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Bring on the sheep jokes...
Following a rousing reception at this year's Toronto Film Festival, NZ film Black
Sheep has sparked a "bidding frenzy" amongst distributors in Asia,
Latin America and Europe. The film was recently acquired by IFC Entertainment
and The Weinstein Company for theatrical release in North America, after equally
intense negotiations. A horror-comedy in the vein of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste
and Braindead, Black Sheep is about a murderous pack of genetically mutated
sheep. It is written and directed by Jonathan King and features special effects
by Wellington's Weta Workshop.
(11 November 2006)


Conchords take flight in US
America's HBO network has commissioned a 12-part
series based on Kiwi folk music parody duo Flight of the Conchords. Bret
McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are to star in the series, which will feature
original songs from their award-winning comedy act. A pilot episode has already
been shot, with the help of Ali G director James Bobin and Everybody Loves
Raymond executive producer Stu Smiley. The Conchords have previously appeared on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC), The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
(CBS) and One Night Stand (HBO), and starred in their own BBC2 radio series. HBO
is renowned for producing high-risk hits such as Sex & the City and The
Sopranos.
(11 September 2006)


Another classic set for Edge treatment
Peter Jackson is heading a big budget remake of classic British war film, The
Dam Busters. Jackson will produce the movie, with fellow Kiwi and long time
collaborator, Christian Rivers, making his directing debut. The 1954 film told
the true story of how British forces developed bouncing bombs to destroy German
dams in World War II. Jackson fell in love with the film after seeing it as a
child. "There's that wonderful mentality of the British during the war -
that heads-down, persevering, keep-on-plugging-away mentality which is the
spirit of Dam Busters," he told industry trade paper, Screen Daily. The
US$30-40 million project is due to start filming next year.
(31 August 2006)


From screen to stage, Henderson impresses
Kiwi actor Martin Henderson is currently walking the boards at London's Apollo
Theatre with a lead role in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love. Henderson stars
alongside American actress Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers) in the bleak
story of sexual desperation, which shocked American audiences on its original
1983 release. Henderson's performance is the strongest of the cast, according to
Guardian critic Michael Billington. "There's a telltale moment when Eddie
lassoes a bedpost in a demonstration of macho power: Henderson does it with the
negligent ease of a man who has spent half his life in the saddle. But he also
implies that Eddie, for all his imposing authority, is fundamentally weak:
however much he may lust after May or bully her date, he is reduced to a
quivering wreck when his current meal ticket comes in pursuit of him in a black
Mercedes."
(16 June 2006)


Too much too soon?
The release of United 93 -
the first Hollywood film about 9/11 - has sparked controversy in the US, as well
as further afield in NZ.
Directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy), United 93
follows in real time the one flight which failed to reach its intended target,
instead crashing in a Pennsylvania field and killing all on board. Subsequent
cockpit voice recordings reveal an attempt to overpower the terrorists by a
group of passengers. One of these passengers was Alan Beaven, a NZ environmental
lawyer played in the film by British actor Simon Poland. "For me
personally, I'm not sure I'd go [to the film.] I think it would be a little too
close to home," says brother Ralph Beaven in Stuff. "I don't want to
go down that track again. It would be very emotionally charged, especially
seeing someone else represent your brother." United 93 opens in the US
April 28.
(16 April 2006)


Flux flexes its global muscle
Auckland-based Flux Animation has
signed a $US5.7 million contract to work on the eagerly anticipated Singaporean
children's series, Master
Raindrop. Flux joins Singapore's Big Communications and German television
company Yoram Gross-EM on the project, which has already been sold to
Australia's Seven Network, TVNZ and Nickleodeon Asia. A 2D/3D animated action
adventure comedy series, Master Raindrop is based on classic Asian myths and
legends. "This will be the first official co-production between NZ and
Singapore," says Flux managing director Brent Chambers. "It represents
a huge step forward for the NZ industry."
(29 April 2006)

Kiwi contributes to Anger canon
Auckland University graduate Alice
Hutchison has written an internationally acclaimed book on cult 1960s
filmmaker Kenneth Anger, the artist who many believed defined the Age of
Aquarius with such iconic works as Invocation of My Demon Brother (scored by
Mick Jagger), Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (which anticipated 60's
psychedelia), and Lucifer Rising (the final piece in the acclaimed Magick
Lantern cycle). Titled simply Kenneth Anger, the book has already been hailed as
one of the definitive pieces on the notoriously difficult and reclusive artist.
A Film Journal review describes Hutchison's work as "stunningly produced
… Gaining permission [from Anger] to reproduce a huge range of film stills,
many of them not previously published, is Hutchison's triumph." Read the
Listener story on Hutchison's book here.
(November 2005)


No.2 No.1
Toa Fraser's debut feature No.2 won the World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic at
the 25th Sundance
Film Festival in February. "[From] a humble backyard in Mt. Roskill in
the Pacific, on behalf of the hundreds of people that worked on and invested in
the movie, we want to thank the audiences of the Sundance Film Festival, for
coming and celebrating life with us," said Fraser in his acceptance speech.
"God bless Mt. Roskill." Two World Cinema Audience awards are bestowed
at Sundance each year, one for dramatic film the other for documentary.
(10 February 2006)


