News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Russell reasserts his edge roots

Russell reasserts his edge roots

“Hollywood is carving a bust for Crowe in the action-hero pantheon, but Crowe is keeping his distance. “I’d move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal…

Phantom Menace Humbled by Diminutive Hobbit

Phantom Menace Humbled by Diminutive Hobbit

The record number of downloads set by the trailer for Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, has been dwarfed by the the Internet preview of of Peter Jackson’s epic movie trilogy The Lord…

Crowe does the hard yards to re-visit grandeur of Rome

Crowe does the hard yards to re-visit grandeur of Rome

“I broke a bone in my foot, I fractured a hip-bone, I had both bicep tendons pop out of their shoulder sockets – fortunately for me at different times so I could still use…

Call me Mr Comedy

Call me Mr Comedy

New Zealand-born Four Weddings and a Funeral/Blackadder creator, Comic Relief co-founder and top scriptwriter Richard Curtis discusses his career on BBC Radio4. Register and search to view Archives

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Jeffrey Wigland, real-life whistleblower says Crowe, 22 years junior and a native of New Zealand “did a remarkable job .. he did things that made it feel very surreal for me, emotionally retching and…

Forget About the Brass Ring

Forget About the Brass Ring

Some 1.7 million fans hit the movie’s new website in its first 21 hours up, compared with only 1 million downloads the first day the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace site was open for…

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

Ever since Jane Campion brought the surging savage West Coast of Auckland’s Karekare beach and the rain-soaked bush to the world in her award winning film The Piano nearly a decade ago, more and…

Tolkien Teaser Runs

Tolkien Teaser Runs

“Attention fantasy fans: New Line Cinema is about to lift the veil of secrecy — just a little bit — that has shrouded Peter Jackson’s massive adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the…

Countless billboards proclaim there’s a new hero: Russell Crowe, bigger than Ben Hur.

Countless billboards proclaim there’s a new hero: Russell Crowe, bigger than Ben Hur.

From Auckland Grammar to singing on 80’s pop show Shazam. From Oscar nominations to the violent centre of a decadent ancient Rome. He’s one-sixteenth Maori and registered on the Maori voting poll, but he lives…

Kiwi editor of Oscar winning documentary paints LA pink

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….

When in Rome … Russell Crowe fights on in

When in Rome … Russell Crowe fights on in

Spider pic hatched – New Zealander to direct

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…

Russell Crowe: Heroic gladiator rises from the burger-pits of

Russell Crowe: Heroic gladiator rises from the burger-pits of

“The people who brought you World War II now think that you are ready for really ancient history: the Roman Empire. And, even though they’re leaving out the orgies, they may be onto something”.

Looks Wonderful

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…

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Xena: motherhood becomes her

Lucy Lawless’ pregnancy not only changed scripts on Xena: Warrior Princess, but the costume department had to ‘expand’ with the times too. New to the show: Spandex.

Justine Wright Nominated For Oscar

Justine Wright Nominated For Oscar

New Zealander Justine Wright has been nominated for this year’s Oscar Awards for her editing of a dramatic documentary One Day in September, an account of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972…

Jane Campion is a model profile of a working artist

Jane Campion is a model profile of a working artist

Anthropologist, artist, and award winner, internationally acclaimed New Zealand director exercises an organic approach to her craft …

Child Superstar Anna Paquin’s Vampish Turn

Child Superstar Anna Paquin’s Vampish Turn

Anna Paquin has got something tucked away in her closet: an Oscar … becoming the second-youngest Academy Award winner is a tough act to follow.

Russell Crowe: Inside Story

Russell Crowe: Inside Story

Playing a 52-year-old tobacco company executive in The Insider is all in a day’s work for 35-year-old Russell Crowe; giving up the smokes is not.

Russell: The Prequel

Russell: The Prequel

Oz comment: “Crowe is a national hero” (despite “inconveniently managing to get himself born in New Zealand”); jokes from the Katzy kitchen; Crowe, Hillary and Rutherford make Australia green; Crowe “a…

Notes from Ian McKellen

Notes from Ian McKellen

“What a congenial country New Zealand is for visitors from what used to be called “the home country … It all seems half-familiar with a style of friendliness that is a change from English…

Not Crowing About Stardom

Not Crowing About Stardom

Russell Crowe was the darling of the early awards season, picking up a slew of accolades for his role as a tobacco industry whistle-blower in The Insider.