Rings Cleans Up Awards
Lord of the Rings wins Best Film, Best Debut, and Best Actor at the Empire Awards 2001. “It was the greatest experience of our professional lives, going to New Zealand and working with Peter Jackson…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Bollywood or bust
Lush locations, talent and technology make NZ an ideal shooting location for Bollywood. Its almost monsoon season down under with the production schedules over-flowing, “the total number of song and dance routines filmed in…
Middle Earth homestay
“I just want to stay in NZ making my stuff.” PJ interviewed by PBS’s Charlie Rose. Listen to the interview here for a fascinating conversation as Peter Jackson talks candid camera for an…
Crowe: Edgy Actor
Front-running for repeat Oscar victory Crowe would rather have a beer according to this excellent Independent profile that plays on Rus’s ANZAC roots, “Like the classic guy from Down Under, he’s very happy to…
Dead chuffed
The A-list from the cinematic, corporate and consulate worlds turned out for a deliciously irreverent Sam Neil tribute honouring his 25 years in film and his contribution to New Zealand, Australian, and American culture…
Gilding the Director
Peter Jackson is nominated for the Best Director award as judged by the Directors Guild Association. Jackson, however, doesn’t seem very interested in taking home any coveted gold trophies: “Its the icing on the…
A Beautiful Mind
Wellington-born Russell Crowe, who last year won an Oscar for his lead role in Gladiator, pulls off the second biggest win of his career – a Golden Globe for best actor, in A Beautiful…
The Crowe Road to Oscar Success?
Russell Crowe is named Actor of the Year by the Broadcast Film Critics Association for his lead role in A Beautiful Mind. Crowe has won the award for the last three years.
Truly, madly, deeply explicit
New Zealand actor Kerry Fox visits Sydney to promote her controversial new film, Intimacy and offers this boyfriend-friendly pronouncement on her method: “Its not sex. It’s not lovemaking. It’s pretend”, says Fox of the…
“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…
Young stars
Australian Ex-Monty Python director, Maurice Murphy, stars students from Toi Whakaari New Zealand drama school in his latest feature film, Zenolith.
Movie of the year
“The most heartbreaking thing about faithful movie-going is that awe, beauty and excitement, three of the things we go to the movies for, are the very things we’re cheated out of the most. The…
Top Honours and Front-runner in Oscar-quest
The Lord of the Rings wins Best Picture, Best Digital Effects, and Best Production Design at the American Film Institute Awards. Closer to home, Peter Jackson is named Companion of the New Zealand Order…
Fellowship of the Rings?
Our neighbours across the Tasman have always thought of themselves as Big Brother, now they want to share toys: “anything which is good for Australia is good for New Zealand, and vice versa. Anyone…
Lord of the Screen
“The Lord of the Rings is easily the best film of the year” – The Times. “Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the fantasy classic is as near to perfection as makes no difference” -…
Floored by the Rings
“The real star of The Lord of the Rings is New Zealand. The scenery, ranging from snowbound mountain passes to rolling grasslands, has a beauty of jaw-dropping quality and it is all lovingly captured…
Where Can Jackson Go From Here?
If anyone wants Citizen Kane remade, here is the man “Potter was made by a committee masquerading as a director. Rings is made by a genius masquerading as a normal human being….it takes a…
Oscar front-runner
“Oscar is no great fan of fantasy. But the Lord of the Rings, with such Oscar heavyweights as Ian McKellen and Ian Holm, may carry enough high-class baggage to over come that prejudice”.
Gladiator to Genius
Russell Crowe is tipped for repeat Oscar honours following his fantastic performance as mathematical genius John Forbes Nash Jr in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind.
The Land of the Rings
“The first thing I thought when Peter showed me the pictures of the locations in New Zealand was: this is Middle-earth,” says Elijah Woods. “I mean, it has every sort of geographical, geological formation…
Jackson Wizard Director
Kiwi film guru Peter Jackson is in Empire Magazine’s poll of the top 50 directors.
Her Majesty
A preteen girl’s obsessive quest to cross paths with young Queen Elizabeth during latter’s 1953 New Zealand tour provides the charming focus for Her Majesty, L.A based director Mark Gordon’s polished feature debut. New…
X – Woman
Anna Paquin is playing another complex and haunted character – but this time on the New York stage. “I don’t think it’s anything in my own life,” she says. “Maybe it’s a fascination of…
More to Crowe About
Russell Crowe excels on the screen, and now with his band 30-odd Foot of Grunts he is tackling the music scene as well. The bands first album, Bastard Life of Clarity, was released this month.
