Film's future in good hands 
Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern paid Peter Jackson a visit at his Miramar studios on a recent trip to NZ. The pair discussed their favourite movies, the future of special effects and the role of studios in filmmaking at the "one-of-a-kind cauldron of creativity" that is Weta Workshop. Morgenstern's tour of the facility included meeting Jackson's business partner Richard Taylor and Weta Digital effects maestro Joe Letteri, and seeing Jackson's custom-built screening room - designed as a visual homage to the movie palaces of his childhood. In talking with Jackson, writes Morgenstern, "[you] get the feeling anything is possible in motion pictures, and that his part of the movies' future is in good hands". 
(6 September 2007)

Auckland films Venice-bound
Two short films by lecturers and a student at Auckland University have been accepted for competition at the Venice Film Festival. Coffee and Allah, written and produced by senior film lecturers Shuchi Kothari and Sarina Pearson, explores a NZ-Ethiopian woman's love for coffee, Islam and badminton. Cargo, the self-funded debut by postgraduate student Leo Woodhead, is a grim look at child trafficking from the perspective of a young Czech boy. "It's particularly pleasing that the work of our established film-makers on the staff and emerging talent from among the students are being showcased side by side," said Duncan Petrie, head of Auckland University's Department of Film Television and Media Studies. "That demonstrates the strength and depth that we aspire to in the department." The Venice Film Festival is the oldest and one of the most prestigious events on the international competition circuit. 
(23 August 2007)

Future of NZ film lies in Asia
NZ filmmakers are increasingly looking to Asia to fill the void left by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Annual production financing in NZ soared from $146 to $402 million between 1998 and 2001, chiefly as a result of the Rings films. After shooting was completed, production financing dropped 56 percent to just $176 million in 2004. Today, NZ filmmakers are just as likely to get work from Korea, Hong Kong, China and Japan as they are from Hollywood. "I think everyone was very realistic that the Lord of the Rings was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," says Vicki Jackways of the Peter Jackson-owned Park Road Post film editing lab, which is currently editing the Chinese movie Big Water and is negotiating work on three more Asian films. In other major coups for the NZ industry, the Japanese samurai movie Dororo was recently shot in Methven, South Korean director Kim Sung-ho scouted the country for his movie Together, and Hong Kong mega-star John Woo is expected to spend more than $80 million in NZ on his ancient Chinese epic Red Cliff. 
(22 July 2007)

Pixel perfect 
Hamilton-born Nick Craven was one of a 35-strong team of animators working on the third Shrek instalment. Fellow New Zealander Andrew Adamson, who wrote and directed the first two films, provided the story for Shrek the Third but opted out of directing it. Craven left NZ to study at the Vancouver Film School in the mid-90s and has remained at the forefront of the international animation industry ever since. "There are many, many people wanting to do [animation], a lot of them are skilled, and they might be prepared to work for less money than you are," he said in an interview with the NZ Herald. "So yeah, you've got the pressure of a lot of hungry guys coming up behind you but the good part of that is that it makes for a lot of great animation." Craven's previous jobs include Madagascar, Over the Hedge and Ice Age. This year, he will return to NZ to work for Weta Workshop on Avatar, the latest film by Titanic director James Cameron.
(24 May 2007)

Creepy sheep 
NZ horror film Black Sheep has impressed international critics with its blend of low-budget gore and on-the-nose humour. Since its premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, Black Sheep has won the Audience and Special Jury prizes at France's Gérardmer Film Festival and two Silver Ravens at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film. The film took writer/director Jonathan King three years to make and cost well under NZ $10 million. "It just popped into my head," he says of the storyline, which involves angry, genetically-modified sheep. "There is no story of childhood trauma on a farm. I should make one up." King has previously made short films, music videos and commercials, but Black Sheep is his first feature-length production. He will release a second film, The Tattooist, later this year and is currently working on a sci-fi film for young adults. 
(2 May 2007)

NZ preacher battles US atheists
Christchurch-born evangelist Ray Comfort fronted a controversial debate over the existence of God on US TV this month. Comfort (pictured left) and his preaching partner, child actor Kirk Cameron, squared off against two members of the atheist Rational Response Squad for the heated 90-minute argument, which aired on ABC's Nightline. According to the debate's moderator, Nightline journalist Martin Bashir, the "no-holds barred debate ... was well worth watching", and generated a massive response from viewers. Comfort, 57, was born Jewish and his no theological training. He has written more than 40 books on religion and co-hosts an evangelical TV show - The Way of the Master - with Cameron. 
(2 May 2007)

Fight night 
Two New Zealanders have been nominated for the 2007 Taurus World Stunt Awards. Ben Cooke (pictured) and Kirk Maxwell are both up for Best Fight, for their work in Casino Royale and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest respectively. Cooke, who was Daniel Craig's stunt double in Casino Royale, has also been nominated for Best High Work, thanks to his incredible crane-jumping scene in the latest Bond instalment (watch it here). The awards take place in Los Angeles on May 20, and will be televised in 90 countries. 
(17 April 2007)

Keats inspires new Campion film
The doomed love affair between English poet John Keats and his neighbour, Fanny Brawne, is to be the subject of a literary biopic written and directed by Oscar-winning NZ filmmaker, Jane Campion. Keats and Brawne were engaged to be married when the poet was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to move to a warmer climate. The young lovers never saw each other again: Keats died in Rome aged 25. Titled Bright Star, after a love poem Keats dedicated to Brawne, the film will feature Ben Whishaw (Perfume) and Abbie Cornish (Somersault) in the lead roles. NZ-born Campion won the Academy Award for best screenplay in 1994 for The Piano. 
(8 April 2007)

