High-End Drama
Director Lee Tamahori’s new Sundance film The Devil’s Double, a violent glimpse at Saddam Hussein’s notorious son Uday and his unwilling body double, is a chance for the 60-year-old, he says, to prove once…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Revealing the inner
“Everyone’s favourite sexy vampire-loving barmaid” New Zealand actress Anna Paquin is on the cover of the January 2011 issue of Dazed & Confused magazine. In the cover story titled ‘True Colours’, Paquin, 2008, was…
Loving Lucretia
Auckland-born actress Lucy Lawless returns to ancient Rome as Lucretia in the prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which premieres on American television channel Starz on January 21. Lawless…
Tintin draws closer
Three new images from the Peter Jackson-produced and Steven Spielberg-directed 3-D motion capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, have just been released online. Secret of the Unicorn is the…
Alcatraz role for Neill
Actor Sam Neill has a role in the upcoming Fox pilot series Alcatraz which chronicles the efforts of a team of FBI agents tracking down a group of missing prisoners and guards who reappear…
Onward to Invercargill
Wellington actor Bret McKenzie will co-star with Australian television and radio personality Hamish Blake in a New Zealand feature film, Two Little Boys, which is due to start filming in January in Southland. Based…
Classic reimagining
“Reports that Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom will reprise their Lord of the Rings roles in The Hobbit suggest Jackson’s two-part production may be more epic than its source material,” the Guardian’s Ben…
Back on the Wards
Auckland-born actor Martin Henderson is profiled by Canadian television station site Global Lethbridge. Henderson, who currently lives in Los Angeles, will soon appear on the American small screen as “legendary Dr Ben Keeton” in…
Two shorts for Sundance
Two New Zealand short films have been selected for the 27th Sundance Film Festival which runs from January 2 to 3. Both short films are part of a group of seven to be selected…
Tamahori’s double
Director Lee Tamahori’s latest film The Devil’s Double, a story about the body double for Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, will premiere at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. Tamahori, 6, best known for the 1994…
What a scream
Promotional photographs of actress Anna Paquin in the fourth instalment of the Scream series have just been released in the United States, with the film due to hit American cinemas in April next year….
Animating beauty
University of Canterbury philosophy lecturer Denis Dutton has collaborated with TEDTalks and animator Andrew Park creating a video illustrating the provocative argument about beauty — that art, music and other beautiful…
New face of Milky Bar
Hinetaapora Short, 8, from Rotorua is the world’s first female Milky Bar Kid, beating more than 15 entries in a nation-wide search scoring the highest percentage of more than 11, total votes received. Three…
FBI role for Curtis
Actor Cliff Curtis, 42, takes on the role of a top forensic consultant for the FBI in the ABC Dana Delany-led midseason drama Body of Proof. Rotorua-born Curtis — who also appeared as flight…
In the whanau
Producers of smash hit film Boy Ainsley Gardiner and Cliff Curtis took the independent producers of the year kudo at the New Zealand’s Screen Production and Development Agency conference in November. The cousins…
Conchord revival
The Flight of the Conchords are in discussion to bring a live version of the cult television series to Australia and New Zealand next year. US comedian Arj Barker, who plays the philosophising stoner…
There is such a thing
New Zealand dairy company Fonterra has created a new yoghurt tailored for men, filled with fruit, seeds, grains and barley, under the brand name Mammoth Supply Co. Its marketing plays on social stereotypes of…
And How Beautiful
“One stunning image outdoes another in the hurtling, circling, swooping cinematography of Ben Seresin, a New Zealander whose palette is restrained but never suppressed,” the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern writes in a review…
Leading the race
Actor Grant Bowler, 42, has been named host of the globetrotting reality television show, The Amazing Race Australia. Auckland-born Bowler has had a big year in film and television, working on projects such as…
For the working man
DB Breweries is celebrating its 5th anniversary of beer DB Export launching a 9-second black-and-white commercial, developed by Feedthewalrus editor Adam Jenkins via Colenso BBDO. “ tells the true story: in the…
Tasmanian tiger hunt
Actor Sam Neill stars alongside Willem Dafoe and Frances O’Connor in the Australian psychological thriller The Hunter which began production in Tasmania in late October. The Daniel Nettheim-directed film, based on the book by…
Hobbit gets greenlighted
Film industry labour issues between actors and producers were among the elements that triggered a month long crisis in Peter Jackson’s production of The Hobbit, solved only by the intervention of the Government which…
Urban takes lessons
“Like it or not, I’ve become a global citizen,” Auckland actor Karl Urban tells The Kansas City Star. “The challenge is to maintain your cultural identity, especially back in your home country, where it’s…
Seeing some girls
Lord of the Rings stars Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Elijah Wood discuss their time spent in New Zealand working on the trilogy 11 years ago with Entertainment Weekly. Here they are, in a…
Unmistakable humour
Comedian Rhys Darby, 36, has an “unmistakable” voice, retaining his “thick New Zealand accent despite increasingly frequent roles in Hollywood films,” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kylie Northover writes in a profile headed, ‘Darby acts…
Urban takes on Willis
Actor Karl Urban, 38, plays the role of a CIA agent in the movie Red, which is based on the comic book limited series of the same name and which was released this month…
Edgy roots an asset
Actor Karl Urban, 38, is happy to commute between Auckland and Los Angeles saying that his New Zealand roots are proving to be an asset to his craft. Unlike Hollywood-based actors, those from Australia…
Apprentice Acumen
Paloma Vivanco-Coutts, 29, is the first New Zealander to appear on reality television show The Apprentice UK. Peruvian-born Vivanco-Coutts has been living in London since 2006. She recently married a New Zealander and is…
