News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Cocaine Bear is Actually Allan Henry

Cocaine Bear is Actually Allan Henry

The cocaine bear in Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is an impressive feat of visual effects wizardry, but there was an actual person behind the 227-kilogram, drug-addicted beast, and that person was New Zealander Allan…

Melanie Lynskey Analyses Last of Us Character

Melanie Lynskey Analyses Last of Us Character

When The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin pitched a role in the series to New Zealand-born actor Melanie Lynskey, he started with a bang: “He called me and said, ‘I would love for…

Thomasin McKenzie Burns Up the Screen in Eileen

Thomasin McKenzie Burns Up the Screen in Eileen

“What a strange and spellbinding psychological thriller has woven out of Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel, Eileen,” Hollywood Reporter reviewer David Rooney writes. “Rippling with sly humour and a bold command of the tropes…

Simone Kessell Discusses Her Yellowjackets Role

Simone Kessell Discusses Her Yellowjackets Role

In a Vanity Fair exclusive first look at adult Lottie Matthews (one of the Yellowjackets plane crash survivors), New Zealand-born actor Simone Kessell, 47, discusses where she’s been and asks, “How long can you…

Killer Doll Movie M3GAN Reviews Well in US

Killer Doll Movie M3GAN Reviews Well in US

New Zealand director Gerard Johnstone’s latest film, the comedy horror M3GAN, is well reviewed in Variety, with critic Owen Gleiberman describing it as “creepy, preposterous and diverting”. “Gemma (Allison Williams), a robotics engineer, works for…

New Taika Waititi Film Stars Michael Fassbender

New Taika Waititi Film Stars Michael Fassbender

In 2001, the American Samoa football team were thrashed by Australia and recruited the services of a coach named Thomas Rongen in an attempt to reverse their on-the-field misfortunes. The story has now been…

Inside the Secretive Gloriavale Christian Community

Inside the Secretive Gloriavale Christian Community

Like many New Zealanders, Fergus Grady knew about the disturbing stories that were coming out of the Gloriavale Christian Community. This secretive group, located in one of the most isolated parts of the country,…

Alex Liu Receives MGM Film Script Deal

Alex Liu Receives MGM Film Script Deal

MGM and The Black List have named Auckland-based Alex Liu, 30, as the third recipient to receive a two-step Guild minimum open script deal as part of their two-year feature film script writing partnership,…

Emmy Haul for Peter Jackson’s Beatles Doco

Emmy Haul for Peter Jackson’s Beatles Doco

The Beatles: Get Back producer-director New Zealander Peter Jackson has shared the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction series with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and fellow producers Yoko Ono Lennon, Olivia Harrison, Clare Olssen,…

Jane Campion Cinema Appeals for Autistic Cipher

Jane Campion Cinema Appeals for Autistic Cipher

“In the complex, full-formed characters of Jane Campion’s cinema, I found connections with my own recent autism diagnosis,” Lexie Corbett writes in an article published by bi-monthly magazine, Little White Lies. “I was looking for…

Melanie Lynskey Finds Light in the Dark

Melanie Lynskey Finds Light in the Dark

After nearly two decades of critically acclaimed performances, Yellowjackets star New Zealander Melanie Lynskey lands her first Emmy nod, Brooke Marine reports for W magazine. Ever since she starred in the psychological drama Heavenly Creatures…

Charlotte Rampling at Centre of Likeable Juniper

Charlotte Rampling at Centre of Likeable Juniper

“Juniper is a drama with black comic edges about a fragmented family, and the unexpectedly life-affirming influence of its particularly tetchy matriarch. In the lead role is Charlotte Rampling, an actor blessed with an…

Sam Neill and Friends Return to Jurassic Park

Sam Neill and Friends Return to Jurassic Park

Though nearly three decades have passed since New Zealander Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum starred in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 dinosaur epic, that series-starter still manages to resonate in impressive ways. Now, five…

Nude Tuesday Could Be New Zealand’s Next Big Hit

Nude Tuesday Could Be New Zealand’s Next Big Hit

“Imagine writing a film. Rehearsing it in English and then performing it in gibberish. Then, you get someone else to write the subtitles, so even you don’t know how the film will end. Anything…