Teen actors on global stage
Disney fantasy film Bridge to Terabithia has thrust four teenage New Zealand actors into the limelight. The film, which features Carly Owen (pictured), Isabelle-Rose Kircher and Cameron Wakefield of Wellington and Aucklander Elliot Lawless has been an instant box office hit in the United States after a successful Hollywood premiere. Filmed in Auckland, Bridge to Terabithia grossed US$22.5 million in its first weekend, and is expected to do well after positive reviews. Several of the young Kiwi actors in the film travelled with their parents to the States for its debut, where they walked the red carpet and were interviewed by Los Angeles entertainment media. Bridge to Terabithia is the film adaptation of Katherine Paterson's 1977 novel about an outcast named Jesse and a tomboy called Leslie who develop an imaginary kingdom. In the film, their imaginations are brought to life by Wellington's Oscar-winning effects studio Weta Digital. Adult New Zealand cast members include Wellington's Jen Wolfe and Ian Harcourt, cousin of actress Miranda Harcourt, the teenage actors' drama teacher. Bridge to Terabithia is expected to open in New Zealand in May or June.
(21 February 2007)

Web celeb Rose turns to cinema
NZ actress Jessica Rose - who found fame on YouTube as lonelygirl15 - has made her first foray into Hollywood, starring alongside tabloid queen Lindsay Lohan in the psychological thriller I Know Who Killed Me. Rose also has a lead role in the upcoming independent drama Perfect Sport. "It's really exciting to be doing what I love and doing what I've always wanted to do," she said in a NZ Herald interview. "It feels like any time a Kiwi has success as an actor or actress, it's like the entire country is backing you. That's what I love about NZ." Rose, 19, was born in the US but grew up in Mount Maunganui. She studied acting in Auckland and worked as a makeup artist on Peter Jackson's King Kong before moving to LA in 2005. Her YouTube success saw her voted both Forbes magazine's Web Celeb and VH1's Big Web Hit for 2006. 
(19 February 2007)

This is NZ: Take two 
A NZ film made over 30 years ago has won an award at the prestigious New York Festivals Film and Video Competition. This is NZ was originally screened at the Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, where it was viewed by more than two million visitors. The remastered edition won a Bronze World Medal in the festival's special venue film section, which was accepted by NZ's ambassador to the UN Rosemary Banks. "This award is a great credit to all those involved in both the making and recent remastering of the film," said Archives Minister Judith Tizard. The original film has not been available for public viewing for over 30 years because three projectors were required to screen it. Wellington's Park Road Post Production facility restored and remastered the film using a digital intermediate process so the three images can now be screened using one projector. 
(3 February 2007)

Muse to Tarantino 
Waiheke Island-born stuntwoman Zoe Bell makes a cameo appearance as herself in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming slasher film Grindhouse. Bell impressed Tarantino as Uma Thurman's double in Kill Bill, and has since joined a list of his muses which includes Thurman, Rose MacGowan and Rosario Dawson. Grindhouse is being billed as the world's first "meta-movie": an 80-90 minute feature each by Tarantino and long-time collaborator Robert Rodriguez linked by trailers for fictional movies by Eli Roth (Hostel), Rob Zombie (House of 1,000 Corpses), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Rodriguez (Sin City). "The whole theatrical business is looking for something new, a little showmanship," says studio head Bob Weinstein of the newly formed Weinstein Company. "These guys took something old and are making it new." As well as Kill Bill, 28-year-old Bell's CV includes stunt work on Xena: Warrior Princess, Ultraviolet, Catwoman and The Poseidon Adventure. 
(28 January 2007)

Online superstar 
The inaugural Forbes Web Celeb 25 - "a list of the biggest, brightest and most influential people on the Internet" - is topped by Mt Maunganui-raised actress Jessica Rose. Last year the 19-year-old became a YouTube phenomenon by posing as Bree, a home-schooled US teenager with the user name lonelygirl15. Bree's video diary became an online hit, attracting millions of fans both before and after it was exposed as being entirely scripted. Forbes: "Rose put a pretty face on a breaking phenomenon: that Internet-based entertainment provides an intensely powerful incubator for new stars." Rose was born in Maryland, USA, and moved to NZ when she was eight. In 2005 she returned to the US and is currently based in LA. According to Forbes, she is now being offered movie roles and has just filmed a TV commercial for a United Nations anti-poverty campaign. 
(23 January 2007)

Star on the rise 
Variety magazine (US) named Taika Waititi one of ten directors to watch in the lead up to the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where he made his feature debut. His first full-length project, Eagle vs. Shark is an offbeat romantic comedy starring Loren Horsley and Waititi's former stand-up partner Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords). Eagle vs. Shark was picked up by Miramax on the strength of a five-minute trailer shown at the Cannes Market. "New Zealanders are good at making dark films, but we decided to do the opposite," said Waititi in Variety. "This is the broadest and quirkiest that my comedy has ever gone." Waititi's next project is a feature based on his Oscar-nominated short film Two Cars, One Night. 
(17 January 2007)

Bro' Town goes global 
With a slew of national awards under its belt, NZ animation series Bro' Town is now taking its unique brand of humour to a world audience. The cartoon is already showing in Australia, Canada and Fiji and will soon add the Caribbean, Latin America and possibly the US to the list. "When we started it, one of the visions we had in our heads was the thought that one day little children in Iceland would be saying 'not even ow' and eating their sardine sandwiches out of Bro' Town lunch boxes," says co-writer Oscar Kightely. "That would be nice." Bro' Town has been a hit for Australian free-to-air channel SBS, with its weekly viewing figures of 250,000 just slightly less than those for cult US series South Park. Auckland production house Firehorse Films is currently working on a fourth series as well as feature-length movie. 
(2 February 2007)

