiwi production company NHNZ scooped three awards at the 2003 NaturVision wildlife film festival held in Munich, Germany. The Case of the Baby-Faced Assassin (above) – a documentary on Australia’s nocturnal carnivorous marsupial, the quoll, by Rod Morris – beat out 149 entries from around the world to take the Grand Prix award. Tropic Gothic – Ruth Berry’s program exploring the history behind a settler’s cottage in North Queensland – picked up both the Best Innovation and Youth Jury Prize. NHNZ also received two bronze “Chris Awards” at the 51st Columbus Film & Video Festival, and is one of four television companies in the world to be asked to compete for this year’s distinguished Prix Jules Verne award at the Image et Science festival in France. Managing director, Michael Stedman: “NHNZ’s science programmes span the frontiers of scientific, technological and biomedical research to reveal the cutting-edge discoveries which are shaping our lives.”
(2 October 2003)

Behind every great woman…
NZ-born producer, Linda McDougall, interviewed in the Sunday Times about her Channel 4 documentary, Married to Maggie: Denis Thatcher's Story. McDougall collated interviews with the former British PM and her late husband - many of which were conducted by their daughter Carol - to produce an alternative view of the one-time power couple.
(11 August 2003)

International bright young thing
Anna Paquin talks dogs, dorm-living, Degas and "living long distance" with the Independent. Currently studying art history - between films - at Columbia University, Paquin will next be seen alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris in the barbed US army satire, Buffalo Soldiers (helmed by Australia's Gregor Two Hands Jordan and described as "Bilko with drugs"). In an interview with the Miami Herald, she talks about her international upbringing. "Culturally, all my reference points are from my years in New Zealand," says the Canadian-born actress, before conceding that, "I've travelled so much I don't really know where I'm from anymore."
(27- 30 July 2003)
   

Return of the Native?
As Whale Rider premieres in the UK, the Guardian ponders its impact as NZ and Maori cinema, and the cultural factors at play. "[A]longside the celebration in New Zealand's film industry, there has also been a measure of soul-searching: why, many wonder, has it taken so long to put Maori stories back on international screens after the early 1990s successes of Once Were Warriors ...? [...] Maori represent one of the most vigorous and assertive indigenous cultures in the English-speaking world, but their impact on film has been relatively small." 
(11 July 2003)

The many faces of Cliff Curtis
Tribune feature on Cliff Curtis tracks his career trajectory from Once Were Warriors to Whale Rider. While the two movies appear vastly different in subject and style, Curtis is quick to point out a crucial shared message: "[Both films celebrate] the strength of our women, specifically Maori women, to hold our families together, our communities together, often in cases where our men are failing." Curtis has also made a name for himself in Hollywood as an ethnic chameleon, playing everything from an Iraqi resistance leader in Three Kings to a tattooed Chicano  in Training Day. His next role is in The Runaway Jury - a John Grisham adaptation starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Curtis plays a Cuban-American ex-marine.
(22 June 2003)
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Queen of the castle
Exuding star quality while remaining "refreshingly down-to-earth", Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes, feted in the New York Post, The State, and the Seattle Times and is cover-girl in Hawaii's Weekend Star Bulletin. Meanwhile director Niki Caro's script was awarded a US$10,000 Humanitas Prize as the film continues to ride high in North American theatres. The LA Times calls it the "most lyrical and unique film … so far this year," and the Toronto Star demands that director Niki Caro "be added to any list of emerging talent." 
(June 2003)

Rings wins double at Saturns
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was a multiple winner at the 29th annual Saturn Awards - a joint presentation of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and Mania Entertainment's Cinescape magazine. Two Towers was judged best fantasy film and Andy Serkis (Gollum) best supporting actor.
(21 May 2003)

Tom cruises off
Actor Tom Cruise has bid farewell to Taranaki, the place he called home for the past 4 months. The Hollywood A-lister was on location filming The Last Samurai; an epic-scale production which has proved an economic boon to the region. Said Cruise, widely adopted as the Naki's favourite son; "I'm going to miss the fish and chips … [and] the beach at night."
(9 May 2003)
 

FAQ: "Why (oh God, why)?"
NZer Simon Jansen profiled as online icon of the week in The Scotsman's "lazy guide to net culture." Jansen is a master of asciimation; making moving pictures out of letters, numerals and punctuation marks. His epic work - which he began in 1997 - is asciimating the original Star Wars film. Scotsman: "You won't be amazed by the special effects but rather by the sheer effort that has gone into translating a multi-million dollar blockbuster from expensive celluloid to a series of numbers and letters."
(30 April 2003)
   

Teen angst pays off
Wellington actress Michelle Ang has been nominated for Australia's premiere television award (a Logie) for her role in Neighbours. Ang, who has previously appeared in The Tribe and McDonalds Young Entertainers, is entered in the Most Popular New Female Talent category. Fellow Kiwi Lisa Chappell is also nominated for the vaunted Gold Logie for her role in McLeod's Daughters. 
(17 April 2003)
 

