TV

Panic at Rock Island

GIBSON GROUP AND GOALPOST PICTURES
(in production)

TVNZ and NZ On Air are delighted to announce the commissioning of the telemovie, Panic at Rock Island. A joint venture between Wellington's Gibson Group and Sydney's Goalpost Pictures, the telemovie is for Channel 9 in Australia and TV2 in New Zealand. Panic at Rock Island will star top Kiwi talent Grant Bowler (True Blood, Ugly Betty, Outrageous Fortune), Simone Kessell (Stickmen, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities) and Anna Hutchison (Go Girls). It will also feature performances by top New Zealand acts Smashproof and Gin Wigmore.

TVNZ General Manager of Programming Jane Wilson says: "We are thrilled to be bringing viewers this quality production and commend Gibson Group and Goalpost Pictures on this successful partnership."

NZ On Air Chief Executive Jane Wrightson notes New Zealand and Australia co-productions are relatively rare and praises the producers. "It's great when our two countries can cooperate to make drama" says Ms Wrightson. "Finding the right story is often hard, but well worth it when different stories can be told in such a cost-effectve way."

Panic At Rock Island is set on an island in the spectacular Sydney Harbour. Under the hot summer sun, a line-up of top acts play for music fans from across the world. All is idyllic - until unimaginable disaster strikes! A deadly virus is discovered on Rock Island. Its symptoms are shocking and death is swift and painful.

The telemovie will be directed by Australian Tony Tilse (Underbelly, Scorched) and will be co-produced by Tilse, Rosemary Blight from Goalpost Pictures and Dave Gibson from Gibson Group. Easternlight Films is handling worldwide distribution and the telemovie is being made with support from Screen Australia, Screen NSW, NZ On Air and Export Finance Insurance Corporation.

The cast will also feature young New Zealand actors Zoe Cramond and Eli Kent.

 

Shortland Street picked up by British network

Taken from Throng.co.nz, original source WhatsOnTV

Shortland Street's Kieran Mitchell may have plunged to his death on Monday somewhere outside of Ferndale, but it appears actor Adam Rickitt landed on his feet. The actor's popularity in th UK has led to Shortland Street being picked up by a British network to be played on weeknights, starting at the point where Adam Rickitt's Kieran first appeared on the soap.

The Living network in the UK, which plays the likes of Britain's Next Top Model, has acquired Shortland Street and will broadcast it as double bills on weeknights. A statement from Living said: "Viewers can learn what has kept TV fans in New Zealand hooked for 18 years, as some of the most exciting episodes reintroduce the intense and emotional show to British audiences."

English actor Rickitt, who came to our shores after an extended stint on Coronation Street, debuted in 2007 on Shortland Street where his character came to NZ as a backpacker. Rickitt has since left NZ in order to pursue a career in music which he started prior to acting on Coronation Street. It will not be the first time Shortland Street has screened in the UK, with ITV running the show up until 2003.

 

Shortland Street feature length episode review

by Hugh Sundae, taken from the New Zealand Herald

...We knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any less shocking…

...This was the climax of a storyline that began at last year's cliffhanger…

...There is a lot to like about Shortland Street...

read the full article on www.nzherald.co.nz, and watch the 90 minute episode on www.tvnz.co.nz  

Spartacus comes to the Box

Taken from www.throng.co.nz

New Zealand fans need wait no longer to see the epic television event that is Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

The thirteen part original drama series from the US-based Starz Network comprises a unique mix of live action, graphic novel effects and brutal battle sequences, and will premiere on the BOX, SKY Channel 005, this August.

The BOX channel manager Tom Fox said the addition of this much anticipated series complements the channel’s already popular status with its fans.

“Spartacus: Blood and Sand is pretty much the ultimate testosterone-fuelled series, and will find itself in good company in our schedule of top rating drama series, comedy and action-packed reality,”

“There has been much speculation about the series, so now Kiwis will be able to see first hand just what all the fuss is about.  And not only do we know it be an instant hit with our loyal male viewers, but with its mix of drama, outstanding special effects and a terrific cast - not to mention rippling abs as far as the eye can see - it will be enormously appealing to women,” he said.

Filmed in New Zealand, the much talked about series brings to life the classic tale of the Republic’s most infamous rebel. Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.

Starring Australian actor, Andy Whitfield (McLeod's Daughters) as Spartacus, Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as Lucretia, John Hannah (The Mummy, Four Weddings and A Funeral) as Batiatus and Peter Mensah (300, The Incredible Hulk) as Doctore.