Dance film tackles domestic drama 
Shona McCullagh's short film Break was a highlight of the Dance on Camera Festival at New York's Walter Reade Theatre, according to the New York Times. Set in rural NZ, Break "illustrates, with surprising subtlety, the breakdown of a family" and stands out from the frequently "gimmicky" nature of contemporary dance films. The 35th annual Dance on Camera Festival comprised 30 films from all over the world and screened from January 12-13. 
(3 January 2007)

First NZ doco selected for Sundance 
A NZ documentary has won a place at the Sundance Film Festival for the first time. The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins by Auckland filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly will compete in the World Cinema - Documentary section alongside 15 other films. Brettkelly's film follows contemporary art star Vanessa Beecroft over 16 months as she attempts to adopt a pair of South Sudanese twins. Along the way, the documentary explores Beecroft's unconventional personal life and her controversial art. Brettkelly first met Beecroft while filming a NZ TV series in South Sudan. "It was one of those bizarre places in the middle of nowhere, where you only expect to find foreign correspondents, aid workers and UN staff," she says. "Then I spotted this woman who was obviously none of those; she really grabbed your attention. I went to talk to her ... I knew nothing about Vanessa Beecroft, but I was intrigued by her. And international adoptions - I felt like this was a story that had to be told." Sundance 2008 runs from January 17 to 27. 
(4 December 2007)

Love, wine and angels in Auckland 
Whale Rider director Niki Caro's new project has made its first pre-sales. The Vintner's Luck, Caro's much-anticipated adaptation of the novel by Elizabeth Knox, has sold to Icon in the UK, Dendy in NZ and Australia, and Ascot Elite in Switzerland. "This was such a beautiful script - both moving and profound - and the material could not be in better hands," said Icon's president of acquisitions, Mark Gooder. Dendy general manager Andrew Mackie described the screenplay by Caro and Joan Scheckel as "simply one of the best scripts we have ever read". The Vintner's Luck stars Jérémie Renier (The Child), Gaspard Ulliel (Young Hannibal), Vera Farmiga (The Departed) and Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider). Pre-production begins in Auckland at the end of the year. 
(26 October 2007)

Success for stylish vampire flick 
NZ vampire film Perfect Creature has been sold into nearly every territory in the world and is receiving rave reviews on its official release. The second feature by writer/director Glen Standring (The Irrefutable Truth About Demons), Perfect Creature is a unique retelling of the vampire myth set in an alternate 1960s NZ. IF magazine calls it "stylish, inventive, nicely paced and altogether interesting", while Fangoria editor in chief Tony Timpone hails it as "the most unique vampire film I've ever seen, a cross between Alan Moore, Bram Stoker and Charles Dickens". Perfect Creature stars British actors Dougray Scott (Desperate Housewives, Mission Impossible II) and Saffron Burrows (Troy, Enigma). 
(October 2007)

Film industry loses behind-the-scenes star
Hundreds of mourners attended a tangi for NZ special effects expert Conway Wickliffe in Te Kuiti on October 14. Wickliffe, 41, was killed in England three weeks ago, during a stunt car rehearsal on the set of the latest Batman film. More than 300 mourners, including Batman star Christian Bale, attended his wake in London. Wickliffe made machines and vehicles for blockbuster films including Casino Royale, Black Hawk Down, Children of Men and the Tomb Raider series. "This is an extreme loss to New Zealand film, and Maori film-making too," said Mihirawhiti Searancke, a relative of Wickliffe's wife, Derryn Chase. "He was a Maori boy from Paeroa, who conquered the world doing what he did so well." Wickliffe is survived by his wife, Derryn, and their children Sabian, 12, and Eden, 4. 
(14 October 2007)

Sibling success 
Paul and Kahra Scott-James's GRAHAM is one of 25 films selected for competition at Filminute 2007, an online festival for 60-second films. GRAHAM was chosen from a pool of 800 entries from 45 different countries by a jury panel that includes Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO and NZ Edge co-founder Kevin Roberts, Booker Prize winning author Michael Ondaatje and Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf. "It's a great initiative and being a part of that means we can access a global audience," says Animation Director Paul Scott-James (sister Kahra has writing and sound design credits). Filminute 2007 concludes September 30. 
(September 2007)

The real deal 
The Guardian gave its readers a heads-up on NZ stuntwoman Zoe Bell, in its regular 'First Sight' column. The 28-year-old has forged an impressive career doubling actors such as Lucy Lawless, Uma Thurman and Sharon Stone, and has just made her own acting debut in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. Guardian: "As one of the women terrorised by Kurt Russell's psychopathic stunt man, she enlivens the proceedings considerably and gets a break from the pop-culture references by playing her big scenes strapped to the bonnet of a speeding Dodge Challenger. No CGI, no stunt double, Bell adds a thrilling dose of realism..." 
(10 August 2007)

Campion speaks out for women in film 
Jane Campion has spoken out about the lack of female filmmakers while being honoured for her own achievements at the Cannes Film Festival. The New Zealander was one of 35 high-profile directors - the rest of them male - invited to make a short film for Cannes' 60th anniversary this year. She described her fantasy sequence, in which a woman dressed as a ladybug is trampled in a movie theatre, as a metaphor for women in the film world. "I just think this is the way the world is, that men control the money, and they decide who they're going to give it to," she said. Campion is the only woman filmmaker to have won Cannes' top prize and is one of just three women ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for best director. Both her Cannes win and Academy Award nomination were for 1993's The Piano. 
(20 May 2007)