Keith gets the Grammy
Whangarei-born country music sensation, Keith Urban, has won his first Grammy
Award. Urban was named best male country vocal performer ahead of Toby Keith,
Willie Nelson, George Jones, Delbert McClinton and Brad Paisley. This follows
his best entertainer and male vocalist trophies at last year's Country Music
Awards. Urban's Grammy win was nearly overshadowed by his date to the awards -
actress Nicole
Kidman, the first public appearance by the couple.
(17 February 2006)


All features great and small
Debate over the effects of big budget US films such as King Kong and the
Narnia series being filmed in NZ continues, with most in favour of the Hollywood
blockbusters. "The blockbusters have been phenomenally helpful for people
like us trying to get a film made," says Toa Fraser, whose debut feature
No.2 recently won an audience award at Sundance. "I embrace the
blockbusters and the Hollywood back lot as long as we can use it to tell our own
stories." Hollywood funded films have boosted local production financing to
a record NZ$596 million ($406 million) in the year ended 31 March 2005, from
roughly NZ$300 million in 1999. "That two of the biggest films in the world
were made in NZ is an extraordinary achievement,'' says NZ Film Commission CEO
Ruth Harley. "Our industry is the most vibrant it has ever been."
(9 February 2006)

Juggling juggernauts with local stories
NY Times piece entitled 'Spunky NZ film Industry Takes on the Hollywood
Juggernaut' ponders the pros and cons of NZ's bold new presence in the
international film community. Interviewees such as director Vincent Ward and
producer John Barnett worry that big budget Hollywood projects shot in NZ have
driven up production costs for more modest, local films. "You get six years
of Xena and Hercules, three or four years of Lord of the Rings or a year or two
of King Kong, and you have a whole generation of film crews who have worked only
on big-budget productions," says Barnett. "And they say, 'This is what
I get paid, and it's your problem if it's a low-budget job.'" NZ Film
Commission CEO Ruth Harley opposes the view that big budget projects stifle
their local counterparts, pointing out that "the year under review has been
one of the most successful in the organization's 27-year history, with more
local films being made than ever and more local films winning awards and acclaim
overseas." Producer Tim White, production designer Phil Ivey and OnFilm
editor Nick Gant also support the new balancing act between an international and
national film industry. "Those big films provide some continuity of work
for local film crews," says White. "Then those people bring skills
they've honed to smaller productions like [Toa Fraser's] No.2."
(2 January 2006)


The lion, the witch and the evangelicals
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will not only be doing battle at the
box-office but also for the souls of mankind, according to an article published
in the Guardian. US groups such as Catholic Outreach and the National
Association of Evangelicals intend to use the film - and its projected sequels -
as a preaching tool to reach the masses, due to its overtly Christian themes and
symbolism. Bill Pullman, acclaimed fantasy author and vocal critic of Narnia's
creator, C.S Lewis, describes the popular series as "a peevish blend of
racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice; but of love, of Christian
charity, [there is] not a trace." Disney's marketing campaign for the first
Narnia instalment - filmed in NZ by Kiwi Andrew Adamson - is one of the biggest
in recent cinema history.
(16 October 2005)


Local epic lures Donaldson home
An interview with The World's Fastest Indian director Roger Donaldson is the
cover story for the October issue of Inside Film. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins,
the feature is described as the culmination of a 30-year dream for Donaldson,
who made a documentary about the film's subject - Invercargill land speed record
holder Burt Munro - back in 1971. As well as speaking about the movie itself,
the US-based director talks about the present state of the NZ film industry
("pretty impressive… NZ seems to make a fair mark for itself") and
his own desire to make more films back home. "I've got some [films] in
development and some more movies I'd like to make in NZ," he says. "If
I had a great science fiction movie to make or something like that I'd
definitely think about making it in NZ … I'm always looking for some excuse to
come back."
(October 2005)


The sweet sound of success
Dilworth School alum Mark Petrie (above
right) is carving an impressive career in film and television scoring in LA.
Petrie completed a degree in film composing at Boston’s Berklee School of Music
in 1999. He is now working for the company which creates music for reality TV
shows The Apprentice, Rock Star INXS and The Biggest Loser,
as well as running his own music production house,
MX IN. Last year Petrie won the
award for Best Score for his work on Cuban-American film Café and Tobacco at the
Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado.
(August 2005)


Hot property
Actor Martin Csokas is hailed as “the new Russell Crowe” in the July issue of
Australian Vogue. Csokas’ recent projects include The Bourne Supremacy with Matt
Damon, Asylum with Natasha Richardson and Sir Ian McKellen, Ridley Scott
blockbuster Kingdom of Heaven, WW2 action flick The Great Raid,
and the hotly anticipated Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron. “I’ve had a run
of films, now I’m getting myself together,” he says. “[LA] is as nice a place as
anywhere and it’s practical.”
(July 2005)


Cinderella Man
Russell Crowe won widespread acclaim for his role in Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man. Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “At the centre of all
[its] richness is another irresistible star turn by Crowe. As his Oscar-winning
performance in Gladiator proved, no contemporary actor is better at
conveying an uncluttered personal integrity and nobility of spirit. You just
want to hug the guy.”
Kansas City Star: “If there were ever any doubt that Russell Crowe is
the greatest screen actor of his generation, Cinderella Man should put
matters to rest." Read Interview's pre-phone fracas profile
here.
(June 2005)