Jackson (and NZ) goes ape
Watch out Sky Tower: Peter Jackson is to direct a remake of King Kong for Universal Pictures. The epic production will be filmed on location in NZ and released globally in 2005. Says an elated Jackson; "No film has captivated my imagination more than King Kong. I'm making movies today because I saw this film when I was 9 years old. It has been my sustained dream to reinterpret this classic story for a new age."
(30 March 2003)

    
Jackson fan club continued…
Michael Scragow, former staff writer for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, airs his opinions on this year's Oscars. "I am just floored that Peter Jackson was not nominated for best director … I don't think there has been a fantasy film in movie history as faultlessly acted, as magnificent in its scope and invention, and as enthralling in its narrative drive as I'm sure the Lord of the Rings trilogy will turn out to be."
(22 March 2003)  

Winning-over Delhi bellies
The Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi held a NZ food festival in honour of The Two Towers' Indian release. The event, organised by the NZ Trade Commission, aimed to win the hearts of business visitors and tourists by appealing to their stomachs - a tried and true technique.
(16 March 2003)  
  

Toy Love a "clear winner"
NZ comedy Toy Love has won the Audience Award at Portugal's Fantasporto 2003 film festival. Says writer-director Harry Sinclair; "I'm thrilled about the award. It's a highly respected festival, so it will certainly raise the film's profile in Europe. Those Portuguese know a good comedy when they see one."
(6 March 2003)

 

Jackson cuts down
Peter Jackson has announced his next film project and it's not The Hobbit or King Kong. Taking a much-needed break from the epic-scale, Jackson is rumoured to be adapting medical history for the screen with a New Zealand edge. The subject: the book As Nature Made Him - Rolling Stone journalist John Colapinto's account of the consequences of NZ-born doctor John Money's decision to raise the victim of a botched circumcision as a girl, supporting Money's controversial theory that nature mattered more than nurture in gender identity. see the NZEDGE post-script on the (in)famous case here.
(31 January 2003)
   

In the footsteps of Frodo
The inevitable spate of Rings-related travel articles continues, with major features in the Scotsman and New York Times. The Scotsman writer - who walked the Tongariro Crossing and Routeburn Track, and sailed Milford Sound - "left with an almost reverent love for landscape that I saw ... Put simply NZ is the most beautiful place in the world that I have visited or expect to visit in my life." The Times explores the official Rings tours on offer; the Trilogy Trail, Red Carpet Lord of the Rings, and Anywhere-Anytime Tours.
(2003)

Wetawood
Two LA Times features look at the phenomenal success of Peter Jackson's Miramar-based empire; Weta Digital, Weta Workshop, and the Film Unit. The challenge meeting Jackson's business is keeping the world-class staff he amassed for the now completed LotR trilogy busy enough to resist the temptation of the US dollar until work begins on Jackson's King Kong in 2005. The lord rests in a NYT interview, but no break for PJ. The man himself is portrayed in the features as "in many ways ...  following in the footsteps of Star Wars creator George Lucas, the only other director to establish his domain outside of Hollywood and have a lasting effect. The development of Jackson's production power is a reflection of the Hollywood rebel. Friends describe him as focused and fiercely loyal, an iconoclast with a love-hate relationship with Tinseltown." 
(23 November 2003)

Littler fish to fry
Fresh from US horror flick The Ring and Bollywood musical Bride and Prejudice, Kiwi actor Martin Henderson is to star alongside Cate Blanchett in the Australian film, Little Fish. Set in Sydney’s ‘Little Saigon’ district, Little Fish tells the story of Tracy Heart (Blanchett); “a woman swimming against the pull of the past.” Rowan Woods (The Boys) directs.
(8 October 2003)
  

A view from Down Under
A forum for ex-pat NZ, Australian, and South African amateur filmmakers living in London - the UpOverDownUnder film festival - is now in its third year. Over that time, the festival has gone from a one-off show to a five-night event, which showcases recent Australasian and South African cinema releases as well as short films by the up-and-coming. The event was set up to promote "fresh perspectives on life in English capital."
(19 July 2003)

Jeffs with best
Christine Jeffs' acclaimed feature, Rain, was included in the second series of the Zahir Raihan Film Society's Best Films of 2002, joining Philip Noyce's The Quiet American and Mike Leigh's All or Nothing. The retrospective series was held to mark the 18th anniversary of the Society's founding.
(20 May 2003)
  

Lately I've been lost it seems ... Jane Austen spiced-up
Gurinda Chadha - director of international hit Bend it Like Beckham - has cast Kiwi actor Martin Henderson as Mr Darcy in her musical version of Pride and Prejudice. Henderson, most recently seen in US horror The Ring, will star opposite Bollywood actress and former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai. The two actors will accompany Chadha to the Cannes Film Festival in May to finalise a deal.
(14 April 2003)