Canada, your time is NOW 
NZ adventurer Phil Keoghan is about to launch his hit TV series No Opportunity Wasted (NOW) in Canada. In each half-hour episode of NOW - based on his best-selling book of the same name - two challengers are paid a surprise visit by Keoghan, who asks them if they want to start facing their fear. "It gives people a crack at doing something that they may have been procrastinating about for a long, long time," he says. "It could be the fear of heights, the fear of sharks, the fear of trying something new, the fear of doing something for somebody else on a big scale ... and people are always surprised when I tell them that it's right now." Born in Christchurch, LA-based Keoghan has won four Emmy awards as the host of The Amazing Race, now in its eleventh US season. 
(2 May 2007)

Surfing the Menu in NZ 
NZ chef Mark Gardner will co-present the fourth season of popular cooking show Surfing the Menu, with London-based Australian Ben O'Donoghue. Gardner, 29, replaces O'Donoghue's previous co-presenter, Australian Curtis Stone. The fourth season comprises an eight-part tour of NZ, showcasing the country's food and scenery in equal measures. "I have been watching a lot of the food channels lately and checking out the other shows. And I just think we've just got a lot more punch and excitement," said Gardner. The series will see O'Donoghue and Gardner cooking innovative meals in between heli-skiing, surfing and scuba-diving with sharks. Gardner will present his signature barbeque dish: freshwater trout with fejoa wrapped in flax. The series premieres on Discovery Travel & Living, May 8. 
(1 May 2007)

Icon and storyteller who inspired all 
Veteran actor and filmmaker Don Selwyn has died aged 71 after a long illness. Selwyn was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust and He Taonga Films, and was a lifelong advocate for the inclusion of Maori culture in mainstream NZ film and television. Born in Taumaranui, Selwyn was a qualified teacher before he became hooked on acting after attending a Shakespeare rehearsal with a friend as a dare. Selwyn toured NZ with Nola Miller's Shakespeare company and eventually broadened his acting career to include musicals (Porgy and Bess), television (Marlin Bay, The Governor, Pukemanu) and film (Sleeping Dogs, Came a Hot Friday). He produced and directed Don't Go Past With Your Nose in the Air, which won Best Foreign Short at the New York Festival in 1992, and in 2001 made the first Maori language feature film with English subtitles - the Merchant of Venice. Around 300 mourners attended Selwyn's tangi in Taumaranui, including many of his high-profile industry mates. "There are so few of us [Maori actors, writers etc] who didn't walk through his door, sit at his table," said actor Waihoroi Shortland, who played Shylock in Merchant of Venice. "He invested his life in others." Selwyn was presented with an Arts Foundation of NZ Icon Award in hospital last month. 
(15 April 2007)

Comic success stories 
Taika Waititi's debut feature Eagle vs Shark has won the award for best screenplay at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. The film, which also screened at South by Southwest in Texas, was promoted as a "wry comedy that chronicles the quirky romance of two awkward misfits." The award has added to male lead Jemaine Clement's growing presence in the US. His long-running comedy act Flight of the Conchords (with Bret McKenzie) is currently being turned into a self-titled TV series, which begins screening on HBO in June. NZ's TV3 is reportedly interested in acquiring the rights to the show. 
(March 2007)

A new sheriff in town 
Russell Crowe has signed for US$20 million to play the Sheriff of Nottingham in a "revisionist" version of the Robin Hood story. Titled Nottingham, the Hollywood film will follow "the premise that Robin Hood is less virtuous and the sheriff more noble than previous depictions." The Guardian places Nottingham at the centre of a current trend in Hollywood for British stories and British and Antipodean lead actors: "[To] the presumable despair of the ghost of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the best thing to be in Hollywood today is un-American." 
(2 February 2007)

CG Cameron 
Titanic director James Cameron has enlisted the help of Weta Digital for his upcoming US$200 million sci-fi epic, Avatar. Cameron also plans to shoot sections of the film at Peter Jackson's Wellington studios with the help of local industry workers. The director is known for pushing the boundaries of technology with his use of special effects in film and his latest feature looks to be no exception. Avatar is set 150 years in the future and centres around a battle between human and alien armies on a distant planet. "This film is a true hybrid - a full live-action shoot, with CG characters in CG and live environments," says Cameron. "Ideally, at the end of the day, the audience has no idea which they're looking at ... With the new tools, we can create a humanoid character that is anything we imagine it to be - beautiful, elegant, graceful, powerful, evocative of us, but still with an emotional connection." Avatar is slated for release in 2009. 
(12 January 2007)

Life of a legend 
A film based on the life of NZ motorsport legend Bruce McLaren is rumoured to be in the works. According to Grand Prix website, the production has been linked to "some of those involved with the Lord of the Rings trilogy." McLaren was one of the first New Zealanders to enjoy racing success in Europe, winning his first Grand Prix at 22. He launched his own formula one racing team - Team McLaren - in 1964, which has continued to dominate the sport long after its founder's death in 1970. 
(8 January 2007)