The production team includes Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Legend of the Seeker), Rob Tapert (Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Legend of the Seeker), Joshua Donen (Drag Me to Hell) and head writer and showrunner Steven S DeKnight (Smallville, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Spartacus: Blood and Sand screens Sundays, 9.30pm from 22 August on the BOX, SKY Channel 005.  

NZ show takes flight to US

Taken from the NZ Herald.

Local series This Is Not My Life has been has been snapped up by the producers of Mad Men. American production and distribution company Lionsgate, which also distributes daring shows Weeds and Nurse Jackie, has bought the rights to both the format and the New Zealand series itself.

Steven O'Meagher, executive producer of This Is Not My Life, says Lionsgate wanted the New Zealand series before they had watched an episode. In fact they were sold on the initial concept art and the episode outlines. The managing director of international television at Lionsgate Peter Iacono describes This Is Not My Life as "well-crafted, artfully acted and directed".

O'Meagher says it is exciting to see international companies so excited about the series because the scenery is distinctly New Zealand, the language is local and the actors speak in Kiwi accents. He also credits the show's lead actor Charles Mesure for helping securing the Lionsgate deal.

American audiences were introduced to Mesure as a major character on hit TV show V around the same time as the negotiations took place. In actual fact Mesure took the role on V after filming This Is Not My Life, so it was just fortunate timing that the American show went to air first.

In This Is Not My Life Mesure plays Alec Ross, a thirty-something who wakes up in a perfect world, set sometime in the near future, that he is convinced is not his. The role was huge - he was involved in almost every scene. Local actresses Tandi Wright and Miriama McDowell play Alec's wife Callie and love interest Jessica respectively.

The show was written by Rachel Lang (Go Girls, Outrageous Fortune) and Gavin Strawhan (Go Girls, Being Eve). Co-producer Tim White, O'Meagher and other actors and crew worked on Robert Sarkies' Out Of The Blue in 2006. Sarkies stepped in to direct This Is Not My Life with Peter Salmon, who also has local directing and digital technology credits to his name.

The first season of 13 episodes received funding of $6.8 million from NZ on Air.

 

This Is Not My Life TV Review

Review by Russell Baillie, NZ Herald.

Promising new local mystery thriller This Is Not My Life might start with a scene familiar to many New Zealand households - Dad stumbles out of bed late, wanders dazed into kitchen to be greeted by his family, heads out for a jog.

Only in this case, Alec Ross (Charles Mesure, last seen bleeding to death in Outrageous Fortune) has forgotten a few things and not just his shoes or pants. He's running out in panic because he remembers none of it - his wife and kids, his gleaming showhome, his life in the Kiwi Pleasantville of Waimoana (town motto: "You'll never want to leave").

You don't actually hear Alec ask "what year is it?". But the first fun to be had with last night's engaging opening double episode of TINML was estimating how far into the future its makers have projected.

They've delivered some cleverly satirical touches about an eco-everything lifestyle. One that frowns on running up a carbon footprint overdraft and comes complete with speed-governed tiny electric smart cars with GPS systems which calmly greet you "kia ora ..." and "I'm sorry 'out of here' is not a destination".

Almost everything else works by digital touch-screen. How nifty. With its white-grey-blue colour palette and most people the amnesiac Alec encounters all models of politeness, it's like the future is one giant Koru Lounge.

Read the full review here.

This Is Not My Life features Auckland Actors Alison Bruce, Michelle Leuthart, Elliot Christensen-Yule, Liesha Ward Knox, Lauren Jackson and Jan Fisher.

 

Adam's Shortland Street Farewell

Article written by Jacqueline Smith, NZ Herald.

Adam Rickitt, as anyone who reads the Sunday gossip page know, has well and truly moved on from Shortland Street. But his character Kieran Mitchell is still lurking around the 7pm weekday timeslot as the sweet-talking Englishman with the sinister background.

After working on Coronation Street on and off for seven years, Rickitt moved to New Zealand in 2007, and landed the role of Kieran on the local weeknight soap. Since arriving on Shortland Street, his character has done a good job of keeping his past involvement with Thailand's dodgy prostitution scene under wraps and busying himself with his business, the hospital's local drinking hole, The IV.

Kieran has always found a way of keeping his hands clean - or appearing to. So far he has dodged the repercussions of drug deals, his philandering and even killing Morgan Braithwaite after the hospital's Christmas party last year. But in recent months, his luck has turned. Sophie McKay divorced him. He was blackmailed. He realised he had very few friends. And finally, his Thai past will come back to haunt him in Monday's chilling, feature length episode.