Whale of a tale
A combination of German and New Zealand investors will finance Whale Rider, the film adaptation of…
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…
Lord of the Spin-Offs
“The adventures of Frodo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard are proving so lucrative to HarperCollins that, without spending a penny on promotion or marketing, they have seen sales of the books soar by 400…
Amazing Race amazing TV
“More than a thrill a minute” is packed into The Amazing Race, a “dazzling and fascinating show that brings new energy and respectability …
More Kiwi on Aussie screens
Selling 26 episodes of Street Legal to the Aussies has quadrupled the amount of programming NZ has over the ditch. More importantly, it …
Gandalf writes…
“A year’s work abroad isn’t unusual or daunting for an actor – but a year in New Zealand? I’m indifferent to rugby and don’t eat lamb but at least it seemed a good opportunity…
Nature Film Fest Sucess
Natural History New Zealand walked away with two awards at at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival, one of the industry’s highest-regarded wildlife television festivals. The Crystal Ocean won the Underwater Award, while the…
Kiwi Koala
New Zealand film company Daybreak Pacific imported actors and animatronic Koala’s to Auckland for the shooting of Ozzie, a New Zealand made film featuring an Australian icon.
Tamahori, Lee Tamahori
New Zealand director picked as front-runner to direct next Bond movie, with Pierce Brosnan still in the hot seat as 007.
The X-factor
From sword and sorcery to the paranormal, Lucy Lawless moves from Xena to The X-Files, where “we’re thrilled to work with Lucy, whose work we’ve admired for a long time,” says X-Files producer…
The Kiwis are Coming
“Russell Crowe won’t be the only brand-name export to the United States if New Zealanders get their way. The island country is aggressively pursuing foreign markets by liberalizing trade policies and encouraging smaller firms…
Awesome Enthusiasm
It’s awesome,” enthuses Middle Earth’s biggest small man, Elijah Wood about upcoming Lord of the Rings. “It’s a really, really incredible group of people and a very brilliant, talented group of artists who…
“Trust me: it is magnificent”
“At the end of this first film, Frodo and Sam are separated from the rest and row across the river, destination Mount Doom: on even a scratchy video, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are…
Chill of Fame
Russell Crowe would be the crowd-pulling choice to play Earnest Shackleton in the bio-pic Endurance, about the ill-fated South Pole expedition of 1914-15. Did you know: captain of Shackleton’s epic Artic voyage was NZ…
Fox judging
Award winning edge-actress Kerry Fox sits in the judging seat for the 54th Locarno International Film Festival.
Island Export
Treasure Island, Survivor – love them or loathe them “reality” means ratings. With a patent on the format Treasure Island is a New Zealand export success for Touchstone Productions.
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…
My brilliant career
Jurassic action hero and “rugged individualist” Sam Neill gets the NY Daily News career review: “tall, handsome, fiftyish, New Zealand accent”. And Neill wonders at the anonymity despite the star turns: “people will come…
Fairytale victory
Kiwi co-directed Shrek is “a computer-generated miracle. Based on William Steig’s 28-page book, the film puts forward the most marvellous case for the craziness of repressing fairytales since Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods.” But,…
Russell cooking
Russell Crowe’s Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts hots up Texas barbeque with proceeds going to the city’s Settlement Home for troubled youth. As well as being a New Zealander and an Australian, Crowe has…
Fractured fairytale
“It’s not often you can say an animated feature’s rich in subtext, but much-acclaimed fractured fairytale Shrek fits the description… beneath striking visuals and a classic hero-princess-villain story arc, there’s a frothy adult undercurrent…
The green-eyed monster
How does it feel when your pregnant girlfriend takes an acting role that breaks all the boundaries about sex on screen in serious, mainstream films? Kerry Fox’s boyfriend answers that question.
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”.
Cutting Edge Commercials
Saatchi & Saatchi’s “Bugger” ad shows the creativity that will save TV advertising says Jim Aitchinson’s Cutting Edge Commercials.
Docu Prize
New Zealand co-production Wild Asia: Creatures of the Thaw wins Canada’s Banff Television Festival President’s Prize, worth C$25 000 .
All that is golden…
The Lord of the Rings (the book) – boyish fantasy or “true myth” that is a modern masterpiece?
Foxing the censors
“Marvel at the ever-brilliant Kerry Fox” in style bible i-D mag’s guide to the ‘future of cinema’. Fox’s raw performance in Intimacy won her best actress at the Berlin Film; i-D suggests that the…
Intimacy and anguish
New Zealand actress Kerry Fox’s award-winning work in Intimacy continues to generate curiosity, awe and pursed lips: Getting Intimate in the Sunday Times; Truely, madly, explicitly in The Observer and Hanif…
A Piece of Martin
Ex-Shortland Streeter Martin Henderson toplines indie A Piece of My Heart and plays opposite Nicolas Cage in Windtalkers, currently in production. Register and search under Archives
At home on the edge
Sam Neill talks acting, wine and why New Zealand is home: “I just love going back – I feel comfortable there, I am entirely relaxed there and I feel I do much my best…
Wellywood
Dead oliphants at Plimmerton, hobbit cities and epic battles: just the beginning for “Wellywood”.
Rings Actors Awestruck
“It seems that those involved are only starting to realise just how big a movie project with which they have been involved. The actors were awe-struck by look of the movie and the spectacular…