Not your average leading man 
Not one to be pigeon-holed, Martin Henderson is busy building a reputation in Hollywood for his impressively diverse range of acting roles. For every Britney Spears music video (Toxic) or action flick (Torque) there is an unexpected and brilliant performance, such as his portrayal of an amputee speed dealer in the acclaimed Australian film Little Fish. Henderson is currently appearing in movie theatres as a WW1 fighter pilot in Flyboys, as an anti-WTO protestor The Battle in Seattle and a former cop in Smokin' Aces. He has also just won his first US television role, starring in the highly anticipated small-screen version of Mr & Mrs Smith - last year's blockbuster film featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. "I think the buzz of acting is playing people different to you and, for me, that means traversing all genres", said Henderson in a recent NZ Herald interview. "There are many sides to all of us. I like dramatic stuff and I have a goofball side too. I like to do comedy and off-beat things as much as something really, really serious."
(January 2007)

Ex-Neighbour a star in US
Dunedin-born Alan Dale has scored a lead role in yet another hit US TV series. Fresh from his success in The West Wing, CSI: Miami and The O.C, Dale is now playing publisher Bradford Meade in the Golden Globe-winning comedy Ugly Betty. "Ugly Betty is a unique ugly duckling story," says America Ferrera, who plays Betty, the frumpy assistant to the editor of a leading fashion magazine. "It's not about her becoming a gorgeous swan; [rather] you're waiting for people around her to realise she already is a beautiful person." 59-year-old Dale was a well known actor in Australasia (Flying Doctors, Neighbours) before making the move to LA in 1999. "I felt that in my 50s if I didn't do it now, I never would," he said in the Sydney Morning Herald. "I must admit I didn't really think about it too much. If I had, I wouldn't have come." 
(5 February 2007)

It's all about Murray 

Edge treatment for classic Americana 
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the new film by director Andrew Dominik, earned four stars out of five in The Guardian. "This is a real success for New Zealand-born, Australian director Dominik," writes the Guardian reviewer, "he has immersed himself in a piece of classic Americana, yet he brings to it an outsider's perspective and shrewdness ... A tremendously stylish, intelligent retelling of western myth." The Assassination of Jesse James won Brad Pitt a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival in September. 
(30 November 2007)

Guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk gets sexy
Wellingtonians of the Year Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement (AKA Flight of the Conchords) have made Salon's 'Sexiest Man Living' list for 2007. Salon promotes its list as an alternative to People's better known "catalog of lantern jaws, bulging biceps and Seacrest hair". The Conchords join actor Jon Hamm, radio host Ira Glass and chef Jacques Pepin in the honour. Salon: "A guy with a guitar is hot. A guy with an accent is hot. And a guy who can make us laugh is really, really hot. What, then, could be better than a man who embodies all of the above? Two men who do ... Separately, they're adorable, but together, they enter a pantheon of witty troubadours that includes Jonathan Richman, They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton -- men who are a little bit Bruce, a little bit Groucho, and more than a little appealing." 
(15 November 2007)

The next great American host 
NZ television personality Dominic Bowden is taking his hosting skills to the US, where he will front new FOX reality series The Next Great American Band. In NZ, Bowden has hosted Deal or No Deal, New Zealand Idol and numerous awards shows. The Next Great American Band follows a similar format to Idol and features Ian "Dicko" Dickson (Australian Idol) and musicians John Rzeznik and Sheila E as judges. The Hollywood Reporter has given the show the thumbs up, claiming it far surpasses Idol. Bowden also passes muster as host, with HR describing him as "fresher and more at ease than his American Idol counterpart, Ryan Seacrest". 
(26 October 2007)

King talks technology
The Guardian interviewed Black Sheep director Jonathan King about his favourite gadgets on the eve of his film's UK release. King's favourite piece of technology is his Apple iBook G4 laptop - "I use it to write, read, chat, think, goof off, listen to music, goof off, research, write ... all in the one spot at my desk." King describes himself as more "nerdular" than luddite and dreams of a day when filmmakers will be fully autonomous. "I think most filmmakers are like people who starved in war time: even if you believe you can get funding for your films in the future, you are always working toward the day you'll be self-sufficient," he says. "That's getting more and more possible as this technology gets better and cheaper, closing the gap between having the idea and shooting and cutting the pictures." 
(12 October 2007)

Wellywood and Bollywood unite
The NZ and Indian governments are to negotiate a film co-production agreement, whereby resources will be pooled to benefit filmmakers in both countries. "Films made jointly by New Zealand and Indian producers would qualify as works with national status in both countries, making them eligible for government support and facilitation," says NZ Finance Minister Michael Cullen. NZ has traditionally been a popular location with Indian filmmakers, but they have stayed away in recent years due to a lack of government incentives compared to other countries. 
(2 October 2007)

An icon re-imagined 
NZ-born director Andrew Dominik has followed up his award-winning film Chopper with a psychological Western epic starring Brad Pitt. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford debuted at this month's Venice Film Festival, where it won Pitt the award for Best Actor. Dominik based his screenplay on Ron Hansen's historical novel Jesse James, which focuses on character development and atmosphere rather than the Western genre's traditional shoot-em-up action. "I have zero interest in Jesse James as an American phenomenon," says Dominik. "And I don't like westerns - they are kind of dull, actually. It's more about the characters' relationships to their own selves rather than it is about their relationships to each other. Because their relationship with each other is superficial." The LA Times describes Dominik's film as "an elegiac inquiry into fate"; the Melbourne Age as "meandering, long, intense and unrelenting". 
(10 September 2007)

