The cocaine bear in Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is an impressive feat of visual effects wizardry, but there was an actual person behind the 227-kilogram, drug-addicted beast, and that person was New Zealander Allan…
When The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin pitched a role in the series to New Zealand-born actor Melanie Lynskey, he started with a bang: “He called me and said, ‘I would love for…
New Zealand director Gerard Johnstone’s latest film, the comedy horror M3GAN, is well reviewed in Variety, with critic Owen Gleiberman describing it as “creepy, preposterous and diverting”. “Gemma (Allison Williams), a robotics engineer, works for…
Studiocanal CEO New Zealand-born Anna Marsh has been named International Distributor of the Year at CineEurope, the exhibition conference which took place in June, in Barcelona. Andrew Sunshine, president of CineEurope organiser Film Expo Group,…
At just 21, Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Ursula in the four-part BBC series Life After Life, already has a list of impressive credits including Leave No Trace and Last Night in Soho. BAFTA winning…
Walk into the unembellished black building tucked away in Morningside, Auckland, later this year and there’s no telling what musical superstars one might find, Leena Tailor writes in an exclusive story for Variety. The…
“Illuminating tracks from the superb 2019 Bad Seeds album Ghosteen and Nick Cave’s 2021 collaboration with Warren Ellis, Carnage, this remarkable performance documentary may be for the Nick…
When Amazon announced in August 2021 that its billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series would shift production to England, fans were stunned. Though J.R.R. Tolkien was British and though the settings are fictional,…
Unity Software, a 3D game-development platform, is expanding its VFX footprint in a big way with the US$1.625 billion acquisition of the technology division of Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based Weta Digital, Todd Spangler reports…
“When French filmmaker Julia Ducournau took the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for Titane, her wild explosion of body horror and gender politics, Jane Campion’s status in film history shifted slightly: no longer…
For Variety’s 2021 Power of Women issue, the magazine spoke with several women in the entertainment industry, including New Zealand pop singer Lorde, who are using their voices to benefit worthy causes. After grappling with…
“In a brilliant move, the Beatles him to work on the 56 hours of…
Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed 1.1 billion streams and was…
“Imagine how Ripley of Alien would handle a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet-style gremlin attack. Sound wild? Roseanne Liang’s female empowerment thriller delivers on that premise.” Variety’s Peter Debruge reviews the New Zealand director’s film…
Anonymous Content, the company behind True Detective and The Revenant, has acquired the TV rights to the New York Times bestselling novel Code Name Hélène written by Ariel Lawhon about Wellington-born World War II heroine…
Among the documentaries premiering at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival in April is New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based Stacey Lee’s debut feature-length project, Underplayed, about the gender inequality in electronic music, Lily Moayeri reports for…
New Zealander Anna Marsh, the newly appointed CEO of leading European film and TV group Studiocanal, comes off as self-contained and mild-mannered, but her bullish track record at the company and relationships with big-name…
Lead produced by Working Title Television, distributed internationally by Fremantle and coming soon to BBC Two, period thriller The Luminaries, adapted from New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s prize-winning novel, has initiated a global roll-out,…
For a small country with a film industry that is export-driven, the quality of New Zealand’s incentives is critical, Variety’s Asia bureau chief Patrick Frater reports. Despite the kudos and tourism dollars delivered by producing…
Dunedin-born filmmaker Daniel Borgman, 31, whose latest film Resin world has premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section, is now developing “a pair of high-concept projects”: the crime…
New Zealander Tom Mockridge is exiting his role as CEO at UK cabler Virgin Media and will return to Italy to be with his family. He has had a long career in pay TV…
The “Thor: Ragnarok” director is set to helm Apple’s TV adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy flick Time Bandits, which is currently in development,” writes Bill Thorne in an article for Variety. “The…
Aquaman star Jason Momoa has wowed fans when he led a massive red carpet haka at the film’s premiere on Thursday night. Variety reports. “For the uninitiated,…
Eva Green (“Casino Royale”), Eve Hewson (“The Knick”) and Marton Csokas (“Into the Badlands”) will star in “The Luminaries, “the TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s award-winning novel,” writes Stewart Clarke in an article for…
New Zealander Anna Paquin’s new film, Tell It to the Bees may be set in a small Scottish village in the 1950s, but it deals with issues that are still…
New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi and actors Naomi Watts and Christoph Waltz join the main jury of the Venice Film Festival, which will be presided over by director Guillermo del Toro, the winner of…
“Castle Rock is a giant basket of Easter eggs for King people, but for the rest of us it’s a decent show layered with supernatural secrets waiting to be decoded,” according to John…
“Sitting down with Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge, Paquin discussed the release of her newest independent movie at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic.” Tara Bitran reports for
Auckland-born actor Jay Ryan, 36, has been cast as the adult version of Ben Hanscom in New Line’s It: Chapter Two, sources confirmed to Variety. Ryan joins Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader, who…
Despite working with a “micro-budget”, music supervisor Chris Swanson weaves an inspired sonic accompaniment to the Netflix hit Wild Wild Country, a documentary about the controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers….
