News of New Zealanders via Global Media

McKenzie Stars in Austenland Though More a Brontë Man

McKenzie Stars in Austenland Though More a Brontë Man

Bret McKenzie, 37, one half of the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, stars opposite Jane Seymour in the new romantic-comedy Austenland, which opened in the UK in September. “I’m not a crazy Jane Austen…

Close up with Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh

Close up with Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh

Acadamy Award-nominee New Zealander Stuart Dryburgh is interviewed in the August issue of American Cinematographer magazine as part of the “Close-Up” section of the publication which each month features a member of the American…

Fraser a Classical Dance Convert with New Film Giselle

Fraser a Classical Dance Convert with New Film Giselle

New Zealand director and playwright Toa Fraser admits he wasn’t much of a dance fan before setting out to make Giselle, a new full-length film of the 1841 Romantic ballet of the same name,…

Neill Recalls Camping Catastrophes and Culinary Havens

Neill Recalls Camping Catastrophes and Culinary Havens

Star of 1920s-set gangster drama Peaky Blinders, New Zealand actor Sam Neill, talks about culinary havens, camping catastrophes, and fishing in Scotland in a Telegraph travel piece. “This year, I’ve been to New York, Sydney,…

New Age Sensitive Guy Brings Heart to the Beast

New Age Sensitive Guy Brings Heart to the Beast

Auckland-born Jay Ryan, 32, “brings a deep-voiced sensitivity to Vincent”, in his role as the “Beast” in the CBS remake of the 1980’s TV show Beauty and the Beast starring Ron Perlman and Linda…

Life on the Ice Makes for Award-Winning Viewing

Life on the Ice Makes for Award-Winning Viewing

A beautifully shot documentary about a year in the life of a New Zealander living in Antarctica was the big winner at the Calgary International Film Festival, snapping up two of the major awards…

Soprano a Splendid Feather in Downton Abbey’s Cap

Soprano a Splendid Feather in Downton Abbey’s Cap

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, “one of the greatest opera sopranos of the past 40 years”, has joined Downton Abbey for a single episode to play Australian soprano Nellie Melba. The Telegraph’s Laura Thompson meets…

Silent Treasures from the NZ Film Archive on DVD

Silent Treasures from the NZ Film Archive on DVD

Over one hundred long-vanished films, including movies by John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Mabel Normand, were quietly residing in the New Zealand Film Archive when Brian Meacham, an archivist for the Academy of Motion Picture…

Shout-it-to-the-Heavens Inspiring

Shout-it-to-the-Heavens Inspiring

“Xena: Warrior Princess, which ran for six years before it ended in 2001, was a show that charmed even as it taught its audience a thing or two,” American former model and actress Jennifer…

Freeze Frame in the Alaskan Wilderness

Freeze Frame in the Alaskan Wilderness

New Zealand director Scott Walker, who is currently promoting his first feature film The Frozen Ground, talked recently to KFTV about all aspects of the production, from development and casting right through to getting…

Moa Bones Kill Dino DNA Dream

Moa Bones Kill Dino DNA Dream

The dream of resuscitating dinosaur species – a la Jurassic Park – has been dealt a death blow in a new study examining the decay rate of DNA in the bones of the extinct…

NZ Does Do-Good Ads Better than Anyone

NZ Does Do-Good Ads Better than Anyone

Public service announcements, or PSAs, are a tough nut for the advertising world to crack, particularly when tackling drink-driving or the dangers of drugs. Too often a worthy cause is “laughably ineffective preachy”…

Beyond the Edge Premieres in Toronto

Beyond the Edge Premieres in Toronto

“In 1953, no one even knew if it could be done,” says Auckland-based Leanne Pooley, director of the 3-D documentary Beyond the Edge, which chronicles Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s…

Cormack on Remand in Wentworth Drama

Cormack on Remand in Wentworth Drama

Auckland-born actress Danielle Cormack, 42, has said she jumps at the chance to play strong women, this time in the lead role of Bea Smith in Wentworth Prison, a contemporary reworking of Prisoner:…

Cage and Cusack Star in Impressive Debut

Cage and Cusack Star in Impressive Debut

New Zealand-born writer-director Scott Walker’s “impressive debut” The Frozen Ground, starring Nicholas Cage and John Cusack “amounts to an exploitation flick about the hunt for Alaska’s most notorious serial killer, but told with style and…

Dame Kiri Becomes Dame Melba on Downton

Dame Kiri Becomes Dame Melba on Downton

New Zealand-born opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who has sung for presidents and princes, including in front of a 600-million audience at Prince Charles’s wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, has revealed…

Compelling Drama Fantasy Blend to Air in US

Compelling Drama Fantasy Blend to Air in US

New Zealand television series The Almighty Johnsons has been bought by American cable channel Syfy, marking the first time a wholly New Zealand-made television drama has aired in the United States. The NBCU cabler has…

Fighting for Recognition in a New Field

Fighting for Recognition in a New Field

New Zealand stuntwoman Zoë Bell’s film Raze is screening at the Imperial Theatre as part of the one of the most influential genre film festivals in the world, the Fantasia International Film…