Amazing Hotels Host Monica Galetti Prefers Boutique

Amazing Hotels Host Monica Galetti Prefers Boutique

New Zealand chef and co-presenter of Amazing Hotels, Monica Galetti, tells The Sunday Times about her favourite places to stay, and how she brings back ingredients from her travels. “I always return with a suitcase…

Ghosts Rose McIver Stands Out in Ensemble Comedy

Ghosts Rose McIver Stands Out in Ensemble Comedy

Rose McIver, the 33-year-old New Zealand native who began acting as a child, recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about her interest in finding the emotional relatability in flamboyant characters and situations and the…

What Makes Taika Waititi Run and Run and Run?

What Makes Taika Waititi Run and Run and Run?

The Thor: Love and Thunder director, New Zealander Taika Waititi, can’t say no – to starring in Our Flag Means Death, making a soccer movie, writing a Star Wars idea, adapting Roald Dahl. For…

Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh Awarded at CineEurope

Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh Awarded at CineEurope

Studiocanal CEO New Zealand-born Anna Marsh has been named International Distributor of the Year at CineEurope, the exhibition conference which took place in June, in Barcelona. Andrew Sunshine, president of CineEurope organiser Film Expo Group,…

Peter Jackson Talks Getting Back The Beatles

Peter Jackson Talks Getting Back The Beatles

There can be no doubt that New Zealand director Jackson, after his intensive review of 130 hours of audio and 57 hours of long-hidden video of the band at their career hinge point of…

Taika Waititi on TIME’s 2022 Most Influential List

Taika Waititi on TIME’s 2022 Most Influential List

New Zealander Taika Waititi, 46, makes TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022. American actor and screenwriter Sacha Baron Cohen explains why. “You can tell that a film was made by Taika Waititi the…

The Boys Star Karl Urban On New Superhero Status

The Boys Star Karl Urban On New Superhero Status

Although Amazon’s The Boys is an ensemble show, Stuart Heritage writes for The Guardian, with a sprawling collection of superheroes and antihero vigilantes, New Zealander Karl Urban has emerged as the show’s lead. His…

New Doco Explores Jane Campion’s Filmography

New Doco Explores Jane Campion’s Filmography

Drawing upon interviews from throughout the New Zealander’s career, Julie Bertuccelli’s documentary Jane Campion: The Cinema Woman, which premiered at Cannes, explores the process and philosophy of the Power of the Dog helmer. Sheri…

Andrew Dominik’s Latest Nick Cave Doco Transcends

Andrew Dominik’s Latest Nick Cave Doco Transcends

“In his 2016 film One More Time With Feeling, Dominik documented the creative process behind the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree, a record forged in the wake…

Jurassic Park’s Sam Neil Reunites with Co-Stars

Jurassic Park’s Sam Neil Reunites with Co-Stars

Thirty years is nothing in terms of geologic eras, but it’s a large swath of a lifetime. In 1992, Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum first gathered in Hawaii to make Steven Spielberg’s…

Life After Life’s Thomasin McKenzie is Otherworldly

Life After Life’s Thomasin McKenzie is Otherworldly

At just 21, Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Ursula in the four-part BBC series Life After Life, already has a list of impressive credits including Leave No Trace and Last Night in Soho. BAFTA winning…

Oscar Number Two for Best Director Jane Campion

Oscar Number Two for Best Director Jane Campion

Jane Campion has won her second best director Oscar, the first woman to be nominated twice for the directing prize, after also landing a nod for her 1993 film The Piano, Laura Harding reports…

Brace Yourself for Peter Day’s Feature Off the Rails

Brace Yourself for Peter Day’s Feature Off the Rails

New Zealander Peter Day’s “bracingly kinetic snapshot of contemporary British urban youth”, Off the Rails recently premiered at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The film is reviewed by Screen Daily’s Neil Young. “Graduating from parkour and…

Vanity Fair Cover For Director Jane Campion

Vanity Fair Cover For Director Jane Campion

A decade ago, she almost walked away from movies. Now, New Zealander Jane Campion is the only woman ever nominated twice for an Oscar best director thanks to The Power of the Dog. Campion…

