Cliff’s time in the sun

NZ actor Cliff Curtis has a starring role in Sunshine, the latest critically acclaimed film by English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). The film is a futuristic sci-fi thriller about a spaceship crew on a mission to re-ignite Earth’s dying Sun. The Hollywood Reporter calls it “an extraordinary film, operating at simultaneously visceral, psychological and spiritual levels.” The Times places it firmly in “that preStar Wars tradition of science-fiction films, such as Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky’s Solaris, that probe the Big Stuff: God, Reality and What Makes Us Human.” Curtis plays the ship’s medical officer-cum-psychologist, Searle. “Just before Whale Rider I decided I can’t play any more gangsters or drug dealers or terrorists for a while, and Sunshine was one of the first ones to give me the opportunity,” said Curtis in the NZ Herald. “Since then I’ve stayed consistent to that.” His upcoming international roles include the FBI’s head of cyber defence in the latest Die Hard instalment and a “skinny brown dread-locked Obi Wan Kenobi dude” in the prehistoric epic 10,000 BC.