Production lift-off

The New Zealand film industry is booming with “local helmers poised to soar again”. Whale Rider director Niki Caro’s The Vintners Luck, in which she reteams with her young Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes, is vying for a high-profile festival slot this year. LOTR helmer Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn will also be released. Resident television fantasy skeins Power Rangers, The Legend of the Seeker and Spartacus generate ongoing production activity in Auckland, and during 2008 five international features, in addition to the aforementioned Jackson works, lensed New Zealand-side.