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academy profile
The awards are pouring in... but can New Zealand keep the film-making bubble from bursting? Anwar Brett reports.
At the British Academy then the Hollywood Oscar film awards earlier this year one country was punching conspicu- ously above its weight.
New Zealand, once just famed for rolling green hills, sheep and huge rugby players, has triumphantly established itself on the film industry map.
At the ceremony in London the country could claim not only to have to have produced the Best Actor (Russell Crowe for A Beautiful Mind) but also the film generally acknowledged as the year’s finest, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring along with its director, Peter Jackson.
By Christmas it’s a safe bet that two of the hot cinema tick- ets around the world will be for films directed by New Zealand filmmakers too. There is the next instalment of Jackson’s epic, of course, as well as the latest Bond movie, Die Another Day, helmed by Lee Tamahori.
So it looks, for all the world, as if these men are riding the crest of an exciting new wave for the Kiwi industry.
But there must be caution too, with the memory of the emer- gence of Australian talent in the 1970s and the subsequent dias- pora, as the likes of Fred Schepisi, Peter Weir, Phillip Noyce, Gillian Armstrong and Bruce Beresford tried their luck further afield.
It was a decade later that confidence grew again and domestic production developed with it. Locally, it seems, those responsible for developing and sustaining the film and TV industry in New Zealand are well aware of the dangers that come with growing too fast too quickly.
Dr Ruth Harley, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Film Commission, has seen her country used by a succession of incoming productions as a lush backdrop that offers a stunning selection of vistas and environments.
In the recent Hollywood adventure film Vertical Limit, directed by ex-pat Kiwi Martin Campbell – who re-ignited the Bond franchise with GoldenEye – was used as a convincing double for the Karakoram
mountain range in northern India. The BBC’s Christmas adventure, The Lost World, was recreated there too.
Similarly, American television series such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules have made the most of the diversity of locations New Zealand has to offer. Both series have now ended though, so what exactly does the future hold?
“The television industry doesn’t have a rush of incoming produc- tions from other territories,” Dr Harley explains, “but then neither does the film industry. Our sub- stantial amount of feature pro- duction is largely driven by New Zealand productions.
“Up until now the growth and success of the domestic film industry has developed from the Commission’s core policy of seek- ing out and encouraging new talent and enabling that talent to make films. This has always been what we’ve tried to do.”
There is a surprisingly long list of New Zealand filmmakers who have built upon success at home with films that broke out to wider acclaim and commercial suc- cess. Jackson and Tamahori of course, Vincent Ward, Geoff Murphy, Jane Campion and adopted Kiwi Roger Donaldson all cut their professional teeth in home grown films in the 70s and 80s before reaching a much wider audience.
The New Zealand Film Commission can claim, with jus- tification, to have provided a bridge for one or two between their early work and the kind of high profile things they are doing now.
Few people could, for instance, have imagined that the man who made the gore obsessed splatter horror come- dies Bad Taste and Meet The Feebles would go on to direct the critically acclaimed and awards laden Lord of the Rings.
“The Film Commission made it possible for Peter Jackson to make his first four features,” Dr Harley continues. “As well as investing in them, we were also involved as sales agent which enabled us to maintain direct
involvement with the licensing and re-licensing of each film, ter- ritory by territory. Our involvement in that capacity with a majority of the films we invest in is a core factor in what we do.”
Sustaining success is always harder than achieving it in the first place. And then there is the problem of holding onto talent, stars and crew who – by the nature of a nomadic business – may simply leave and not come back. The strong links between New Zealand and Australia help in this regard, enabling an easy exchange of filmmakers and actors as and when they are needed.
“There’s always been freedom of travel and work between the two countries,” Dr Harley adds. “And the best people from the two film industries have always been able to work in either coun- try.” This fact is borne out further by the presence of Temuera Morrison, among others, in the key role of Jango Fett in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney.
But if it is to survive, the New Zealand film industry must feed the roots as well as basking in the glo- ries of its current crop of successes.
Everyone involved is aware that there are only so many Tolkien adaptations to be made, that local stories need to be told and local talent used. The model for the future should be to pro- duce more in the vein of the home-grown hit domestic drama, Once Were Warriors, than simply be a colourful Hollywood backlot.
“We’re endeavouring to fast- track the development of a new generation of entrepreneurial producers and directors,” says Dr Harley.
“This involves them going to international markets to experi- ence first-hand the overseas envi- ronment in which their films must compete, and also by providing contact with experts from other countries who can help them.
“We are also increasing the number of features in develop- ment, in an effort to ensure that more strong projects are ready to seek production investment.”
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Photo above: Barrie M Osborne, Peter Jackson and Tim Sanders, BAFTA Film winners for The Lord of the Rings