One for the mantelpiece
Sam Neill won the Silver Logie for Most
Outstanding Actor in a Drama for his role in Jessica at Australia’s 47th
annual TV Week Logie Awards. Neill also presented the Gold Logie, which was won
by comic and presenter Rove McManus.
(2 May 2005)

Olympus comes to Aotearoa
Hercules, a Hallmark Productions (US) telemovie starring Leelee Sobieski,
Sean Astin, and Timothy Dalton, used the NZ countryside as a stand-in for
ancient Greece. “The story requires a bigger-than-life place,” says Dalton. “It
needs to be ... something like an Eden, raw and pure and majestic. And that’s
what NZ was.”
(16 May 2005)

Peter
Jackson most powerful
Reports
of the list of Hollywood's power people compiled by Premiere magazine for their
June issue have revealed that Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson is the
most powerful. According to the reports, director Steven Spielberg came second
while Steve Jobs and John Lasseter, heads of Pixar jointly came third. Stars
Wars creator George Lucas was 11th, while Tom Cruise was the highest placed
actor at No14. (9 May 2005)

Dinosaurs down under
The fourth installation of Jurassic
Park is rumoured to be filming in NZ later this year, with Sam Neill
reprising his role as Dr Grant. Visual Effects maestro Stan Winston aims to
“raise the bar and bring the world something extraordinary.”
(11 April 2005)
Kiwi bunny and the Princess has E! Hit
Former Playboy Bunny, New Zealander Sandra Costa continues to turn vision into reality. Today, an international business woman and entrepreneur, Costa’s clients are amongst the “Rich and Famous”. President of Sandra Costa Development, interior design and build company and COO of MME Worldwide, a music entertainment and management company based in Hollywood, Costa takes charge of celebrities homes and careers including actress and songwriter Princess Ann Claire who stars in the Hit reality show “ Love is in the Heir “ that recently finished its first season screening on E! The show is based on reality, improv and humor. Princess Ann Claire, Iranian royal heiress, rejects the royal lifestyle in search of her own identity, which means living in Los Angeles and Nashville, looking for an acceptable husband and pursuing a career as a country singer. The “Princess”, managed and mentored by Costa, is proud to be half Kiwi (her great-grandmother was the first woman to wear slacks and drive a Ford in New Zealand).
(2005)


Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens are to develop the Alice Sebold
novel The Lovely Bones as their next film after King Kong. Though "The
Lovely Bones" is not on the order of a major fantasy trilogy, Jackson said
the book has its own complexities. The book opens with the revelation that
14-year old narrator and main character Susie Salmon was raped and murdered.
From heaven, she watches how the people left behind handle her tragedy.
"It's the best kind of fantasy in that it has a lot to say about the real
world," Jackson said. "You have an experience when you read the book
that is unlike any other. I don't want the tone or the mood to be different or
lost in the film." The most perplexing problem, said Jackson, is how to
convey Susie in heaven. "It's cleverly not described that well in the book,
because Alice wanted your imagination to do the work and decide what Susie's
heaven looks and feels like," Jackson said. "We will have to show
something on film. It has to be somehow ethereal and emotional."
(18 January 2005)


Breaking new ground
Phil Keoghan’s US profile continues to climb, with a hit TV series and
inspirational book -
No Opportunity Wasted: Creating a List for Life – under his belt.
Currently in his fifth season presenting Emmy Award-winning reality show, The
Amazing Race, Keoghan’s next starring role is fronting the highly anticipated
serialised TV adaptation of No Opportunity Wasted for the Discovery Channel.
(16 November 2004)


Two for Parr
Larry Parr’s Fracture
scooped two major awards at the St Tropez Film Festival in October. Auckland’s
Kate Elliot won Best Actress and the film was voted most popular festival entry
by the audience. “We are delighted by Fracture's success,” says NZ Film
spokeswoman Kathleen Drumm in
Stuff.
“These awards have substantially increased its chances of being picked up by a
US distributor in Los Angeles.”
(28 October 2004)


Comedy with a conscience
The Ball, an Australian spoof of
The Piano by Anny Slater, has been nominated by the UN for a Media Peace
Prize. According to Canada’s St Johns Film Festival, “The Ball is a
hilarious homage to and critique of Jane Campion's The Piano … In a few
brilliantly crafted images, The Ball manages to score major laughs of
recognition, as the mute heroine, Ada, travels to NZ to meet her new husband
with her Scottish terrier and her soccer ball. Mistaking refugee-challenged
Australian Prime Minister John Howard for her husband, Ada must deal with his
strange demands and the loss of her precious ball.”
(12 September 2004)

Just don’t ask him to assume the brace position
Auckland armour maker, Warren Ormsby-Green,
made Web India’s ‘What in the Weird’ equivalent with his air travel
exploits. Ormsby-Green, who created pieces for LotR and The Last
Samurai, wears a full set of armour when travelling by plane to avoid excess
baggage charges. “The reactions I get can be pretty amusing,” he says. “Some
people are very interested, some people laugh and some people can't even look at
me.”
(30 September 2004)