On the Small Screen
Filmmaker Jane Campion has been commissioned by the BBC to work on a television series thriller set in New Zealand called Top of the Lake. The series will follow the disappearance of a five…
Cool but not too cool
The Flight of the Conchords appeared as camp counsellors in the premiere episode of season 22 of The Simpsons which went to air in the US in September. In the episode, titled…
Calling All Hobbits
An advertisement in Wellington’s Dominion Post has called for diminutive actors to audition for the parts of Middle Earth hobbits in Peter Jackson’s prequel to the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Roles for…
Talk like a vampire
New Zealand-raised actress Anna Paquin and British husband Stephen Moyer worked with Los Angeles dialect coach Liz Himelstein to get their accents right for True Blood. Their speech is nothing like wide-eyed Southern waitress…
Special mention
Actress Melanie Lynskey, 33, gets a special mention in a Tulsa World review of director Tim Blake Nelson’s black comedy Leaves of Grass. New Plymouth-born Lynskey plays Colleen opposite star Edward Norton, who plays…
Not quite themselves
Flight of the Conchords’ stars Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie will make a guest appearance on hit show The Simpsons in the first episode of the new season, Elementary School Musical, to be broadcast…
Homecoming King
2,500 fans took part in a “low-key” ceremony to honour Peter Jackson and fellow Oscar winners at the Wellington Events Centre. Jackson and co each received a glass goblet to add to their already…
“Urban Cowboy”
Leading NZ actor Karl Urban makes Nylon‘s list of “those most likely to succeed.” The interview reveals a lifelong passion for film and theatre, from amateur play-writing (at age 8) to a string of…
Weta Puts Out Feelers
New York-based Ohio Edit is to represent Weta Digital on the US commercial circuit. Company heads Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor decided that their acclaimed effects house would benefit from small international projects in…
In the footsteps of Frodo
The inevitable spate of Rings-related travel articles continues, with major features in the Scotsman and New York Times. The Scotsman writer – who walked the Tongariro Crossing and Routeburn Track, and sailed Milford …
Good Morning USA From NZ
Wake up! To coincide with the ‘Amazing Race’ visiting New Zealand, roaming New Zealander ambassador of down under adventure, Phil Keoghan, will be staging ‘ Kiwi Week’ on the CBS Early Show….
Kiwis of tomorrow
The prestigious Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland) dedicated its short film section – “Leopards of Tomorrow” – to NZ and Australian film-makers. 8 NZ short films were accepted for competition; Cow, The French…
“I’m from New Zealand, I only know about rugby.”
Andrew Adamson, NZ co-creative behind hit movie Shrek, is reportedly confused by the green ogre’s latest claim to fame – as unofficial mascot of the New York Jets. Adamson: “are the Jets baseball or…
Angela Dotchin is the boss-fox
British secret agent / scientist with whom he’s partnered — did someone say “prickly”? Review of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Hercules) produced new TV show Jack of All Trades.
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…
Sam Neill Brings Thomas Jefferson to Life
Growing up in New Zealand, Sam Neill was aware of Thomas Jefferson merely as “writer of the Declaration of Independence, architect, politician, two-time U.S. president and big cheese on Mount Rushmore.” (5February 2)
Urban shark attack
New Zealand filmmakers Andrew Todd and Johnny Hall are making a horror film inspired by a road trip which took them through the town of Oamaru. They describe the moment: “We passed through…
Clement’s Double Life
“One of the reasons I went into comedy and acting was that I was sick of being shy,” Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement tells the Guardian’s Killian Fox. “I guess I have…
Gore filled retribution
A supernatural horror film made by New Zealand director David Blyth made its European premiere at this year’s Fright Fest in London. “A controversial cult film in the making, Wound, explores the wicked…
Reassuring the fans
Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson is optimistic The Hobbit will still go ahead “sometime soon” and that Warners was “making progress untangling the MGM situation”. In an interview with the Dominion Post, Jackson…
Ever the cameraman
Christchurch-raised film instructor Ian McIver, currently an adjunct instructor at Solano Community College and Napa Valley College in California, is leading a 12-class film discussion series at the Cameo Cinema in St Helena. The…
Celebrating clumsiness
“Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they’re spiritual and telling stories like Whale Rider and Once were Warriors, quite serious stuff, but we’re pretty funny people and we never really have had an opportunity…
Fascinating portrait
South Auckland-set film Matariki, directed by Reefton-born Michael Bennett, has been selected to screen at the opening weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the Contemporary World Cinema section on September 11….
Laughing at the edge
Director Taika Waititi says the humour in Boy is both colonial-outpost and self-deprecating Maori humour. “You’ve just got to laugh at awkward, crazy, painful stuff when you’ve been banished to the nether regions of…
Undead and on cover
True Blood star New Zealand-born actress Anna Paquin, 28, who plays waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the hit show, features on the latest issue of Rolling Stone, bloodied and naked in the arms of co-stars,…
Woolly takeover
Sheep have replaced hobbits at The Shire in Matamata. The rolling green pastures and hobbit houses that provided the backdrop for director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy were originally going to be…
Young star shines
With director Taika Waititi’s film Boy opening throughout Australia on August 26, The Age talks to 11-year-old lead James Rolleston about his first ever acting gig. Waititi had already chosen a lead for Boy,…
Recalling Rousseau
New Zealand-made documentary This Way of Life is a “gloriously photographed film” — “a story of a Maori family catapulted beyond mere portraiture and into a realm of metaphysics, melancholia and cosmic doubt”, writes…