Vanity Fair Looks Over Grant Major’s Back Catalogue

Vanity Fair Looks Over Grant Major’s Back Catalogue

In ‘The Portfolio’, Vanity Fair’s ‘Awards Insider’ columnist speaks with some of this year’s most notable Oscar nominees about their entire body of nominated work. Here, The Power of the Dog production designer New…

Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave Doco Hypnotises

Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave Doco Hypnotises

“Illuminating tracks from the superb 2019 Bad Seeds album Ghosteen and Nick Cave’s 2021 collaboration with Warren Ellis, Carnage, this remarkable performance documentary may be for the Nick…

Our Flag Means Death Stars Waititi and Darby

Our Flag Means Death Stars Waititi and Darby

“The new comedy series Our Flag Means Death was created by American writer David Jenkins and produced by the prolific Taika Waititi, who also stars as Blackbeard, to whom he brings a leonine grace,”…

In Awards Month Jane Campion Profiled

In Awards Month Jane Campion Profiled

Ahead of the Baftas and Oscar ceremonies later this month, New Zealand film director Jane Campion and her director of photography, Australian Ari Wegner, discuss their nominations, filming through the pandemic – and what…

Mainstream Cottons on to Talented Melanie Lynskey

Mainstream Cottons on to Talented Melanie Lynskey

After 30 years of critical acclaim, but not mainstream fame, New Zealand-born actor Melanie Lynskey is getting noticed and it feels very, very strange to her. Her show, Yellowjackets, has steadily become a hit….

Peter Jackson’s Beatles Epic Unmissable

Peter Jackson’s Beatles Epic Unmissable

“Nonplussed coppers, 60s London panoramas and the fab four very much alive … Peter Jackson’s film is moving and unmissable,” according to Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw, who rates the series five out of five…

Jane Campion Tops Oscar Nominations

Jane Campion Tops Oscar Nominations

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog has received 12 Oscar nominations, the most of any film this year. Amongst the categories, the New Zealander’s film was nominated for director, adapted screenplay and best…

James Morcan’s Anno 2020 Readies for Distributors

James Morcan’s Anno 2020 Readies for Distributors

Filming has wrapped on Tauranga-born writer/director James Morcan’s film Anno 2020, which involved separate crews shooting cast members in Israel, China, and Italy, as well as several states within the US and Australia, with dialogue…

Britain is Starstruck By TV’s Rose Matafeo

Britain is Starstruck By TV’s Rose Matafeo

With the hit BBC Three show Starstruck returning to UK screens for season two, Glamour magazine catches up with its New Zealand creator and star, Rose Matafeo. “Given the sheer amount of romcoms you reference…

Director Peter Jackson Leads Forbes Rich List

Director Peter Jackson Leads Forbes Rich List

At the end of 2021 he was still making headlines with his Beatles documentary Get Back. Now Forbes magazine has named New Zealand director Sir Peter Jackson, 60, the world’s wealthiest entertainer, Germany’s Der…

Shining the Light on Actor Melanie Lynskey

Shining the Light on Actor Melanie Lynskey

The Yellowjackets star New Zealander Melanie Lynskey has gone from character actor to leading lady thanks to her singular ability to project simmering rage beneath a placid exterior, EJ Dickson writes for Rolling Stone. This…

Tom Hardy’s Stuntman Jacob Tomuri Opens Up

Tom Hardy’s Stuntman Jacob Tomuri Opens Up

There is an icy chill to the water in Wellington’s Oriental Bay at 7pm. For Jacob Tomuri, after long days filming high-octane fight action, a daring dip cleanses, rejuvenates and helps relieve the off-camera…

The Power of the Dog Among Worthy Globe Winners

The Power of the Dog Among Worthy Globe Winners

Jane Campion’s “handsome, complex and brilliant” western The Power of the Dog won best picture (drama) and best director at this year’s Golden Globes, along with best supporting actor for “the excellent” Kodi Smit-McPhee,…

Temuera Morrison’s the Only Face for Boba Fetta

Temuera Morrison’s the Only Face for Boba Fetta

New Zealander Temuera Morrison vividly remembers the first time he tried on his Boba Fett suit, David Betancourt writes in a story for The Washington Post. He sat in a meeting room with Star Wars…