King of the jungle
20-year-old Turanga Merito has assumed
the lead role of Simba in the Sydney production of The Lion King, after
fellow Kiwi Vincent Harder bowed out for family reasons. The Disney blockbuster
draws a minimum of 16,000 viewers a week. “I'm so humbled by all of it but it
gets a little scary sometimes,” said Merito to the
NZ Herald. “Sometimes I wonder how did this Maori boy from Okere Falls
in Rotorua get here?” NZ performers play five of the nine principal roles in the
show, as well as two ensemble parts.
(14 August 2004)

Snakes alive
NZ company Silverscreen is collaborating with British and Taiwanese financiers
on a film version of an ancient Chinese legend. Lady White
Snake will be filmed in English with a budget of US$40 million. Cast and
crew are at present under wraps, but a "leading-edge
woman from New Zealand" is rumoured to be in the director's seat.
(13 July 2004)


“The estimable John Clarke”
Telemovie adaptations of Shane Maloney’s
novels Stiff and The Brush Off by NZ comic John Clarke were a
critical and ratings success in Australia, the former netting more than
1.3 million
viewers on its one-off screening. Age: “Both films exhibit an
infectious sense of the absurd and are graced by the especially tasty flavour of
Clarke's distinctive writing. Not only does it spice both films but much of the
time [David] Wenham even appears to be channelling Clarke in his performance (in
much the same way that Kenneth Branagh does Woody Allen in Celebrity).”
Clarke scripted both films and directed Stiff; fellow Kiwi Sam Neill
directed The Brush Off.
(29 June 2004)

Kiwi cuisine
The NZ Film Commission party provided
the best food at Cannes, according to a festival in the Age. The
NZFC flew in six top chefs from Auckland for the event.
(23 May 2004)


Jane and the Weta
Weta Workshop is collaborating
with
Toronto-based animation house Nelvana to produce a CGI television series of
Martin Baynton's popular Jane and the Dragon books. The 26-episode series
is Weta's first foray into children's programming. "We
have enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to create a fantastical world around the
writings of J.R.R. Tolkien," says Weta Workshop founder Richard Taylor. "It is
therefore a great treat to be able to create our own world for Jane and her
Dragon."
(2 April 2004)


Taking Maori stories to the world
Whale Rider star Rawiri Paratene visited Hawaii in mid-April to discuss
cultural themes in the film and NZ as a tourist destination. “Whale Rider
has been a boom for Maori filmmakers,” said Paratene, who is now writing
dramatic segments for the newly instated Maori television network. “It’s a
validation that our stories can reach the world and affect people.” To
conclude his Star Bulletin interview Paratene described co-star and
Oscar nominee, Keisha Castle-Hughes, as “New Zealand’s best marketing tool.”
(14 April 2004)


Stopping traffic
Cliff Curtis is one of the key
protagonists in the US miniseries Traffic - an adaptation of the
Oscar-nominated film by the same name. Ever the ethnic chameleon (previous roles
include Cuban, Iraqi, and Colombian characters), Curtis plays an illegal
immigrant from one of the former Soviet states. Indy Star: "This
is an explosive role, cast with a strong actor."
(25 January 2004)

Taranaki’s Hollywood ambassador
Tom Cruise sang the praises of Aotearoa to the US on his promotional
tour for The Last Samurai, the Japanese military epic filmed largely in
Taranaki. As well as the beautiful scenery and friendly locals, he was
particularly taken with the adventure tourism the region had to offer, namely
surfing, caving and sea kayaking. Age: “Qantas has John Travolta as its
Hollywood face. Perhaps New Zealand should sign up Tom Cruise.”
(12 January 2004)


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)


Bell Jar blues
Sylvia, Christine Jeffs’
high-profile biopic of poet Sylvia Plath starring Gwyneth Paltrow and filmed
partly in NZ, described by New York Times'
critic A.O. Scott as “emotionally rich … Ms Jeffs has a lyrical sensibility that matches
her subject”. Andrew Sarris in the New
York Observer calls it as "one of the most graceful and
beautiful films of the year." IndieWire,
who interviewed Jeffs, hailed the film as an all-around success: “In addition to
the performances, the direction is top-notch, which shouldn’t be a surprise to
anyone who saw NZ director Christine Jeffs’ debut feature, 2002’s Rain.”
Guardian feature, 'Breaking
the celluloid ceiling' notes that this year's London Film
Festival was for the first time ever, opened and closed by films from
(NZ) female directors - Jane Campion (In the Cut) and Jeffs. Still, the
question is asked: "[W]hy
- in the 75-year history of the Oscars - have only two women ever been nominated
for Best Director (Italian Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties in 1976 and New
Zealander Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993?"
(October 2003)


A star is Bourne
NZ actor Karl Urban, currently galloping across screens as Eomer in the LotR
trilogy, will next appear in two major Hollywood sequels – for cult sci-fi /
horror flick, Pitch Black, and as Matt Damon’s nemesis in the follow up
to 2002 hit, The Bourne Identity. The second installment in Robert
Ludlam’s Bourne series - adapted from novel to screen by Tony Gilroy - begins
shooting later this year.
(7 October 2003)


Multi-layered myth-making
Japan Times review places Niki Caro’s Whale Rider alongside
Once Were Warriors and The Piano as one of the pivotal moments in NZ
cinema. “…Caro presents myth both as a connection with a deeper, mystical
understanding of the world as well as a pragmatic parable, a code for living
that transcends generations, providing stability and continuity, a metaphor for
understanding our lives.” The film's lead Keisha Castle Hughes,
has recently been cast as a “regal leader” in the latest Star Wars instalment,
(10 September 2003)


