Register for Monthly Updates about Kiwis Rocking the World
Arts
“For You to See Our World the Right Way Round”
Allen Curnow, one of New Zealand’s great 20th-century writers and poets, has died in Auckland. Daily Telegraph: “regarded by many as New Zealand’s greatest poet” Curnow helped define a…
Praise for Jewish Museum
Praise keeps coming for the new Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the exhibition curated by Kiwis Ken Gorbey and Nigel Cox. Gorbey and Cox realise that sympathy-inducing gimmicks are…
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…
The Fox Boy
The 19th-century studio portrait of a young Maori boy aged five or six, dignified but standing taut and uncommunicative, captured the imagination of New Zealand writer Peter Walker, The…
Whale of a tale
A combination of German and New Zealand investors will finance Whale Rider, the film adaptation …
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…
The Odder Rock Tour
Neil Finn has just completed one of rock’s great experimental tours. He started off playing with friends from Radiohead and the Smiths in New Zealand, and ended up on…
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…
Archived Story
Drilling and hammering continued right up to opening, but the Jewish Museum in Germany is at last open. It is the culmination of an intense period of work for…
Amazing Race amazing TV
“More than a thrill a minute” is packed into The Amazing Race, a “dazzling and fascinating show that brings new…
Publishing Gem
Author Fay Weldon, who spent her childhood in New Zealand, has divided the literary world with her latest novel, The Bulgari Connection. It’s sponsored by the Italian jewellery company…
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….
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…
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…
Wgtn Saatchis in world top-10
In a volume compiled by editors of graphic design bible Graphis Saatchi & Saatchi’s Wellington office, originator of the award winning Toyota bugger and Adidas All Black haka campaigns…
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.
Booker long-list Graced
Kiwi author Patrica Grace’s Dogside Story about an East Coast Maori township makes the long-list for the much-vaunted Booker Prize, shunting aside Salman to join such luminaries as Beryl…
Time-out: critics Knox-ed over
Elizabeth Knox’s career and upcoming bovine noir tale gets talked up and produces another fine vintage according to the passing feet of Time: “Measured by the beat of an…
“Erotic, hyper-imaginative fiction”
Elizabeth Knox’s Black Oxen is “lush, dark and puzzling,” as well as “startling and strangely satisfying”.
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 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…
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…
Fur Patrol on patrol
Ex-Wellington band Fur Patrol build up a loyal fan base in Melbourne, their new home, clocking up 2 miles supporting acts like Neil Finn and Killing Heidi.
Underground S&M
Q&A with Emily Perkins, including her worst fear – “it’s a tie between black-water rafting and those SM zip masks. So I guess being on a black-water raft with…
Perkins short cuts to praise
The Guardian Review draws comparisons between Perkins’s tale of small town angst and the American master of the form: “Perkins has wonderfully light touch; she is a master of…
“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…
Six degrees of connection
Mark de Clive-Lowe, NZedged leading exponent of nu-jazz guides iJazz listeners through the musical territory and affirms his edge cultural vibe: “I grew up in a totally unique place…
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,…
Fox judging
Award winning edge-actress Kerry Fox sits in the judging seat for the 54th Locarno International Film Festival.
No 2, one year on
Picked by Observer critics as an Edinburgh Best of Festival 2 and winner of a prestigious Fringe First, Toa Fraser’s No. 2 continues to thrive and garner praise despite…
In with their idols A-Z
Kiwi pin-up boys of rock Zed sign with Interscope for American release of Silencer. Interscope artists include Eminem, Dr Dre, Weezer and U2. “To be put in the same…
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…
Brits take to New Girl
Emily Perkins’s The New Girl: “The atmosphere of summer, youth and restlessness in a social backwater is strong, as is the projection of Miranda’s intriguing personality and its effect…
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…
Advice to Note
Icon of NZ music remembered. Composer Douglas Lilburn, 85, found a “distinctive voice from his native New Zealand.” The Guardian praises the “strong emotional appeal” of his music, noting…
First class performance
New Zealand student Geoff Pinfield gains a first class degree and the inaugural Simon Callow prize for Theatre Criticism at Queen’s University, Belfast.
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…
Bach Symphony
Design/style bible Wallpaper scours the globe to compile a directory of the best architects to pick if you’re thinking of home improvements and includes the “sparklingly clear vision” of…
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 new girl
Emily Perkins is “an adventurous writer” whose recent novel, The New Girl is an “ambitious work, rich with creative tension”, and a “huge leap” for a writer whose first…
The Fox Boy
Comment on Peter Walker’s “fascinating” biography of William Fox Omahuru, the Maori boy abducted to be raised by Sir William Fox, future New Zealand PM. A tale of colonialism…
Emily’s choice
British-based New Zealand writer Emily Perkins sat on the all-powerful all-girl jury for the Orange Prize, Britain’s major literary award for women only. Also, Perkins comments on the double jury…
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…
Dame Kiri in Greece
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, “a woman with an exotic beauty and – beyond any doubt – an absolutely stunning voice” who “personifies the modern version of a diva most…
Cartoon Commies
Cartoons from New Zealander David Low’s (“the greatest cartoonist of the twentieth century”) “Russian Sketchbook” on show alongside high-profile Russian cartoonists in the first exhibition run by Britain’s new…
Try whistling happy birthday
Today in history: alongside the anniversary of the patenting of barbed wire and Custer’s last stand, it’s also the day Tim Finn was born in Te Awamutu.
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…
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,…
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…
Finn forum
Neil Finn at the Forum: “It was magic. It was intimate, it was funny. And above all, reverential”. Also, Finn in Sydney.
Scholar honoured
New Zealand novelist, poet, critic and scholar Professor Karl Stead awarded an honorary doctorate by Bristol University.
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”.
Difficulty in the holy land
Dame Kiri in Israel “to do music”. “I love things that are difficult. I love looking for new arias and presenting them to the public,” said edge voice Dame…
Improv queen
Miss Wonder drags herself out to promote New Zealand comedy group the Improv Bandits at the Montreal Fringe Festival.
Rock art
New Zealander Chris Grosz designed tour posters for promoters Michael Coppel and Zev Isaac, producing pop art-influenced images. “I wanted the posters to stand up and be proud -…
Cutting Edge Commercials
Saatchi & Saatchi’s “Bugger” ad shows the creativity that will save TV advertising says Jim Aitchinson’s Cutting Edge Commercials.