Back to baddies 
Russell Crowe has impressed critics with his latest role in 3:10 to Yuma. After a string of less successful films, Crowe is back to what he does best: playing "the charming baddie". A remake of the 1957 film of the same title, 3:10 to Yuma forms part of this year's Western genre revival. Crowe stars alongside Christian Bale as Ben Wade, "a sociopath whose twinkly charm masks both his ruthlessness and his perverse integrity". Director James Mangold's previous films include Girl, Interrupted and Walk the Line. 
(7 September 2007)

Stuntwoman turned star 
NZ stuntwoman Zoe Bell is described as a "bona fide butt-kicker" in an August Marie Claire profile. Bell has gone from doubling Lucy Lawless in Xena and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill to making her acting debut in Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Death Proof. "I forgot I even had dialogue," said Bell, who stars as herself in Tarantino's ode to bloody B-movies. "I was like, 'Sweet, dude. Car stuff! That'd be a buzz.'" Born and raised on Waiheke Island, Bell now lives in California. According to a recent NZ Herald article, she has starring roles in several upcoming action films, one of which may be directed by Tarantino. "Do I want to be a bad guy, a good guy, a ninja, an assassin, a racing car driver or a cop?" she wondered in the interview. "I just want a really brilliant script. Great dialogue doubled with great action. That would be my ultimate." 
(4 August 2007)

Humane and humorous
Wellington-born character actor Gordon Gostelow has died aged 82. Raised in Sydney, Gostelow immigrated to the UK in 1950 to pursue acting professionally. The classic BBC serial became a staple of his career, and he appeared alongside such acting greats as Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Sean Connery in numerous Shakespeare and Dickens adaptations. According to his Guardian obituary, Gostelow's "gift for humane, humorous character sketches was singularly suitable" to these early BBC productions. One of his last appearances was in the popular television series Midsomer Murders in 1999. 
(20 July 2007)

First NZ star of silver screen 
NZ's first movie star has died in a Rotorua hospital aged 101. Witarina Harris, of Ngati Whakaue descent, was chosen by Universal Pictures to star as Princess Miro in the 1928 silent film Under the Southern Cross (later overdubbed as The Devil's Pit). Shot in NZ, the film was rediscovered by the late archivist Jonathan Dennis, who provided a copy to the NZ Film Archives. Witarina Harris became the Film Archives' patron and travelled to film festivals in Europe till her mid-90s. She was presented with a Taiki Ngapara lifetime achievement award at the NZ Film Archives 25th anniversary gathering in December 2006. 
(12 June 2007)

On and off-screen success story
Anna Paquin's career has soared to new heights since her starring role in the blockbuster X-Men franchise. Her upcoming films include Margaret and Trick r' Treat, and she stars in (and executive produces with brother, Andrew) Blue State, a political comedy about the 2004 US elections. "The nuts-and-bolts numbers stuff is more my brother's department; his background is finance," she said in an interview with Backstage.com. "The areas I was more concerned about were the creative ones. I have plenty of opinions on all kinds of things. So between our diverse backgrounds, my brother and I make a very good team." Paquin is also enjoying success on the small screen, with lead roles in the telefilm Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and the eagerly anticipated vampire series, True Blood - both for hit-maker HBO.
(21 May 2007)

Tintin gets Jackson treatment 
Dream Works has hired Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg to direct and produce three feature films based on the popular Tintin comic series. According to Variety, each filmmaker will direct one of the movies, but it is not yet known who will direct the third. Both Jackson and Spielberg are described as lifelong long fans of Tintin, the Belgian boy reporter created by Georges Remi (1907-1983) under the pen name Hergé. "We couldn't think of a better way to honour Hergé's legacy than this announcement within days of the 100th anniversary of his birth, May 22, 1907," said Fanny Rodwell, Hergé's widow and president of Hergé Studios in Brussels. The films will be shot using the digital 3-D technique known as performance capture, made famous by Jackson's Weta Digital effects house in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 
(16 May 2007)

Webby Celeb 
Mt Maunganui raised Jessica Rose has been named best actress in the 11th annual Webby Film and Video Awards in a special achievement category, for her performance in the fictional YouTube video blog “lonelygirl15”. Fellow recipients of Webby special achievement awards include David Bowie, “The e-Bay Community” and YouTube Co-Founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. Webby organisers said that Rose has "defined the role of the internet celebrity" and is "an integral founder of the new form of entertainment." Rose was previously voted No. 1 Web Celeb for 2006 by Forbes Magazine and continues to attract six-digit audiences online. Later this year a UK version of the lonelygirl phenomenon will launch on social networking site Bebo. The series of fictional video diaries – renamed KateModern – will be scripted by original LA-based creators Miles Beckett, Greg Goodfried and Mesh Flinders, but will utilise British talent on both sides of the web-cam. 
(2 May 2007)

Travelling in the reel 
Adam Hartzell, a writer for US film blog Daily Greencine, "travels, reads, watches and sips his way through NZ". On his five-day tour he (ironically) attends the Latin American Film Festival in Wellington, the Australian Film Festival in Auckland, visits the NZ Film Commission and reads essays by director Peter Wells and poet Kate Camp in Four Winds Press's On Going to the Movies. With the aim of extending his knowledge of the country, Hartzell also purchases Sam Edwards and Helen Martin's New Zealand Film 1912-1996, Jill Caldwell and Christopher Brown's 8 Tribes: The Hidden Classes of New Zealand and Speaking Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals Rethink New Zealand by Laurence Simmons. "[This] is the benefit of traveling in the real along with the screen," he writes. "We are confronted with the complexity of the reality on the ground that cinema can't fully represent. Just as films can frustrate simple genre classifications, the beautiful clerk at the front desk in Wellington made sure I knew that all of New Zealand wasn't the rugby mad nation I presumed." 
(1 May 2007)