What becomes of the faint-hearted?
Monica McWilliams of Northern Ireland's Women's Coalition names Once Were Warriors as her all-time favourite flick in a survey by Belfast Film Festival organisers. She describes it as "a powerful role for a strong woman," and one "certainly not for the faint-hearted".
(16 March 2003)

Peace Fest
NZ feature The Price of Milk is to screen at the inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Film Festival. The festival, held in conjunction with the 13th Non-Aligned Movement Summit (NAM), is appropriately themed "Peace, Harmony, Non-Violence and Non-Discrimination."
(13 February 2003)

Big win for Small Life
NZ film A Small Life won an inspiring 8 awards at the Karachi International Film Festival (Karafilm). Out of a field of over 75 films, Michael Heath's "haunting and moving musical" was awarded Best Short Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Music. A unanimous jury declared the film "perfect."
(20 January 2003)

Best supporting instrument
LA Times names The Piano as one of the instrument's most memorable cinematic tributes in the history of film. "In a category of its own is Jane Campion's modern-day classic The Piano... [Campion is one who has] understood - and mined - the dramatic possibilities of this instrument … the strange poetry of a piano being played on a desolate beach."
(5 January 2003)

Uggly in pink
LA Times profiles that old Kiwi staple, the Ugg Boot, which – thanks to appearances on Sex & the City and Oprah – has been elevated from surfer’s necessity to fashion accessory. “They're selling at marked-up prices on EBay. They are seriously hard to find, especially in pinks and blues and beiges.”
(25 December 2003)

How much do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
The Guardian asks LotR cast members to explain their widely publicised admiration for NZ. Billy Boyd (Pippin): "The land feels new; it feels like what Scotland might have been like a few million years ago; it's still forming." Bernard Hill (Theoden): "The west coast of South Island was one of my favourite places, north of the Fjords around the Franz Joseph Glacier. It's really hard to describe why it's special; you just get it when you go there." Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf): "I first thought - a year in New Zealand, great chance to visit Australia! But then almost immediately I found I was moving round the most beautiful country in the world with the most amazing variety of scenery. I fell in love in New Zealand. It's the most advanced nation socially that I know of."
(13 December 2003)
 

Xena and her sisters
Ex-Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless, was the obvious choice to front a Discovery Channel documentary series on women fighters in history. Warrior Woman features Joan of Arc, China’s Wang Cong’er (the inspiration behind Disney flick, Mulan), Boudica of Britain, Irish pirate Grace O’Malley, and Apache warrior, Lozan. “These women have been written out of history, largely,” says Lawless, who shows off her own impressive sword skills in a duel with an Irish weapons master. Toronto Star: “… who better to present these unsung heroines than the woman who became an international icon as their fictional sword-swinging sister, Xena?”
(18 November 2003)
 

Gracious in their success
As their compatriots continue to climb the ranks in Hollywood – think Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts, and Hugh Jackman – the Australian public has decided to toss a few honorary countrymen back our way. SMH: “One advantage of this surplus of success Over There is that Australia can now give up its claim to Mel Gibson, and allow him to be the New Yorker he always was. We should also feel free to let Sam Neill be a New Zealander. But we'll hang onto Russell Crowe for the time being, at least until we see the box office figures for the naval epic Master and Commander (directed by our own Peter Weir). If it flops, Russell is from Wellington.”
(22 October 2003)
   

"Kiwi directors dominate 47th London Film Festival"
Guardian film critic Xan Brooks: "There is a distinct Kiwi flavour to this year's London Film Festival, which will open and close with films by New Zealand directors." NZ directors Jane Campion and Christine Jeffs are to provide the bookends with Campion's erotic journey into an underworld NYC, In the Cut, and Jeffs' Sylvia Plath biopic, Sylvia. 
(4 September 2003)

Celebrating Kiwi-ness
Countless international critics have praised the universal themes explored in Niki Caro's Whale Rider; what a reviewer for the Age finds most impressive is its quintessential Kiwi-ness. "Whale Rider sounds like it could be Disney Down Under, The Lion King set to the thump of the haka. In fact it is not a bit like that. Telling the bare bones of the story … leaves out the absolutely crucial New Zealandness of Whale Rider's world. Realism enfolds the mythic story so completely that neither the search for a chief nor the myth of the first whale rider seems at all arcane. They are just Kiwi things, like a Steiny after a game of cricket."
(3 May 2003)
   

Hollywood hits the west coast
A charity screening of Andrew Niccol's Simone was held in his hometown of Paraparaumu, March 24. According to father Don Niccol, Simone "cocks a snook" at Hollywood by attacking "several dearly held Hollywood clichés." Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research.
(12 March 2003)

Hobbits air-borne
Air New Zealand has launched its second "hobbit plane" with a maiden voyage to Los Angeles. The fuselage features Rings characters Aragorn and Arwen, as well as picturesque NZ scenery, in a canny marketing partnership with New Line Cinema. The "Frodo and Sam" plane was unveiled in December.
(25 January 2003)