The Nelson Mail

Tuesday, August 25, 1998

NZ nets $264m movie project

Details of the $NZ264 million budget project, believed to be the biggest cinema production ever undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere, were announced today.

"I don't think this film could be made in the US because it would be too expensive," said Mr Jackson, whose previous films included the Oscar-nominated Heavenly Creatures and the Frighteners, made in New Zealand with Hollywood money.

"It's only affordable because of New Zealand expertise and skills."

He hoped the Government got a message from the fact the film production would bring in more than $200 million from the United States.

"If they want to see more of these sorts of films made it's very possible, but they do have to provide a lot more support for the film industry at the grassroots level."

Mr Jackson believed about 90 percent of the budget would be spent in this country.

The film would be shot half in the studio and half on location and entirely within New Zealand, he said.

Casting would be done later this year. Mr Jackson said at least 50 of the 65 speaking roles in the cast and almost all the crew would be New Zealanders.

Mr Jackson said the three films would bee made for US company New Line Cinema. They would be co-written and co-produced with partner Fran Walsh, under his Wingnut Films banner.

The executive producer would be Saul Zaentz, whose films include the English Patient, Amadeus and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

"This is one of the most widely-loved books of all time, so it is quite daunting," Mr Jackson said.

"The only thing I can do is make the version of Lord of The Rings I would like to see.

"I'm a huge admirer of the books and think it could make a great sequence of movies. Somewhere over the next two years I've got to find those great movies and shoot them."

Principal photography would take about a year, with 18 months set aside for post-production, he said.

Staff at Weta Digital, Mr Jackson's special effect firm, had already been working for a year, developing the technology for many effects the film will require to bring the fantasy world of Middle Earth to life.

"Something I'm hoping to achieve is, rather than have the film look like wee went out in New Zealand and shot on location, is that it looks like we went to Middle Earth and shot on location.

"I want to give it a sense of reality, so it doesn't look like a fantasy picture postcard, but a real place that had a magic and special quality to it."

The first of the three films, the Fellowship Of The Ring, is due to be released at Christmas time in 2000. The sequels, the Two Towers and the Return Of The King, would be released either four or six months apart.

-NZPA