New Zealander Anna Paquin plays Detective Anna Ryder in the Canadian television series, Bellevue. “Paquin, whose onscreen presence guarantees an otherworldly, alienating grace, is doing more work than is first apparent,” Variety TV critic…
New Zealand actor Beulah Koale’s role in the 2017 film Thank You For Your Service has been deemed a “breakout” performance of the year by industry publication Variety. “As more people discover this quiet gem…
Alias Grace, Netflix’s limited series from writer/producer Sarah Polley and director Mary Harron based on Margaret Atwood’s novel, dives deep into the life of the convicted murderer, but whether or not she was truly…
“Miles Teller hits the true note, and so does the rest of a superb cast , in a drama of Iraq War veterans that sidesteps all the coming-home clichés,” Variety’s Owen…
Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok has an “oddly beautiful scuffed-plastic aesthetic”; it’s “funny, charming, dazzling, gorgeously designed, and full of actors you already like,” with Waititi managing “to finally imbue Marvel’s dullest Avenger with a…
“A sub-Antarctic research station is the setting for Human Traces, a twisty psychological thriller from promising New Zealand director Nic Gorman,” Richard Kuipers writes in a review for Variety. “Isolation is anything but splendid in…
“The upcoming Showtime comedy series SMILF has cast New Zealand-born actress Kimberley Crossman in a recurring role,” reports Joe Otterson for Variety. Crossman will play Kit-Cat, the roommate of…
Auckland-born actor Callan Mulvey, 42, is joining the cast of upcoming American-Scottish historical action drama Outlaw King, which will be aired on Netflix. According to Variety, Mulvey will be playing the role of Sir John…
There’s certainly a great deal of thematic resonance in the first series of Top of the Lake and this one, beginning with women immersed in a body of water, a narrative of pregnancy secretly…
“Breathtaking landscapes have long made New Zealand a prime filming location. Where else, after all, can one find alpine glaciers side by side with subtropical seacoasts?” entertainment trade magazine Variety writes. “Plus, the country’s highly…
New Zealand’s newest production facility, the Kumeu Film Studio is to launch thanks to a three-way partnership built around the China-Hollywood co-produced, action-adventure film Meg, according to an exclusive story in Variety. The studio facility…
The presciently titled I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, starring New Plymouth-born actor Melanie Lynskey, pulled off a surprise victory at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards ceremony taking the grand…
New Zealand and Canada have “signed a co-production treaty that will allow enhanced film and TV industry cooperation between the two English-speaking territories,” writes Patrick Frater for Variety. “The treaty was signed…
New Zealand actor Sam Neill will star in the AMC television network drama The Son, playing the patriarch of a Texas family in a multigenerational story of the clan’s rise and fall. Production on the…
New investigative documentary, the “engrossing” Tickled, co-directed by New Zealanders David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, has received rave reviews from critics and punters after its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s…
Even after the end of Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ movies, the New Zealand film and TV business is thriving and “turning the land that once served as Middle-Earth into a host of…
New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis says that returning to New Zealand to tell local stories keeps him sane. “It sort of grounds me and gives me a sense of purpose,” said Curtis. His next project alongside…
The trailer for the fourth and final season of small-town crime drama Banshee has been released. January 29 has been set as the show’s premiere date. New Zealand actor Antony Starr is starring as Lucas…
New Zealander Cliff Curtis, 47, who portrayed speed chess genius Genesis Potini in The Dark Horse, will be honoured by the American Cinematheque at a ceremony on 11 October at the Aero Theatre in…
Golden Globe and Academy Award winner Anna Paquin has been cast in a new role opposite Forest Whitaker in the epic television miniseries, Roots, which is based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel as well…
“Auckland, New Zealand may seem a world away from the heart of hip-hop culture in the US, but the local dance crews featured in Born to Dance totally own it”, writes Justin Lowe for
Special effects maestro New Zealander Richard Taylor will direct the design of characters in the upcoming American film version of The Monkey King, a Chinese blockbuster. “There has been a rush to bring Western-originated movies to…
Jake Mahaffy’s evocation of a borderline unbearable true-life tragedy, Free In Deed is a bracing, bruising corrective to the “faith-based filmmaking” movement, according to Indiewire. The New Zealand-raised director’s third film, set in and…
Recently rated by Variety magazine as one of 10 cinematographers to watch, New Zealander Nigel Bluck, 43, has been working as director of photography on the second season of popular…
New Zealander Niki Caro is the director of McFarland, USA, a Disney film based on the true story of a 1987 cross country team from a predominantly Mexican-American high school starring Kevin Costner. McFarland,…
The Utah filmmakers who begat Napoleon Dynamite made a triumphant return to the Sundance Film Festival with New Zealand actor Jemaine Clement playing opposite American funnyman Sam Rockwell in Don Verdean, a movie about…
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