NZEDGE News — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

A New Zealand first

NZ Drama School student James Ashcroft has secured an internship at New York’s prestigious theatre and film company, The Wooster Group. The Wooster Group was founded by actor Willem Dafoe in the late…

NZ vs. Wales: The Name Game

A bid by the NZRFU to make “All Blacks” a registered trademark has been called into question after the discovery of a Welsh team playing under the same name. The Welsh club Neath has been known…

“The Greatest Rock’n’roll Band in the World at That Moment”

SMH bows down before “snake-hipped Kiwi axe gods,” The Datsuns. The concert review: “When the lights came up it had been barely 70 minutes since the first note and yet no one felt short-changed….

Teen angst pays off

Wellington actress Michelle Ang has been nominated for Australia’s premiere television award (a Logie) for her role in Neighbours. Ang, who has previously appeared in The Tribe and McDonalds Young Entertainers, is entered in…

Hillary on show

The National Geographic Society’s Explorers Hall in Washington has opened an exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest climb. Curiosities include the ice-axe Hillary used in the last few metres…

Making music behind the scenes

19-year-old New Zealander Martine Hardaker is one of three students featured in an article on the prestigious Violin Making School of America. The four-year program involves more than just sanding and filing; pupils study…

Hey big spender

Australia’s John Fairfax Holdings Ltd has bought NZ’s top media group – Independent News Limited (INL) – for NZ$1.19 billion. The package includes more than 80 major newspapers and magazines, and means that over…

Protecting Shared Heritage

The NZ and Australian governments are making a combined application to the World Intellectual Property Organisation to protect the use of the word Anzac. Both countries have legislated against the unauthorised use of the word at…

Fashionistas Duke it Out

Home-grown fashion site Lucire has been nominated for a Webby Award; the online equivalent of an Oscar. Lucire is up against stiff international competition, including Dolce & Gabbana and Style.

Island for Hire

Observer‘s guide to rock-star living suggests hiring your own island getaway. Featured is Forsyth Island, Marlborough Sounds. “This is a great one for the active – the 2,100 acre island has 35 kilometres of pathways for…

NZ: Wine Enthusiast ‘Region of the Year’

American-based Wine Enthusiast Magazine named NZ “Region of the Year” at their prestigious Wine Awards for 2002. Said judges of our viticultural edge; “When examining the NZ wine industry, broader themes emerge, encompassing such important concepts as innovation,…

Lately I’ve Been Lost it Seems … Jane Austen Spiced-up

Gurinda Chadha – director of international hit Bend it Like Beckham – has cast Kiwi actor Martin Henderson as Mr Darcy in her musical version of Pride and Prejudice. Henderson, most recently seen in…

Let Them Eat Plate

NZ company Potatopak, which produces edible fast-food packaging, plans to have its product on Australian shelves by 2004. The eco-friendly invention has been selling through organic shops and catering companies in NZ since 1999, and already…

Belated Acclaim for Unsung Edge Hero

“The Wright Brothers get all the credit, but a little-known NZ farmer and self-taught aviation pioneer deserves some recognition too.” Richard Pearse featured in LA Times as both NZ and America approach the centennial celebrations of their…

Australasian Appeal

“Out US and UK, in Australia and New Zealand.” Indian emigrants and students are favouring a move Down Under over the traditional destinations of old, thanks to easier entry procedures and cheaper education facilities.

It’s a Dirty Job, but Someone’s Got to Do It.

SMH travel writer tours NZ in the lap of luxury, reviewing the likes of Huka Lodge, Okiato, Kauri Cliffs and Whare Kea. The verdict? “Lodges provide some of the country’s finest accommodation … They are…

Acting up

NZ actor Daniel Gillies (Street Legal) is on the brink of international stardom, with forthcoming roles in Hollywood blockbusters SpiderMan 2 and Head in the Clouds, opposite Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz. Gillies…

“A Life Set to Music”

Edwin “Ted” Carr – “grand old man of NZ music” – has died aged 76. At times a conductor, teacher, dancer and animator, Carr achieved his greatest fame late in life as a composer….

Scream queen

“Eye-catching” sculptures and drawings by ex-pat Kiwi Francis Upritchard are currently on show at London’s form-setting Institute of Contemporary Art, as part of the annual Beck’s Futures award exhibition. Referencing Mike Kelley and Tony…

Wellywood Weighs In

An Anna Fifield Financial Times feature reviews the remarkable growth of the NZ film industry in the wake of its latest coup: Peter Jackson’s King Kong. “For the country’s film industry, the project marks…

A View from the Right

Robert Darwall proffers an aggressive and provocative outsider analysis of NZ’s economic reforms in April’s Policy Review. “Steep cuts in welfare programs and the most radical shake-up of labor law outside Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. On these South…

Shooting from the lip

Legendary NZ-born war correspondent, Peter Arnett, has again found himself in the midst of political controversy. NBC and National Geographic fired Arnett after he stated on Iraqi state television that the initial US war…

