News
Predicament
World Premiere, 24 July 2010, New Zealand International Film Festival (Auckland)
coming to a theatre near you late 2010
This crime comedy (based on a book of the same name) tells the story of Cedric, who conspires with local misfits to photograph and blackmail wealthy adulterous couples.
Newcomer Hayden Frost plays the lead role of Cedric Williamson, alongside Australian comedian Heath Franklin and Rose McIver. Auckland Actors Edward Newborn, Peter Mochrie and Brooke Williams appear in essential support roles.
Watch the trailer here.
Antony Starr on Flicks
from Flicks, New Zealand film website.
"We asked Antony Starr - Jethro and Van in Outrageous Fortune - to recommend five of his favourite films...
'Watching films and going to the movies is, I believe, one of the best expenditures of time. It is fantastic. I’ve seen a lot of films in my time so it’s difficult to pick five and label them favourites. Flavours of film and film-making have changed dramatically over the years, making the selection even harder to call.
There are very few films I see that don't have something in them I like, at some level. More often than not, the films I don't like are re-makes (usually of classics) to which I usually find myself saying, 'Why bother? Why not let people enjoy the original?'
For the most part, however, any film I see will have something in it I like - a particular performance, theme, idea, etc.
Sometimes there are films that come along and tick all the boxes for me. The list of these films in totality would be very long indeed but I've managed to whittle it down to five. Not easy. I could not put them in order of preference as they are all so different and as such I find them non-comparable in that way.
Hopefully you'll find some time to watch some or all of them, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.' "
Read about Antony's film picks & the full article here.
Lauren Jackson on The Big Idea
Article taken from The Big Idea, interview written by Renee Liang.
"A few days ago I had instant coffee and some very nice chocolate with Lauren Jackson, sitting out the back of a Unitec rehearsal room. Lauren is an actor, playwright and director who is directing her award-winning play, Exchange, for the Auckland season of Young and Hungry 2010.
Exchange was written and premiered in 2005 based on Lauren’s own recollections of her time as a German exchange student in the 1990s… although she’s keen to let us know that not all the material is autobiographical! The Young and Hungry festival, originally started by BATS theatre in Wellington, grabs talented young actors, designers, stage managers, publicists and backstage crew and puts them in a high-pressure situation making real plays whilst being mentored by seasoned professionals. In Auckland, the Auckland Theatre Company (ATC) provides this support, with the three plays Exchange, Thinning by Eli Kent – see next week’s interview – and Fitzbunny: Lust for Glory happening at The Basement in July.
Renee: Tell me a bit about how you came to be a writer.
Lauren: Firstly let me just say I have huge respect for the craft of writing and know I still have lots to learn. Exchange was the first full-length play I wrote but I've always enjoyed writing. A little-known but very important fact about me is that I was runner-up in the 1990 What Now Milky Way Short Story Competition. I won an electronic typewriter and many, many Milky Way bars. Anyway, after graduating from drama school I was employed quite a bit to workshop plays as an actor. I loved watching how the plays grew and developed. It demystified the process for me and showed me that all writers hit blocks and hurdles. After a while I started to wonder if I could give it a go myself. In 2003 I was on a theatre contract in Wellington when the Young & Hungry Trust asked for submissions for the 2005 season. I had spare time and was babysitting a friend's flash computer. I had a great time listening to her crazy music collection and typing up my submission. There have been times in my life when I just knew I was going to go for something and this was one of them. Over the next year and a half I wrote Exchange."
Read the full article here.
Peter Jackson meeting with 'Hobbit' actors
article by Borys Kit and Matthew Belloni, www.hollywoodreporter.com"The Hobbit" still has not been officially greenlighted, but director Peter Jackson is in Los Angeles this week quietly meeting with actors. The casting trip, which also included stops in New York and the U.K., underscores the progress being made on a complex series of deals to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel to the big screen.
Sources say Jackson's pact with Warner Bros. to direct the two-part "Hobbit" adaptation is close to done, but the sticking point continues to be the dire financial situation at MGM, which holds half the rights to the property.
