Strong 2010 start for Kiwi film industry

Avatar’s phenomenal win at the 2010 Academy Awards cemented a strong start to the year for the Kiwi film industry.

The New Zealand film industry is enjoying the fruits of a busy 2009, with the scheduled release of several hotly-anticipated movies that are set to keep Aotearoa New Zealand on the movie map.
Kiwi actors and film-making talent continue to punch above their weight in the international field, making headlines by winning prestigious movie awards.

Gandalf returns to Hobbiton
British actor Sir Ian McKellen is poised to return to New Zealand, where he will reprise the role of grey-haired wizard Gandalf for The Hobbit. Although the cast has yet to be officially announced, McKellen leaked the information about his return on his website, and said shooting for The Hobbit was expected to begin in June.

The movie will be shot in New Zealand, and the elaborate Hobbiton village sets in Matamata, in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island, are being revamped for the movie.
The Hobbit will be shot over 370 days and released in two parts. Meanwhile McKellen will also perform in the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot - at Wellington's St James Theatre. The play opens on 30 June.

The Green Lantern
Hollywood action blockbuster, The Green Lantern - a Warner Bros production set for release in June 2011 - has a distinctly Kiwi flavour.
Director Martin Campbell is a New Zealander who has been based in LA for many years. Campbell is a big name in Hollywood, having previously directed Bond movie Casino Royale.
Taika Waititi and Temuera Morrison play crucial roles, alongside Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds who appears as Hal Jordan aka 'The Green Lantern'. Waititi has been cast as Jordan’s sidekick, Thomas Kalmaku. Morrison will play Abin Sur, a Green Lantern Corps member who recruits Hal.
Two other Oscar-winning Kiwis will play behind-the-scenes roles - Grant Major and Ngila Dickson both won Oscars in 2004 for their work on Lord of the Rings. Major is the film’s art director, and Dickson is costume designer.

Boy
Taika Waititi missed the Auckland première of his award-winning local movie, Boy, because he was in New Orleans shooting The Green Lantern.
Boy was nominated for an Oscar, and chosen for competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also won the best feature film prize in its category at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival.

King Kong boat sinks
Wellington has finally farewelled the King Kong boat ‘SS Venture’ - now in a watery grave in Cook Strait, 37 nautical miles from the New Zealand capital.
The King Kong boat was originally the cargo ship ‘Manuia’. The 54-year-old boat was built in Holland, and arrived in Auckland in 1990 with a cargo of explosives from Australia for the Royal New Zealand Navy. It later served as a tuna fishing vessel, and was purchased for the King Kong re-make.

In March 2005 while the ‘Manuia’ was on a two-week filming expedition, the crew was forced to jump ship when it sprang a leak and began to take on water.

Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear has wrapped up filming. It was shot entirely on location in New Zealand, around greater Auckland and in the Whakamaru reserve in the central North Island between Rotorua and Taupo.

Distributed by Warner Bros Pictures, Yogi Bear is set for a December 2010 release.

Tracker
Shooting has also wrapped for Tracker, the man-hunt thriller starring British actor Ray Winstone and New Zealander Temuera Morrison.

The Paramount Pictures movie will be released in New Zealand on 21 October and, while no international distribution date has been confirmed, it has been slated for worldwide release.

Predicament
Jemaine Clement - Flight of the Conchords fans will be holding out for Predicament, described as "a quirky comedy", and out in New Zealand on 22 July.

Based on the book by Kiwi author Hugh Morrieson (1922-1972), the movie was filmed in the south Taranaki town of Hawera, also the home and birthplace of Morrieson.

The movie is reportedly aimed at a younger audience, and stars Clement as creepy character Spook and The Lovely Bones’ Rose McIver plays object-of-lust Maybelle. Also featured in the movie is Australian comedian Heath Franklin, famous for his "Chopper" impersonation and Kiwi musician Tim Finn.

Home by Christmas
Martin Henderson is rumoured to be coming home to New Zealand for the première of Home by Christmas on 29 April, a new film by Kiwi director Gaylene Preston.

Home by Christmas is a memoir based on interviews that Preston did with her father Ed about his World War II experiences.

Henderson plays the character of young Ed, and Goodbye Pork Pie lead Tony Barry plays old Ed. The movie starts in 1940, when Preston’s father - on his way home from rugby practice - decides to join the New Zealand Army.

Ed’s young wife Tui is pregnant and distraught, but he comforts her with the standard soldiers’ line - "don’t worry I’ll be home by Christmas". Unfortunately, Ed doesn’t see his family again for four years.

This is Martin Henderson’s first New Zealand feature film, and he says he related strongly to the themes.