Fairy Tale Television Role for Actress

Fairy Tale Television Role for Actress

New Zealand actress Rose McIver, 24, who starred in Peter Jackson’s 2009 film The Lovely Bones, has landed the pivotal season three role of Tinker Bell on the ABC fairy tale drama, Once…

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Peter Jackson a ‘Game Changer’ who ‘transformed’ Filmmaking

Kiwi director, Peter Jackson is a “game changer who transformed the practice of filmmaking”, according to contributors to the Harvard Business Review’s popular blog. Authors Vijay Govindarajan and Srikanth Srinivas say that Jackson and…

South Africa and NZ Join Film Forces

South Africa and NZ Join Film Forces

Executives from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) have been meeting with producers at the Durban FilmMart (DFM) to research potential development and co-production opportunities. Representatives from the NZFC and the National Film &…

Keeping It Snappy with Local Shorts Screening

Keeping It Snappy with Local Shorts Screening

Eight locally made short films will screen at the one-session New Zealand Short Film Festival held on 14 August in Sydney and 22 August in Brisbane. The films will screen representing the very best…

Jackson Live-Blogs The Hobbit’s Final Day

Jackson Live-Blogs The Hobbit’s Final Day

After more than two years, Peter Jackson has finished filming the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy. With the final scenes shot on 26 July, the award-winning director wrote on his Facebook…

Timtimfed Makes Web Films on His Own Terms

Timtimfed Makes Web Films on His Own Terms

Originally from Christchurch, Michael Shanks, 22, otherwise known by his pseudonym “Timtimfed”, is creating some of the best gaming parodies on the web. Shanks was one of the hosts of a recent PAX Australia…

Top of the Lake Receives Eight Emmy Nods

Top of the Lake Receives Eight Emmy Nods

New Zealand director Jane Campion mini-series Top of the Lake has received eight Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Miniseries of Movie, Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries and Outstanding Directing in a Miniseries. The New Zealand-shot…

Ada Would Not Have Surfaced Says Campion

Ada Would Not Have Surfaced Says Campion

Jane Campion has revealed she wanted a bleaker ending for The Piano, with the character of mute Ada McGrath, played by Holly Hunter, drowning with her beloved instrument. It is one of the most…

Madrid Festival Awards for Murder Mystery

Madrid Festival Awards for Murder Mystery

New Zealand filmmaker Alex Galvin’s feature film Eternity has won two awards at the Madrid International Film Festival. Eternity won best editing, alongside Nick Swinglehurst and best supporting actor for Wellington actor…

New Zealand’s Answer to The Killing

New Zealand’s Answer to The Killing

Jane Campion’s television series Top of the Lake, “set in the staggeringly beautiful landscape of the South Island”, has been called New Zealand’s answer to The Killing. Obstreperous and tunnel-visioned, detective Robin Griffin has…

Magasiva, Moon and Paquin Make the Crush Cake List

Magasiva, Moon and Paquin Make the Crush Cake List

New Zealand, “more like Babeland”, according to blogger Laura Vincent who writes about who she fancies for Vice magazine’s regular column, “Crush Cakes”. “Though my crushing is as vast as the majestic Lake Taupo,…

Why Hollywood is Staying in New Zealand

Why Hollywood is Staying in New Zealand

“From James Cameron’s organic farm to Emmy contender Top of the Lake, the idyllic island nation continues to thrive 12 years after Frodo and Co. put it on the movie location map,” The Hollywood…

Back in the Cells as Fletch in Prison Drama Wentworth

Back in the Cells as Fletch in Prison Drama Wentworth

Auckland-born actor, Logie Award-winning Aaron Jeffery, who graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1993, stars in the popular Australian television prison drama Wentworth, which will return to screens for…

Hobbit Stars React to Fans Reactions

Hobbit Stars React to Fans Reactions

A video of Hobbit fans reacting to the release of a first glimpse into the next Hobbit instalment has received the same treatment, with Peter Jackson release a video with three of the film’s…

New Zealander Directs “Engrossing” Documentary

New Zealander Directs “Engrossing” Documentary

New Zealand documentary film maker Sally Rowe is continuing to make an impression with her documentary A Matter of Taste: Serving up Paul Liebrandt. The film is an “engrossing full-length documentary” that…

Sookie Grows Up and Accepts Her Fate in New Season

Sookie Grows Up and Accepts Her Fate in New Season

New Zealand actress Anna Paquin, 30, features on the June cover of Manhattan magazine. Paquin tells the publication about the new season of cult show True Blood, in which she stars as…

Jane Campion, ‘Child of Cannes’, Announces Festival Winners

Jane Campion, ‘Child of Cannes’, Announces Festival Winners

NZ Film Director Jane Campion headed up the Short Film and Cinefoundation Jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Campion and her jurors awarded the Best Short Film Palme d’or to Safe, directed by…

Jemaine and Bret’s Stateside Legacy

Jemaine and Bret’s Stateside Legacy

The legacy of Flight of the Conchords has been the creation of a new stereotype for New Zealanders travelling in the US, writes James Robinson. Robinson, a New Zealand journalist who lives in San…