It's no secret that this is where Keiran Mitchell takes his final bow. Shortland Street producer Steven Zanoski says the show was always scheduled to run a 90 minute feature this year, and it just happened to coincide with Kieran's storyline hitting a brick wall and Rickitt wanting to pursue other things.

"I think for that character we would always have had to do something big. He has been larger than life, and has taken the stories on different directions to other characters on Shortland Street. I think part of that was because Kieran didn't have a medical qualification, he wasn't part of the hospital, he formed some of the extended world of Shortland Street as the manager of the bar and he came in with quite a deep, dark backstory and that kept playing out on the screen in the things he was doing, choices he was making," Zanoski says.

Adam Rickitt's final episode screens this Monday 2nd August at 7pm on TV2.

Read the full article here.
Read about Adam's time on Shortland Street here.

 

Bloodlines

SCREENTIME and TVNZ
screened on TV1 One, Thursday 22 July at 8.30pm

Dunedin's Head of Psychiatry thought he was clever enough to commit the perfect murder...and he almost got away with it. In the television thriller of the year Screentime and TVNZ reveal the true story of one of the most evil crimes in New Zealand history.

In November 1999, emanent Head of Psychiatry at Otago Hospital Dr Colin Bouwer, put a murderous plan into action.

He wanted his wife out of the way and over several months he poisoned her with prescription medication causing a slow and painful death, monitored by the man she loved.  It was going to be the perfect crime.

Andrew Bowers, a young consultant physician, never expected that he would stumble upon a murder in process.

Following on a gut instinct, he determinedly pursued the truth.  Putting his career on the line and his reputation in question, he refused to back down even under pressure from his colleagues.  It was down to Bowers and Detective Brett Roberts dogged pursuit of the truth that eventually uncovered Annette Bouwers cold-blooded murder by her husband, an evil man with a Mensa IQ who thought he was smarter than anyone else in New Zealand.

Featuring Mark Mitchinson, Nathalie Bolt, Craig Hall, Will Hall, Tania Anderson, Damien Avery, Madeleine Lynch, Geoff Houtman and Sarah Valentine
Directed by Peter Burger

 

Outrageous Fortune takes Trade Me traffic

SOUTH PACIFIC PICTURES
now screening on TV3

Article by Anna Rushworth, taken from NZ Herald.

"You know a TV show is a hit when it puts a dent in the traffic of the busiest New Zealand website. Trade Me traffic is becoming a measure of the pulse of the nation. The return of Outrageous Fortune for its sixth and final season on Tuesday night was so popular that the auction site's usage fell 16 per cent while it screened.

The site's spokesman, Paul Ford, said events such as Mahe Drysdale's bronze medal row and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindells' tilt for gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics also led to Trade Me numbers dropping as people watched the box instead of their computer. Providing a strange insight into the sort of people using Trade Me, Ford said the US show Desperate Housewives also affected the site's traffic when it screened Monday nights at 8.30pm.

Outrageous Fortune was watched by 447,000 people, or 23.7 per cent of those in the 18 to 49 age bracket. South Pacific Pictures chief executive John Barnett put the viewing figures down to the cliff hanger that left people desperate to know whether Cheryl West survived. If they were watching the show, then 'they're definitely not buying or selling a washing machine or buying a car.'"

Read the full article here.

 

 

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

PACIFIC RENAISSANCE PICTURES

Article by Nellie Andreeva, taken from the Deadline website.

"Dustin Clare, a virtual unknown in the U.S., but a popular TV actor in his native Australia, has landed the lead in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Starz’s six-part prequel to hit series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Jaime Murray and Marisa Ramirez are set to co-star in the prequel, which focuses on the House of Batiatus in its pre-Spartacus days and chronicles the rise of Gannicus (Clare), the first gladiator to become Champion of Capua.

Returning to reprise their roles from Spartacus: Blood and Sand are Lucy Lawless (Lucretia), John Hannah (Batiatus), Peter Mensah (Oenomaus), Antonio Te Maioha (Barca) and Manu Bennett (Crixus). Murray, repped by Gersh and Luber Rocklin, will play Gaia, Lucretia’s (Lawless) friend and a Capua social climber. Ramirez will play a beautiful slave girl with complicated relationships.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand star Andy Whitfield will appear briefly in the prequel, which is slated to begin production in August in New Zealand for a January premiere on Starz. Whitfield, who plays the title character of Spartacus, will then rejoin the show in season two, which is set to begin production later this year. Whitfield, Lawless, Hannah, Spartacus: Blood and Sand co-star Viva Bianca and executive producer/head writer Steven S. DeKnight will be on hand for the series’ panel at Comic-Con on July 23."

Read the original article here.