Dreaming up 1925 Montana with Grant Major

Dreaming up 1925 Montana with Grant Major

Oscar-winning Palmerston North-born production designer Grant Major has transitioned from The Lord of the Rings to the wilds of 1925 Montana for The Power of the Dog, director Jane Campion’s acclaimed western drama that,…

Rose Matafeo Arguably Breakout Star of 2021

Rose Matafeo Arguably Breakout Star of 2021

After winning a New Zealand international comedy festival award for stand-up in 2007, at the age of 15, Rose Matafeo has conquered just about everything she has ever attempted, Stuart Heritage writes for The…

How Peter Jackson Became a Local Hero after LOTR

How Peter Jackson Became a Local Hero after LOTR

When Amazon announced in August 2021 that its billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series would shift production to England, fans were stunned. Though J.R.R. Tolkien was British and though the settings are fictional,…

On the Stunning Visuals in The Power of the Dog

On the Stunning Visuals in The Power of the Dog

“The incredible natural landscapes of The Power of the Dog provide an unsettlingly beautiful backdrop to Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. Nary a frame in Western tragedy, shot by fast-rising cinematographer…

Zoë Robins in Big Fantasy Show The Wheel of Time

Zoë Robins in Big Fantasy Show The Wheel of Time

“Fantasy and sci-fi is having a moment,” according to Vogue Australia journalist Charlie Calver. “The wave started with the debut of HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2011, grew and grew as the…

Jane Campion Graces New York Times Magazine

Jane Campion Graces New York Times Magazine

“It has gotten easier over the years to feel comfortable with what work means to the world,” Jordan Kisner writes in a feature published in the New York Times Magazine. “She pulled…

Film-Making Set Jane Campion Free

Film-Making Set Jane Campion Free

New Zealand’s “trailblazing director” Jane Campion speaks to The Guardian’s Sean O’Hagan about how the #MeToo movement inspired her first feature in more than a decade, “revisionist western”, The Power of the Dog. That it…

Peter Jackson Takes Us into the Locked Beatles Vault

Peter Jackson Takes Us into the Locked Beatles Vault

Ahead of his epic series Get Back, the New Zealand director Peter Jackson reveals the secrets of 60 hours of intimate, unseen footage of the Fab Four – and why it turns everything we…

Catching Up With Lucy Lawless On New Roles

Catching Up With Lucy Lawless On New Roles

Lucy Lawless, who currently stars in the television series My Life Is Murder, which screens in both New Zealand and the US, spoke to Forbes about doing voiceover animation, taking a leap of faith…

What’s On Thomasin McKenzie’s Cultural Radar?

What’s On Thomasin McKenzie’s Cultural Radar?

Wellington-born actor Thomasin McKenzie, who plays the lead in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, is interviewed for The Observer’s regular column, ‘On my radar’, one person’s snapshot of their current cultural life. Acting since…

Film Pioneer Jane Campion Still Ahead of Her Time

Film Pioneer Jane Campion Still Ahead of Her Time

“When French filmmaker Julia Ducournau took the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for Titane, her wild explosion of body horror and gender politics, Jane Campion’s status in film history shifted slightly: no longer…

Mothers of the Revolution Unexpectedly Gripping

Mothers of the Revolution Unexpectedly Gripping

The third feature from New Zealand-based filmmaker Briar March is the “gripping documentary” Mothers of the Revolution, which celebrates the women protesters of Greenham Common. Wendy Ide reviews the film for Screen Daily. “The British…

Director Jessica Hobbs Wins Emmy for The Crown

Director Jessica Hobbs Wins Emmy for The Crown

At the recent International Emmy Awards, held in New York, Christchurch-born director Jessica Hobbs won for best directing of a drama series, for her work on The Crown. Eva Corlett reports on the win…

Giant of Cinema Jane Campion Wins in Venice

Giant of Cinema Jane Campion Wins in Venice

New Zealand’s Jane Campion has “underlined her status as one of the leading film-makers of her generation, taking home the best director trophy at the Venice Film Festival”, AFP reports. The Power of the Dog,…