New Zealand movie industry

shines with Lord of the Rings

Ne V/

Zealand’s movie industry, which has achieved inter

national acclaim with the success of films like The Piano, Heavenly Crea tures and Once Were Warriors, is poised for its biggest venture yet - a trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of

the Rings.

Shooting of the fantasy classic, to be directed by New Zealander Peter Jackson, will start by October. With a budget of NZ$36O milllion (AUD5279.2 million), it will be th most expensive movie project ever in a country where film-making has only really taken off in the last decade.

British actors Sir lan McKellen and lan Holm are tipped to star in the three-film blockbuster, for which Americans Elijah Wood and Sean Austin have also been signed.

Although financed by American New Line Cinema, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Jackson insisted on making it in New Zealand, where he recently bought the country’s only one-stop post-production

facility. About 500 people will work on the production, which is also reported to require thousands of extras.

Eight New Zealand features screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year and at least 12 will have their premiers or go to productionh before the year’s end.

The Piano, which was directed by New Zealander Jane Campion, attracted world wide attention when its child star Anna Paquin, from Wellington, won an Oscar for best supporting actress.

Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures - the true story of two young New Zealand girls who killed the mother of one of them - made his name worldwide.

Once Were Warriors, a torrid saga of family life among New Zealand’s Marie population, also helped put New Zealand on the movie-making map.

A sequel to Once Were Warriors, enti tled What Becomes of the Broken-Heart ed?, also written by Marie author Alan

Duff, was shown at Cannes this year and is now on worldwide release. The New Zealand Film Commission is a

major backer of the local movie industry, financing more than 60 feature films since it was established in 1978.

Its marketing director, Lindsay Shelton, said New Zealand had an extraordinary number of film-makers of international tal ent for a small country.

“Their successes have proved a great attraction for international investors which is reflected in the increasing number of movies being made in New Zealand,” he said. “Until Peter Jackson started insisting on making his movies in the country, every New Zealand director chose to go offshore in search of the investment money. Now they have the confidence to stay here, and because we have the talent, the investment money is coming in.”

The Screen Producers and Directors’

Association of New Zealand is wooing for eign film-makers with publicity offering landscapes that provide “The world in one country”. DPA ■