Csokas Plays Russian Mafia Villain in The Equalizer

Csokas Plays Russian Mafia Villain in The Equalizer

Invercargill-born actor Marton Csokas, 46, has been busy of late playing Dr Kafka in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and, before that, working on both Darren Aronofsky’s Noah and Sin City sequel A Dame To…

Urban is Bones No Doubt About It

Urban is Bones No Doubt About It

Wellington-born actor Karl Urban, 40, is Doctor “Bones” McCoy, one of the series’ most iconic Starfleet crew. Urban has tackled many iconic sci-fi and fantasy characters on the silver screen, but perhaps none more…

New Gut-Busting Competition Show Planned

New Gut-Busting Competition Show Planned

Amazing Race host New Zealander Phil Keoghan will produce and may become the face of a new, even more gruelling competition show that could air later this year. Under the working title, “The Phil…

Mr Pip the Film to Screen First in New Zealand

Mr Pip the Film to Screen First in New Zealand

Paramount Pictures has confirmed that New Zealand will be the first nation to see Mr Pip, the film, on general release. Mr Pip is set on the island of Bougainville during the vicious civil…

Action-packed US Premieres for Bell

Action-packed US Premieres for Bell

Auckland-born actress and stuntwoman Zoë Bell’s self-produced action/horror film Raze premiered at New York’s TriBeca Film Festival on 21 April. As well, Bell stars in Oblivion, alongside Tom Cruise, which also premiered last week….

Differences of Time on and off Set

Differences of Time on and off Set

Actor and winemaker Sam Neill, 65, talks to the South China Morning Post about corks, cows and why action films are duller than they look. “Making good films and good wines are both very…

The Daily Mail’s ‘Awe Inspiring Journey’ to Hobbiton and Beyond

The Daily Mail’s ‘Awe Inspiring Journey’ to Hobbiton and Beyond

‘Thanks to the Lord of the Rings, and now The Hobbit, New Zealand one big photo opportunity for Tolkien fans’, says Helen Nicholson in The Daily Mail. Nicholson did a Hobbit Tour of…

New Zealand Moviegoer Strikes a Blow for Film Fans Everywhere

New Zealand Moviegoer Strikes a Blow for Film Fans Everywhere

Ever seen a movie trailer, then gone to the film and noticed something major was missing? Well, J Congdon, eagle eyed New Zealand film-goer, certainly did. But, unlike most, he did something about his…

Putting Pictures to Arnett’s Words

Putting Pictures to Arnett’s Words

Iconic New Zealand journalist Peter Arnett, 78, who ushered in the era of live television war reporting during the first Gulf War in 1991, will be the subject of a feature-length documentary called,

Cannes Award for Campion

Cannes Award for Campion

Director of award-winning film The Piano, Wellington-born Jane Campion, 58, will be presented with the Carrosse d’Or from the Society of Film Directors at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Campion will be…

‘Blunt and Fearless’ Series on Rhino Killing by Natural History New Zealand

‘Blunt and Fearless’ Series on Rhino Killing by Natural History New Zealand

In 2012, more than 450 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa alone. The poaching is driven by the demand for rhino horn, used for traditional medicine in many Asian countries. ‘Battleground: Rhino…

Sneak Peek at Smaug

Sneak Peek at Smaug

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson has given his fans a sneak online preview of the next Hobbit installment, The Desolation of Smaug. Enthusiastic and barefoot, Jackson gave a little masterclass in Middle-earth filmmaking and…

Strength to Strength

Strength to Strength

“Early signs suggest will bend toward something even more mysterious, beautiful, unsettling and satisfying than the mysterious, beautiful, unsettling, satisfying thing it is from the start,”…

Everything is Not What it Seems

Everything is Not What it Seems

“It is typical of and visualise a pregnant 12-year-old girl walking into it up to her neck, the central image of what…

Wartime President

Wartime President

New Zealand-born actress Stephanie Paul stars as the as the Palin-esque president of the United States, out to save the world in the German-Finnish-Australian thriller Iron Sky, which premiered in Berlin on 11 February….

From Digital New York

From Digital New York

Film director and writer New Zealander Anna Wilding writes on ‘Digital Hollywood and the Role of Content Creators’ for Herald de Paris. Having attended the recent Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New…

Bell Does Battle

Bell Does Battle

Stuntwoman and actress New Zealander Zoë Bell, 34, headlines a “sly subversion of the women-in-prison genre”, Raze, which is playing in the ‘Midnight Section’ as part of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival,…

Downton Appearance

Downton Appearance

World-renowned New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is scheduled to appear on the popular British period soap opera, Downton Abbey. Producers of the show announced that Te Kanawa will appear as a guest…

Beyond the Edge

Beyond the Edge

The epic story of the first known ascent of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay is to be made into a 3D feature by award-winning New Zealand documentary maker Leanne…

NZ film gurus headline a 3D Creative Summit

NZ film gurus headline a 3D Creative Summit

When the world’s first 3D Creative Summit wanted some film production gurus to speak, it went to New Zealand to get them. Amongst the Summits distinguished guests were Phil Oatley and Meetal Gokul…