Edge and Ivory

Professor Malcolm Grant joins fellow NZer John Hood (newly appointed Oxford VC) in taking over Britain’s ivory towers from the top. Currently the pro-vice-chancellor at Cambridge University, Grant will take the reins as the new provost of…

Survival of the Hippest

Karen Walker continues her reign as NZ’s leading fashion export, scoring extensive coverage in some of the international media’s hippest publications over the past month. She was profiled in i-D as one of their…

Creative Curriculum

A Times article deploring the state of the British education system holds up its New Zealand counterpart as the benchmark for quality and creativity. “Look at New Zealand, which manages to incorporate dance into maths classes, drama…

The Book of Fame (and fortune) for Lloyd Jones

Lloyd Jones’ The Book of Fame has won the $40,000 biennial Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize, Australia’s most lucrative literary award. The Book of Fame is a poetic national myth-making account of the 1905 All…

Local Film; Universal Message

Niki Caro’s Whale Rider was the star attraction at the annual Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema. According to organisers, the “breathtakingly luminous” film perfectly captured the festival’s central theme of “becoming the person…

Jackson (and NZ) goes ape

Watch out Sky Tower: Peter Jackson is to direct a remake of King Kong for Universal Pictures. The epic production will be filmed on location in NZ and released globally in 2005. Says an…

Screen-worthy Scenery

Baltimore Sun travel writer discovers the joys of the South Island road trip. “Driving on the South Island is not just to get you from one highlight to another – the whole blessed island is a…

Paddy Meets His Match

Paddy O’Brien became New Zealand’s most capped referee in Test rugby after officiating at the Six Nations game between Wales and France in Paris. The match marked O’Brien’s 27th Test and 181st first class game. O’Brien:…

Winning hearts through stomachs

Noel Turner’s US eatery, Turner New Zealand, continues to attract epicurean praise with it’s gourmet cuisine sourced with principled fidelity from the freshest NZ product. A “wide-waisted wordsmith” reviews for Orange County Weekly….

Icarus Down-under

Richard – “Bamboo Dick” – Pearse profiled in China Daily as New Zealand celebrates the centenary of his (world?) first flight. Says biographer Gordon Ogilvie; “He was an inventive phenomenon in a small community where farming was…

Captain Kirk

Aucklander Kirk Penney is one of the brightest stars on the American college basketball circuit. Penney captains and is the highest point-scorer for the Wisconsin Badgers, a team he has lead into the top 16. A…

Fact and Fantasy Collide in The Remarkables

Post-Gazette travel special includes NZ in its homage to Oscar-worthy locations. Special mention is given to The Remarkables, site of Dimrill Dale in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Boyens on Rings writing

Writer Philippa Boyens speaks out on her own epic quest; adapting the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the screen. With her collaborators Walsh, Jackson and Sinclair, Boyens battled against political misreadings, weird names…

Edge intelligence: Donaldson delivers

Observer reviews The Recruit, the latest Hollywood offering from one of NZ cinema’s pioners, LA-based Roger Donaldson. “Slick and highly enjoyable … scenes of induction and seduction have an almost documentary feel and the…

One GPS to find them all

Detroit Free Press feature on Rings tourism recommends Ian Brodie’s Lord of the Rings Location Book. One for the truly dedicated, the guide offers the exact coordinates of incidental sites for those equipped with…

For Those About the Rock the Globe

The Datsuns have mounted a full-scale global aural assault: Boston Daily Globe: “It’s a high-energy assault with mammoth guitar riffs, strutting bass, and raw vocals that cartwheel into tomcat wailing.” New York Post:…

Voters Under Ring’s Influence

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted second most influential movie/s of the last 75 years in a poll for BBC News Online, ahead of Citizen Kane, the Godfather series and 2001: A…

Jackson fan club continued…

Michael Scragow, former staff writer for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, airs his opinions on this year’s Oscars. “I am just floored that Peter Jackson was not nominated for best director … I…

NZ Provides Aid To Iraq

The NZ government is contributing NZ$3.3 million in humanitarian aid to war-torn Iraq. The announcement by Foreign Minister Phil Goff came just days after the U.S and its allies commenced war in the Middle East. The…

Sacred Hill Win on Sacred Turf

Sacred Hill’s 2001 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay became the first NZ wine to win gold at the prestigious Chardonnay du Monde competition in Burgundy, France. Sacred Hill marketing manager Duncan Elliott: “This is like winning the French equivalent…

Auckland Loves Lucy

American broadcaster CBS is the latest offshore company to take advantage of New Zealand as a production location. Currently shooting in Auckland is Redhead: The Lucille Ball Story, a 3-hour television movie.

Gattaca Genetics

Ground-breaking research into congenital birth abnormalities by Otago University professor Stephen Robertson has been published in leading scientific journal, Nature Genetics. Robertson has identified a previously unknown gene responsible for severe malformations in infants. His success makes…