International appeal 
Valerie Reid's Sand Dancer has won Best Documentary in its first US screening, at the Foursite Film Festival in Utah. The award is the latest in a string of wins for the film, including the Audience Choice Award at Taipei's Golden Horse International Short Competition and Best Documentary at the MAGMA International Shorts Fest in Rotorua. "Winning the Audience Choice Award in Taipei confirms that Sand Dancer crosses all languages and cultures," says Reid. "I think that audiences and film makers alike have enjoyed Sand Dancer because the film's message of following your heart applies to us all." Sand Dancer is a ten minute documentary about legendary NZ sand artist Peter Donnelly, filmed at New Brighton Beach in Christchurch. It is the only NZ short to be selected for New York's prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, March 12-20. 
(13 March 2007)

Local? Outrageous! 
NZ TV series Outrageous Fortune has caused a storm across the Tasman, but not for its adult content. Australian screenwriters are threatening protests and possible strikes over a decision by Channel Nine to include the program in its mandatory local drama quota. Outrageous Fortune currently accounts for about 30 of the 250 points of local drama needed by Channel Nine to maintain its broadcasting licence. Despite a 1997 Australian High Court ruling states that NZ programs can count as local, a "tacit agreement" has always existed between television stations and the national industry that the rule would not be abused. "Something has changed," says Screen Producers Association of Australia executive director, Geoff Brown. "This is a fight for us: if one network gets away with it, what are the others going to do? We will be in the streets in February and March." Outrageous Fortune is subsidised by the NZ government, which provides $NZ400,000 in funding per episode. 
(8 January 2007)

Hobbit back in Jackson's court 
Peter Jackson has settled his long-running legal dispute with New Line and will make The Hobbit for the studio as originally planned. Jackson and his creative partner Fran Walsh have announced that they will produce two films based on the book, but it is unlikely that Jackson will direct either of them. "Peter won't be directing because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit," says Jackson's manager, Ken Kamins. "It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct and produce two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran, and Phillippa to write, direct and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer." The first of the two films will be a straight adaptation of The Hobbit; the second a new creation by Jackson and Walsh linking The Hobbit to the first Lord of the Rings instalment. Pre-production on both films begins in 2009. 
(18 December 2007)

Good morning Beijing
NZ journalist Edwin Maher, the first Western news anchor on Chinese state television, has received China's highest honour for foreigners. Maher was awarded the Chinese government's "Friendship Award" in a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People. Maher has been the Western face of Chinese broadcasting since 2003, when he was hired by China Central Television's English Channel (CCTV-9). He has often been criticised by his Western contemporaries for being a mouthpiece for China's communist leadership. "You can never please everybody all of the time," he says in response. "But you can try within the parameters of the system and environment that the broadcasters operate to provide a better standard of news bulletin." Maher began his broadcasting career in Wellington in 1965 at what is now Radio New Zealand National. He also worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for nearly 20 years. 
(10 December 2007)

Making a splash with splatter 
A current trend for home-grown horror in NZ film is noted by Variety magazine. The article points to recent features Black Sheep, The Tattooist and The Ferryman as examples of the genre by first-time NZ directors. "New Zealand's own market can't possibly support our films so we have to find a way that the world will buy our films," says Jonathan King, writer/director of Black Sheep and The Tattooist. "It's a way of making something that gets noticed in the rest of the world." Black Sheep has racked up US $4.5 million worldwide and The Tattooist has made US $500,000 in NZ. The Ferryman, directed by Chris Graham, has just been purchased for US distribution by First Look Studios. 
(13 December 2007)

An actor's dream 
Actor Casey Afleck described NZ-born director Andrew Dominick as a "genius" while promoting Dominick's new film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. "Someone said: 'The man who made Chopper is making another movie'. And I said 'I want to be in it. Any actor would be a fool not to want to work with that guy,'" said Afleck in an interview with the Melbourne Age. "Genius makes people nervous. It is hard to be around, because people feel they have to live up to it; in this case, they had to be as prepared, as talented and insightful as Andrew and that is difficult for people." Afleck plays Robert Ford in the film, opposite Brad Pitt's Jesse James. 
(25 October 2007)

Conchords take flight in UK 
Flight of the Conchords, the HBO series starring NZ comedians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, is ranked eighth on the Guardian's 50 must-see shows. Described as "a downbeat winner", Conchords debuts on BBC4 this month. The series has been a sleeper hit in the US, where it launched earlier this year. 
(8 September 2007)

Bags of talent 

NZ daredevil lands Lost role 
Stunt-woman Zoe Bell has landed another high profile acting role in the US. Fresh from playing herself in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Bell has secured a part in the hit TV series Lost. She will also star in two upcoming action movies and is currently discussing a range of projects with MTV. "It's confusing ... as a stunt person you can avoid a certain layer of that [exposure] but it's really interesting times," she said in Sydney's Daily Telegraph. Bell grew up on Waiheke Island and made her stunt debut on Shortland Street. She has since doubled Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess and Uma Thurman in Tarantino's Kill Bill films. 
(26 October 2007)

The funniest thing on TV
Guardian reviewer Tim Jonze has dubbed Flight of the Conchords "the funniest thing on TV" as the cult HBO series goes to air on the BBC. Conchords stars NZ comics Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie as two musicians struggling to make it in New York. "A kind of Mighty Boosh meets Peep Show, the show documents the lives of Bret and Jemaine, two struggling musicians whose manager never seems to get them any gigs and whose fan (yep, they only have the one) makes Mark Chapman look like the definition of stability," writes Jonze. "It works, not just because it's so funny, but because the pair are clearly in love with the songs they parody."
(22 September 2007)