Making Hollywood inroads
NZ actor Martin Csokas (Rain, Shortland Street, XXX) is in
the running for the lead role in Ridley’s Scott’s next film, Kingdom of
Heaven. The epic period drama centres on a young peasant-turned-knight who
falls in love with a queen during the Crusades. Paul Bettany, Orlando Bloom, and
Daniel Day-Lewis have also been mentioned for the part.
(1 October 2003)


Tamahori's triple-X factor
Lee Tamahori is going from Bond to Bond-inspired as the new director of xXx.
The second instalment in the lucrative franchise – in which Ice Cube replaces
Vin Diesel as the titular extreme athlete-turned-secret agent – will be released
in 2005.
(3 October 2003)

Here's to you Ms Hunter
Rachel Hunter subject of a Sky
One documentary and two-part interview with The Sun in early August. She
describes the documentary as an attempt to "draw a line under the whole Rod
thing" and return the focus to her own successful career as a model,
actress, and animal rights campaigner. Hunter's UK profile is soon
to be boosted by the screening of Denial - dubbed British TV's answer to Sex
& the City - in which she has a starring role.
(10 August 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)


Euphoria against the odds
The world premiere of Jane Campion's An
Angel at My Table was listed as one of the 50 greatest moments in the Sydney
Film Festival's first 50 years of running in a Sydney Morning Herald
feature. Despite being interrupted three times by projector problems -
"just the worst thing you can do to a director" - the film received a
"euphoric" standing ovation and caused "an unseemly rush by
distributors to get to Jane."
(6 June 2003)


NYNZ - Ihimaera on Whale Rider muse
Whale Rider author and ex-diplomat to the US Witi Ihimaera interviewed in
New York - the city where he penned the story behind the award-winning film.
"One morning I woke up to the sound of helicopters. A whale had come up the
Hudson River. My thoughts went back to Whangara, on the east coast of the North
Island, where my mother's family came from, where we believe our first ancestor
came to New Zealand on the back of a whale."
(1 June 2003)

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)

Whale raves: Part 2
Whale Rider's Australian release has unleashed a second wave of glowing
tributes. The Age: "[A] sharply observed, warm portrayal of a
community … of an indigenous people moving between certainties and
uncertainties." Sydney
Morning Herald: "[F]or the cause of [the film's] success, you need
look no further than the strength of its Maori cast, whose faces are so right
for the art of screen acting that the camera can't seem to get enough of
them." Australian:
"The film's heroine, stunningly played by the ebullient 11-year-old Keisha
Castle-Hughes, is an inspiration for girls the world over."
(8 May 2003)


Faceless fame
As the voice of Star Wars: Episode
II character Tuan We, NZ actress Rena Owen has added a strange new dimension
to her working life. Now based in LA, the Once Were Warriors star is a
regular attendee of various sci-fi conventions, signing autographs and posing
for photographs with fans of her CG persona. "It's been totally new
territory for me," she says.
(15 May 2003)


Boyd baffles in London
The Guardian art critic admits defeat in his attempts to explain Boyd
Webb's short film - Horse and Dog - currently on show at London's
Estorick Collection. Adrian Searle: "Immune to Webb's enigmas and
conundrums, I am left feeling like a spoilsport." The film is featured in
conjunction with a retrospective exhibition of Webb's beguiling work.
(30 April 2003)


Acting up
NZ actor Daniel Gillies (Street
Legal) is on the
brink of international stardom, with forthcoming roles in Hollywood blockbusters
SpiderMan
2 and Head in the Clouds, opposite Charlize Theron and Penelope
Cruz. Gillies landed the role of astronaut John Jamison - Kirsten Dunst's love
interest in the Spider Man sequel - just days before the movie began
shooting in the US.
(10 April 2003)


Everest: The Next Generation
Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay have collaborated on a National Geographic
documentary about Mount Everest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their
fathers' pioneering climb. Both have reached the famous summit themselves, and
are currently touring the U.S with a series of talks entitled "Revisiting
Mount Everest."
(16 March 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)

Cruisin' Taranaki
Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and
Gwyneth Paltrow are both currently on location in NZ. Paltrow is in Dunedin
filming scenes for Christine Jeff's adaptation of the life of Sylvia Plath,
while Cruise has set up home in Taranaki, where The Last Samurai is being
shot. Cruise is already befriending the locals. Said one neighbour: "We
were down in the paddock and he yelled out to the kids and introduced himself.
We had a little natter and he said what a wonderful spot it was."
(7 January 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)


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)

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)

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)

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)

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)
Don't bank on it "Maverick film
producer" Kiwi John Maynard, (All Men Are Liars, An Angel At My
Table co-produced with Jane Campion) is nominated
for Best Film by the Film Critics Circle of Australia for The
Bank - a movie said "to inspire as much faith in banks as George Dubya
Bush does in world peace". Check the official movie site here for
stills, links and reviews.
(March 2002)


Dawson's return
Australian media personality and regular on The Bert Newton Show,
NZer Charlotte Dawson packs up her Louis Vuitton trunks to return home to her
native country. "There are just so many more opportunities for me over
there ...There is an absolutely fantastic lifestyle in New Zealand", says
the former model once married to Aussie Olympian Scott Millar. "And am I so ready
to live that life".
(17 February 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)
 