Warners, which is acting as the lead studio on the co-production, is furiously negotiating with MGM, which is being steered by a committee of creditors and financial stakeholders. Even if Warners wanted to fund the films itself, that would require a sign-off from the somewhat rudderless MGM.
Jackson, who has been in L.A. since Saturday, is working with casting director Victoria Burrows on assembling what will likely be a large, international cast for the project".
Read the full article here.
The Almighty Johnsons
SOUTH PACIFIC PICTURES
10 x 1 hour episodes for TV3
now shooting
The Almighty Johnsons is a new South Pacific Pictures comedy-drama series about four brothers, raised in heartland New Zealand, who also happen to be the living incarnations of Norse Gods. They even have their own super-God-powers. Sort of – it’s just that their powers aren’t actually all that powerful. Well, not yet - but that could all change soon.
The Almighty Johnsons are superheroes, but they aren’t like those flashy cartoon superheroes. They are typical Kiwi blokes who don’t much like to stand out from the crowd. And everyday gods have everyday struggles - striving to love stroppy women, overcoming sibling rivalry and fulfilling your God-like destiny, all while still finding the time to enjoy a few beers with your mates.
Featuring Auckland Actors Tim Balme, Alison Bruce, Roz Turnbull, Jo Crichton, Michael Lowe, Ben Van Lier & Rachelle Duncan
Created by Rachel Lang and James Griffin, the award-winning team behind Outrageous Fortune.
Youtube calls on Kiwi Filmakers
article by Alice Neville, NZ Herald.
"Youtube is joining forces with two influential filmmakers to create a feature-length documentary - and they want you to contribute.
Life in a Day is a project dreamed up by Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald, the Scotsman who won an Oscar for the 1972 Munich Olympics film A Day in September and who also helmed Touching The Void, The Last King of Scotland and State of Play.
Touted as a "global film experiment", the premise of Life in a Day is to document one day of life on earth - July 24, 2010 - through the eyes of people around the world. Amateur filmmakers are encouraged to film something - anything - about their life on that day and upload it to youtube's Life in a Day channel. Mr Macdonald has the daunting role of trawling through that content and editing it into something compelling.
Executive producing the project is Ridley Scott of Alien, Gladiator and Robin Hood fame.
'It's an opportunity to do something only the internet makes possible - to make a film created by amateur filmmakers anywhere and everywhere around the world,' Macdonald said...'My role is as a conducter or a compiler, to find the links between the films and make a 70 to 90 minute movie which is going to be a portrait of what the world is like in one day,' says the 42-year-old director. 'It'll be a time capsule - if you were to look at the film in 100 years' time, it will tell you something about the psyche of human beings today.' "
Read the full article here.
Almighty Johnsons in the Herald
SOUTH PACIFIC PICTURES
Article by Jacqueline Smith, NZ Herald.
"Move over the Wests, here come the Johnsons. But while the Outrageous Fortune mob were famous for their criminal tendencies, the new TV family has a much bigger boast - godlike superpowers. The Almighty Johnsons, made by the same brains behind the Westie drama, starts filming on Monday.
It stars Keisha Castle-Hughes in her first regular television role, Dean O'Gorman and former Mercy Peak star Tim Balme. Balme and O'Gorman are the eldest two of the four demigod Johnson brothers, Mike and Anders. Mike descends from the god of skill (so he's unbeatable at board games), while Anders has the gift of the gab as god of poetry.
The other two brothers are Ty (Jared Turner from Go Girls) who is an incarnation of the god of winter and darkness and Axl (Emmett Skilton) whose powers are revealed when he turns 21. Castle-Hughes plays Axl's flatmate."
Read the full article here.
Poppy Wins at Festival
a short film written by David Coyle
NZ Film Commission
NZ short film Poppy has been awarded the Computer Animation Festival's Jury Prize ahead of the SIGGRAPH 2010 International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, which is being held in Los Angeles on the 25 - 29 July.