Home-grown horror at Frightfest
Two NZ films made the line-up for this year's Frightfest, the UK's leading fantasy and horror film festival. "Ovine horror comedy" Black Sheep and "the unclassifiable - and absolutely hilarious" The Devil Dared Me To both screened to packed houses at London's Odeon West End theatre, August 23-27. Black Sheep is the debut feature from writer/director Jonathan King, while The Devil Dared Me To comes courtesy of Chris Stapp, the brains behind NZ comedy series Back of the Y. 
(18 August 2007)

LonelyGirl signs off 
NZ internet sensation Jessica Lee Rose has ended her starring role on the hit web drama LonelyGirl15. Rose's character, Bree, was killed off by a sinister religious cult known as The Order, ending her 260-episode run on the web drama. "I was real emotional, filming that," said Rose. "I'm really going to miss filming LonelyGirl." The Mount Maunganui-raised actress is now appearing in the ABC Family show Greek, and has roles in the upcoming films Perfect Sport and I Know Who Killed Me. She has also signed on to a TV series titled E-lebrity, with fellow online stars Taryn Southern and Stevie Ryan. 
(5 August 2007)

Weisz on board for Lovely Bones
Oscar-winning English actress Rachel Weisz has signed on for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. Weisz will play the mother of the film's dead narrator, in a role that has been significantly expanded from Alice Sebold's book. The casting of Susie Salmon, Weisz's daughter in the film, is the subject of great speculation in Hollywood, with observers waiting to see whether the role will be played by an unknown or established actress. Weisz has appeared in films such as The Mummy, About a Boy and The Fountain, and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Constant Gardener in 2005. 
(14 June 2007)

Top of his game 
New Zealander Bob Hayward has found success in the highly competitive US film industry. Based in Los Angeles, Hayward is the Chief Operating Officer and founding partner of Summit Entertainment, an independent distribution company turned film studio established in 1993. Summit began as a foreign distributor of English-language films and now makes, promotes and distributes its own movies. Its most successful script acquisitions to date include Mr and Mrs Smith and Memento. Hayward graduated from Auckland University in 1982 and promptly embarked on an OE that is yet to finish. "When I first landed, I thought, 'God, I'm going to the land of whizzkids; I'm going to seem like the yokel from the country' - and actually I did very well," he said in a recent NZ Herald interview. Hayward has since worked in 35 different countries and, prior to founding Summit, did internal audits for United International Pictures and ran theatres for Cannon Films. 
(June 2007)

Conchords viral captures US 
Flight of the Conchords, the HBO series based on the NZ comedy act of the same name, has premiered in the US. HBO launched the series with a headline-grabbing viral campaign, which allowed viewers to watch and share the first episode online. "We're really proud of the show and the strategy given the primary targeted audience of young adults," said HBO marketing vice president Courteney Monroe. "We wanted to get it in as many hands as possible." Flight of the Conchords, which stars Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, has been well received by critics, despite (or perhaps because of) its NZ-style deadpan humour. A New York magazine review describes the show as "much funnier than it sounds" and "a welcome relief from the crippling smugness that has overtaken Entourage". 
(24 May 2007)

The Rings effect continues 
NZ features in a new weekly video series on international branding practices by British marketing guru Martin Lindstrom. In Altering the Brand of a Country: How Movies Hurt Columbia and Help New Zealand, Lindstrom investigates the positive impact on global perceptions of NZ caused by films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. "One need look no further than ... New Zealand to understand how motion pictures have become the most potent marketing force for a country brand," reads Lindstrom's program guide on Adage.com. 
(21 May 2007)

DreamWorks nets Jackson
DreamWorks SKG has won a week-long Hollywood bidding war for Peter Jackson's latest film. Jackson made his screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones available on the open market last week, generating interest from major studios Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. DreamWorks reportedly won the right to finance the film due to Jackson's relationship with its founder - Steven Spielberg. DreamWorks also has a successful history in promoting similarly "risky" adult dramas, with its Oscar-winning tragicomedy American Beauty grossing US $353 million worldwide. The Lovely Bones is about a 14-year-old girl who watches her family from heaven after her brutal rape and murder. Jackson will begin filming in Pennsylvania (where Sebold's novel is set) in October; special effects will be shot at his Wellington studio. 
(5 May 2007)

Cliff's time in the sun 
NZ actor Cliff Curtis has a starring role in Sunshine, the latest critically acclaimed film by English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). The film is a futuristic sci-fi thriller about a spaceship crew on a mission to re-ignite Earth's dying Sun. The Hollywood Reporter calls it "an extraordinary film, operating at simultaneously visceral, psychological and spiritual levels." The Times places it firmly in "that preStar Wars tradition of science-fiction films, such as Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky's Solaris, that probe the Big Stuff: God, Reality and What Makes Us Human." Curtis plays the ship's medical officer-cum-psychologist, Searle. "Just before Whale Rider I decided I can't play any more gangsters or drug dealers or terrorists for a while, and Sunshine was one of the first ones to give me the opportunity," said Curtis in the NZ Herald. "Since then I've stayed consistent to that." His upcoming international roles include the FBI's head of cyber defence in the latest Die Hard instalment and a "skinny brown dread-locked Obi Wan Kenobi dude" in the prehistoric epic 10,000 BC. 
(8 April 2007)