"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)

Film
Success at Montreal
Still Life, a short film that tells the story of an elderly
couple who discover that love defies even death, took out top honours
in its category at the Montreal
Film Festival. It is the first New Zealand short to win the top award.
"I am absolutely thrilled and overwhelmed with the news of the film's
success" says director Sima Urale.
(11 September 2001)

Fox judging
Award winning edge-actress Kerry Fox sits in the judging seat for the 54th
Locarno International Film Festival.
Pdf Copy
(19 July 2001)

Intimate work
New Zealand actress Kerry Fox generates massive buzz for her award-winning
work in Patrice Chereau's Intimacy, based on the metro-culture sex and angst
stories of Hanif Kureishi. For Fox, the film was about "braving out a
truthful portrait of a sexual relationship", but was also "terrible to
shoot". The result is a film that forms the English language
van-guard of the "most urgent and relevant new European films".
(July 2001)
Fairytale victory
Kiwi co-directed Shrek is "a computer-generated miracle. Based
on William Steigs 28-page book, the film puts forward the most marvellous
case for the craziness of repressing fairytales since Sondheims musical Into
the Woods."
But, in Salon,
not everyone buys the computer hype.
(28 June 2001)
Ancient forest
Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World filmed in New Zealand "where there
are still forests that resemble those of the Cretaceous Period when the great
dinosaurs walked the land".
(18 June 2001)


Goodbye Xena
Xena, shown in 120 countries, focus of fan-mania and Star Trek-like
devotion, comes to an end. "We tried to take people on journeys that
you won't go through in your real life," says Lucy Lawless, musing on the
source of the Xena phenomenon. "You're not going to battle the Hindu
god of death, but we'll all battle the theme of death at some stage of
life".
(17 May 2001)
Curtain falls for Nyree Dawn Porter
"Forsyte sex symbol who conquered the
world", Kiwi-born and raised star of the
60's TV show The Forsyte Saga (watched by 100 milllion people in 26
countries) remembered in The
Telegraph, The
Guardian and The
Times. As Irene, the wronged wife of a Victorian 'man of property', Dorothy
Porter's "classical good looks" became
known world-wide and her performances "gripped a generation of viewers".
(12 April 2001)

Actress remembered
International
tributes continue for "cucumber-cool" New Zealand-born Forsyte
star Nyree Dawn Porter.
(12 April 2001)


Along came Lee
Along Came a Spider, edge-director Lee Tamahori's
Kiss the Girls
follow-up "skillfully builds the action" and "gives sequels a
good name".
(6 April 2001)

Serve up Sam
Sam Neill, currently showing in The Dish, is major star material: "Like Harrison Ford, he's an Everyman
with gravitas. Like Tom Hanks, he engages our sympathy innately. He's masculine
without being macho, handsome without being pretty, decent without being a
scold, and he's a fine, versatile actor."
(6 April 2001)
History revised?
Controversy and acclaim for edge-director Roger Donaldson's nuke-spook
Kennedy paean 13 Days. "Yet, despite these difficulties, the film works and ought to be
essential viewing for those too young to have been around in October 1962, or,
for that matter, anyone whose memories of that fearful time have grown less
acute," says the New
Statesman.
(3 March 2001)
"I will herd sheep"
"Never doubt you can accomplish the task given to you," says
Canadian film-maker Sean Buckley. "I had barely been on a horse before, but
there I was in New Zealand, needing a job. I said, 'I will herd sheep.' So I
learned on my own time and the next thing I know, I'm racing through the
mountains, herding sheep and having an incredible experience."
(10 March 2001)


Fairy tale ending
Xena meets her doom in the
finale of the wrapped series that turned Lucy Lawless stellar.
(19 March 2001)

Milk in Hawaii
Price of Milk
plays at the Hawaii International Film Festival.
(19 March 2001)

Hunter is home from the (Beverly) hills
Rachel Hunter features in a movie about a furry antipodean who gets lost and
ends up in LA...
(1 February 2001)


Lost in Te Anau
New Zealand-filmed BBC production of sci-fi dino classic The Lost
World set to be "a ripping yarn with some of the most exotic locations
we've seen in television drama".
(8 February 2001)


Political thrills
"I felt that this picture was made for me, because I love politics and I
love making thrillers," says Kiwi-spawned director Roger Donaldson of
missile-drama Thirteen Days, reviewed
as "a sleek, fast and clean race through the facts".
(29 January 2001)
Cultural resonance
''Everything I saw in this film I see in my own country,'' says Maori Jillian
White, speaking of Native Canadian films screened at Canada's Sundance festival.
(26 January 2001)

Greenstone hit
New Zealand historical drama Greenstone infiltrates Canada's
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
(15 January 2001)
Vertical #2
"Vertical Limit has its flaws - but they're not enough to dim
rousing, old-fashioned escapism which uses modern techno-skills to really put
you in the picture and on the mountain peak."
(24 December 2000)
 
Price of Milk
"So this film is my dream
about New Zealand, this make-believe country that seems almost empty of people"
- director Harry Sinclair on his dairy-tale romance, The
Price of Milk.
(December 2000)