Poppy is a CGI drama set on France's western front during World War I. Based on true events, two NZ soldiers trapped behind enemy lines find a crying baby while trying to make their way to safety. The film's writer, David Coyle, is a great grandson of one of the soldiers. This is the first time a NZ film has won an award at the Computer Animation Festival.
The film was chosen from 750 submissions from around the globe, presented by both professional studios and students alike. In announcing the award, the Festival Jury said Poppy was an innovative combination of motion capture and exquisite facial animation.
Director James Cunningham said, "I have attended SIGGRAPH about four times since 1998. To have something selected to screen there is a dream of mine and to win an award is phenomenal. The Jury's acknowledgement of the hand key frame facial animation is a testament to the great actors we had to work with. Congratulations and thanks to Matt Sunderland, Paul Glover, Camille Keenan and Mark Sumich; and also to Weta Digital's incredible motion capture team. The body movements they recorded were superb and I was so lucky to be able to work with them on Poppy."
In all, 100 films will be shown during the Computer Animation Festival. Some of the year's top visual effects for feature films are featured in the Computer Animation Festival including Avatar, The Last Airbender, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia, 2012 and Alice in Wonderland.
Poppy was made in association with the Short Film Fund of the New Zealand Film Commission.
starring Auckland Actor Paul Glover alongside Matt Sunderland, Camille Keenan and Mark Sumich
directed by James Cunningham
produced by Paul Swadel
To view Poppy's trailer visit Youtube here.
Read Onfilm's detailed interview with director James Cunningham and producer Paul Swadel about the making of Poppy here.
For more information on Poppy visit the film's official website here.
Assassins
by John Weidman, music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
SILO THEATRE, Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall 24 July - 14 August
All you have to do is pull a trigger and you can change the world.
America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. But some sing a different kind of national anthem. This chorus line is populated by that not-so-exclusive club of men and women who have tried, with and without success, to kill the President of the United States. They want to grab headlines, get the girl, or see their name in lights. They want a clear shot at the big time. One man’s American dream can become a nation’s nightmare.
Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as the world’s most significant living musical theatre composer and lyricist. In this glitteringly subversive musical he pushes the boundaries of the art form, creating an utterly idiosyncratic entertainment compounded equally of insight, gallows humour and provocation. Nothing quite prepares you for the gobsmacking brilliance of ASSASSINS.
featuring Bronwyn Bradley, Mitchell Butel, Kyle Chuen, Cameron Douglas, Andrew Grainger, Natalie Medlock, Cameron Rhodes, Roy Snow, Gareth Williams
direction by Oliver Driver
for further information and to book tickets visit the Silo Theatre website.
"Silo Theatre has once again put on a stylish, dark and enthralling musical - following up 2008's 'Threepenny Opera', they put the sass into 'Assassins'.... Mitchell Butel - playing Booth - was worth importing from Australia: he is impressively precise with a beautiful Southern drawl and snappy dance moves - all "fancy silks" and moustachio'd red lips. The old character hands also have a ball: Cameron Rhodes hams it up outrageously in his grimy Santa suit." - Janet McAllister, NZ Herald. Read the full review here.
"The cast and musicians are on stage for the show’s duration – much like a circus tent, everything is there to see. And that’s hugely demanding of the cast. They’re on show (literally) for the entire evening, interacting, warming up and playing as the audience members drift in to take their seats. And that’s the lightest moment of the whole performance.... Charles Julius Guiteau (Andrew Grainger) has an optimism that seems in total contrast to the sense of woe associated with those who bear arms against their country. His vigour, as Garfield’s assassin, leads him straight to the hangman’s noose and you’re left wondering what it would have taken for his life to have gone down a different path." - Joanna Davis, Theatreview. Read the full review here.
Six Dollar Fifty Man on 20/20
a short film by Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston
in competition world wide
It sounds like something out of a movie, but two Kapiti Coast film makers and their young star are hoping they could be on track to take out an Oscar. As 20/20's Hugh Hughes discovers, The Six Dollar Fifty Man, about a bully and his comeuppance is garnering worldwide attention and a string of awards.
And now the two and a half men behind it could well be on their way to picking up a little gold man of their own.
Watch the 20/20 piece online here.