Film

The Chronicles of New Zealand Film: The Lion, The Ape and The Indian

A band of larger-than-life characters have emerged from remote corners of New Zealand to make their mark on the world stage.

An enormous hairy ape in suburban Wellington; a talking lion at Elephant Rocks; a queen in the majestic wilderness of the Whanganui River; and a knight riding a motorbike across one of the southernmost beaches in the world.

New Zealand's growing reputation as a movie making destination has been bolstered by the release of several recent major films.

Four New Zealand directors are keeping this country at the forefront of world film-making with their latest contributions to the big screen.

Oscar winner Peter Jackson's King Kong; Andrew Adamson's first instalment in the Narnia Chronicles: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The World's Fastest Indian, Roger Donaldson's first movie in New Zealand for 20 years, were all released in late 2005. Vincent Ward's River Queen was released in early 2006.

The $13 million River Queen - the story of an Irish woman (Samantha Morton) torn between two sides in the Maori Wars of the 1860s - overcame many hurdles during production. Morton fell ill, putting shooting on hold. Director Ward (The Navigator; What Dreams May Come) later left the set but returned to finished the epic.

'We've got haunting visuals, and the entire cast have acted their socks off,' says Ward. Filming began in Opotiki, in the Bay of Plenty, before moving to the other coast of the North Island for scenes shot around Wanganui and Taranaki. At Patea Beach, in south Taranaki, colonial army barracks were erected on the spectacular headland, based on photos from a local museum taken during the war between European and Maori forces.

The World's Fastest Indian, another story from New Zealand's history books, took the country's deep south by storm. Thousands of locals in Invercargill, at the southern tip of the South Island, offered their services to the film, the story of local motorcycle legend Burt Munro, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Producer Gary Hannam says although film-making was a new experience in this corner of the world, Invercargill was a great base for a film. 'Having excellent industries there, like engineering, was just as important as having the right scenery.'

'We could have filmed this movie anywhere, but we wanted to do it in Invercargill, where Burt Munro was from. The locals were incredibly co-operative and enthusiastic, and the quality of the extras was wonderful.' Even the colourful local mayor, Tim Shadbolt, took a role in the film.

The crew spent several weeks at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah - where Munro set world speed records on his beloved Indian Scout bike - before moving to New Zealand to film the rest of the movie over 11 weeks through until Christmas 2004. Much of the filming was shot on Oreti Beach, a wide arc of white sand where Munro would test-drive his motorbikes, overlooking the waters of Foveaux Strait.

The wide streets of Invercargill, a city of 50,000, and the elegant Victorian and Edwardian buildings which border them also played their part in Munro's life story set in the 1960s. The world premiere of The World's Fastest Indian was held in the city's 100-year-old Civic Theatre in October 2005.

Peter Jackson's $200 million version of King Kong was released in December 2005. Filming was done entirely in Wellington, Jackson's hometown and headquarters for his Camperdown Studios, which held the sets for Skull Island and its jungle.

On a vacant lot in the Hutt Valley, just north of Wellington, Jackson recreated 1930s downtown New York - complete with Broadway, Times Square and Fifth Ave.

Two of New Zealand's grandest theatres were also used to film scenes - the 90-year-old Opera House in Wellington, and the 75-year-old Civic Theatre, in Queen St, the heart of downtown Auckland. The Civic opened in the era in which is set, and the scene shot there was based around the unveiling of the giant ape to an incredulous New York audience.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe premiered in December 2005. Andrew Adamson says he is proud to have brought a major movie to shoot at home in New Zealand.

'I feel very happy about it. I mean it’s good for one, and on a purely personal level, to be back in New Zealand,' he says. 'It's really nice to be able to bring a film back here and work with people I know very well, and at the same time maybe help foster a film industry in Auckland; that hasn't existed in recent years.'

Auckland, Adamson's home city, played host to many background scenes in the movie. Studios were set up at an old Air Force base, and Muriwai, a black sand beach on Auckland's west coast, doubled as the camp of the White Witch (played by Tilda Swinton). Filming moved to the South Island, with battle scenes shot at Flock Hill Station near Christchurch, and the fantastic limestone formations of the Elephant Rocks in North Otago.

The film, co-financed by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, is the first in what could be a series of films based on the seven books in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.

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