Thirteen Days
Nuclear-brink thriller Thirteen Days, helmed by New Zealander Roger
Donaldson and tipped for awards, captures the "urgency, suspense and paralyzing
chaos of the Cuban missile crisis". Also, "What Thirteen Days sets out to do
it does admirably," says New
York mag. And, in Chicago
Sun-Times, "I'm ferocious about his movie," says Costner.
"Somebody has to fight for the good movies."
(November 2000)

PC Lost World
New Zealand will
host BBC's dinosaur/sci-fi classic The Lost World. Offensive passages, referring to "sub-humans noted
for their savage behaviour and low intellects" will be removed, cutting
down the number of politicians moonlighting as extras. Paul Riddell remains unconvinced of New Zealand's lost world credentials.
(12 November 2000)

Sam Neill is in LA filming Jurassic
3
The grounds of his temporary
residence are described as "park-like"...
(29 October 2000)

Devils' Playground
"If they were human they would be regarded as severely dysfunctional."
New Zealander Rod Morris on Tasmanian Devils, the stars of The Devil's
Playground, which has won him a Wildscreen Panda - wildlife film's most
coveted award.
(16 October 2000)

Tamahori:
Edge iconoclast
The Boston Globe profiles the
Boston Film/Video Foundation, mentioning Kiwi Lee Tamahori, along with Rose
Troche (Go Fish) and Whit Stillman (Barcelona) as an "international
iconoclast" from their "Meet
the Director" series.
(24 September 2000)


Sam Neills Jurassic reprise
After a reworked script Sam Neil has signed on for his third outing as Alan
Grant in the Jurassic park trilogy.
(12 September 2000)
Sssshhh! Silence is regulated Golden
A multiplex in Birmingham banning kissing in its cinemas prompted the BBC to
investigate cinema etiquette leading them to uncover the news that an independent cinema
in Wellington, New Zealand, banned crisps from its snack bar in an attempt to
spare film fanatics from the incessant rustlings of hard-to-open foil packets.
(15 August 2000)

Rogue Anna Paquin is Premiere Cover mutant
Playing the character of 'Rogue' in Bryan Singer's (Usual Suspects)
blockbuster adaptation of comic legend X-Men, Anna Paquin makes the
special edition cover of July's Premiere. Like Paquin's Oscar
winning acting talent, Rogue is known for her ability to 'absorb'. Find
out how Paquin's 'endowment' became a point of controversy on the set.
(July 2000)

Jesus and the second coming
Kiwi director Alison Maclean wowed Cannes with the moody Crush, then took
a seven year maturing process, through Sex and the City, Homicide
and a Natalie Imbruglia music video, to release the indie-hit Jesus' Son.
The seven year itch has been redeemed by critical and popular success. Ripe
affirmation for Maclean (and the nzedge) who, "feels happiest on the
avant-garde edge of the film industry".
(2 July 2000)

From one edge to another to take up the Haka challenge
From Vancouver on the edge of the Atlantic, director Jonathan Tammuz will
continue a global roll to the edge of the Pacific to direct "Haka" an
1850s-set $30million British production. The production will be filmed in New
Zealand later this year.
(30 June 2000)

Alison Maclean gives Jesus' Son the Kitchen Sink treatment
The story of a grunged out herion addict 'FH' (Billy Cudrup), based
on the stories of Dennis Johnson and inspired by the Lou Reed lyric, also stars
Oscar nominated Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter and Dennis Hopper. "A
story of levity and grace", it is directed by acclaimed New Zealand
director Alison Maclean.
(6 June 2000)

Maclean movie puts the art before the horse
Feed gets a shot in the arm from director Alison Maclean. "We
all know what to expect from '70s smack movies. So why is Jesus' Son so
unexpectedly good? Maclean's movie, like the much revered short story
collection on which it is based, happens to be a real work of art..."
(23 June 2000)

Short Infection bugs Cannes Festival
New Zealand director James Cunningham's short film - a digital action
thriller about a mutant hero that invades a computer system to destroy student
loans - has been selected to compete in the prestigious 53rd Cannes Film
Festival.
(May 2000)
Kiwi editor of Oscar winning documentary paints LA pink
Director of the acclaimed "One Day in September" Kevin McDonald
recounts his poolside adventures at the Oscars: "At 2pm, Justine Wright,
the brilliant editor who cut our film arrives to get changed with us. Her bright
pink hair causes a bit of a stir. She takes a swim without putting her head in
the water for fear that she'll leave a pink streak up the pool."
(April 2000)

Spider pic hatched - New Zealander to direct
Hollywood: the duo behind Independence Day and Godzilla are
producing "Arch Attack", an f/x driven comedic thriller about a toxic
waste spill that causes giant spiders to go on a rampage. Will shoot in
Australia and be directed by New Zealander Ellroy Elkayem, who co-wrote the
script.
(30 March 2000)


Looks wonderful
"It's not always easy to flow the tortuous intrigues, passions and deceits, but it looks wonderful, with photography by the gifted New Zealand
cinematographer and director Chris Doyle". BBC2 film preview of Temptress Moon directed by Chen Kaige
(24 March 2000)

Alison Maclean in Time Out New York's "We told you so" list
20 to
watch in 2000: "Film's drug-subculture genre has been pretty played out lately -
really, how many times can you watch an artfully mussed stud or starlet shoot up
on screen? But director Alison Maclean's festival favourite indie Jesus'
Son stands out ... imagining what the talented Maclean will do next is just
as exciting."
(Feb 2000)
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Demon talent
NZ's Emily Barclay was named Best Lead Actress for her role in Suburban Mayhem
at the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards, December 7. The 22-year-old beat
heavyweights Laura Linney (Jindabyne), Abbie Cornish (Candy) and Teresa Palmer
(2:37) for the honour. "Emily is very, very brave and the performance
needed to be slightly reckless - a demon that possesses your soul for a
while," said Suburban Mayhem director Paul Goldman in the Herald Sun. The
film itself was nominated for 12 AFI's and won three - for Best Lead Actress,
Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Hayes) and Best Original Music Score (Mick
Harvey).
(8 December 2006)


Maori Mary's Nativity
Keisha Castle-Hughes' new film The
Nativity Story opened to praise from the Vatican at its world premiere,
when the film was greeted with applause by an audience of more than 7,000 at the
Vatican's Pope Paul VI auditorium. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's
secretary of state, described the film as a faithful representation of the
gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus Christ: "It is well done. It
reproposes this event which changed history with realism but also with a sense
of great respect of the mystery of the Nativity." The Vatican's endorsement
of the film is seen as significant in light of 16-year old Castle-Hughes'
pregnancy, announced in October. The Maori actress of Whale Rider fame was
joined in her starring role by a truly multi-cultural cast, including actor
Oscar Isaac of Guatemalan heritage, playing Joseph, and Shohreh Aghdashloo, a
Muslim actress playing Mary's cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The
Nativity Story was released in the US and most other countries on 1
December to decidedy mixed reviews.
(29 November 2006)


Jackson gets his game on
Peter Jackson has extended his relationship with Microsoft by signing on for two
further film adaptations of the company's computer games. Wingnut's Jackson and
Fran Walsh are currently executive-producing a film adaptation of the
best-selling Halo franchise; next he will produce a sequel to Halo as well as an
original film with an interactive game spin-off. He has also announced the
imminent launch of Wingnut Interactive Studio, a NZ-based production house which
will develop new properties for Microsoft's Xbox 360 next-generation console.
"Microsoft has built an amazing living canvas with Xbox 360 and Xbox Live,
which allows the storytellers of our time to express themselves in a new
medium," says Jackson. "...From a movie-maker's point of view, it is
clear to me that the Xbox 360 platform is the stage where storytellers can work
their craft in the same way they do today with movies and books, but taking it
further with interactivity."
(29 September 2006)


Fourth Emmy for Keoghan, Amazing Race
Christchurch-born Producer/Host Phil Keoghan lined up for his fourth successive
Emmy Award in Los Angeles for Outstanding Reality/Competition Program. The Amazing
Race is now in its 10th season. Teams race for more than 40,000 miles in
under 30 days in pursuit of the $1 million prize. Also featuring at the Emmys
was Wellington-born UK screenwriter Richard Curtis, who won for outstanding
writing for a miniseries, movie or dramatic special for The Girl in the Café.
The work of New Plymouth-born cinemaphotographer Rodney Charters helped the
heart-pounding thriller 24 to the Emmy for best drama for the first time and the
show's star Kiefer Sutherland for best actor in a drama.
(August 28 2006)


Epic in more ways than one
NZ director Vincent Ward relates the harrowing experience of filming River Queen
in a candid interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Weather, illness and car
crashes aside, it was lead actress Samantha Morton who provided most of the
drama on set. "Samantha is one of the most talented actresses I have ever
worked with, but the reality is she's lived a tough life … I saw grown men cry
[on set]. She made them cry," he says. "[But] I'm a director, so I
defend my actors. I defend talent and she's fantastic, so I forgive talent
anything." River Queen is the epic story of a woman caught on both sides of
a brutal war between English colonialists and a Maori tribe in 1860s NZ.
(30 June 2006)


Coming of age Keisha
Castle-Hughes is to star alongside Toni Collette in the upcoming
Australian black comedy Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger. Castle-Hughes
plays a 13-year-old Jewish girl struggling to fit in both at school and at home.
Filming takes place in Adelaide and Sydney in October.
(11 May 2006)


Keeping it local
One of NZ's most successful producers
Tim White returned to work on Toa Fraser's debut feature No.2. An Ilam
graduate, White's producing credits include Ned
Kelly, Map of the Human Heart, Two Hands, Oscar and Lucinda, and Death in
Brunswick. He was chief executive of Fox Icon, a cooperative venture between
20th Century Fox and Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, and until last year headed
Working Title Australia, the Antipodean branch of the UK production house behind
Bridget Jones, Billy Elliot and Four Weddings and a Funeral. White describes
working on No.2 as the best homecoming he could ever ask for in an interview
with Stuff. "I was really drawn to finding a story that explored the
incredibly vivid, energetic Pasifika culture and the very thing that made
Auckland attractive in a way that I'd never really appreciated long ago."
His next project is Scarfies director Robert Sarkies' film about the Aramoana
massacre.
(11 December 2005)


Starlet with edge
Kiwi actress Emily
Barclay (In My Father's Den) has the starring role in Suburban Mayhem, an
Australian film currently screening at Cannes. A very black comedy, Sub
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