Lloyd Phillips, Film Producer
New Zealand’s first Oscar winner, international film producer Lloyd Phillips has died in Los Angeles after a heart attack, aged 63. Born in South Africa and raised in New Zealand, Phillips had a long…
Tag Archives: Hollywood
Anxiety Android App Out
Ahead of the March release of her second album Anxiety, Masterton-born musician Ladyhawke has an app out in advance to promote it available on Android and iPhones. Guardian weekly apps review column writes: “Besides news, tweets and…
Man Of Masterpieces
Kerikeri resident Russell Garcia, an California-born arranger, composer and conductor who was an influential figure in the West Coast music scene during the 1950s and ‘60s and whose work in Hollywood included writing the…
Jackson’s Effect
New Zealand filmmaking is at an all-time high thanks to Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson who, 12 years ago, boosted the country’s Hollywood stock The Hollywood Reporter’s Pip Bulbeck writes. Jackson — who also appeared on…
Unique Creative Sensibility
New Zealand’s “famously scenic locations are a big draw for Hollywood filmmakers — but they’re not the only one,” Sangeeta Anand writes for Time. “New Zealand’s Large Budget Screen Production Grant offers a 15…
Urban takes lessons
“Like it or not, I’ve become a global citizen,” Auckland actor Karl Urban tells The Kansas City Star. “The challenge is to maintain your cultural identity, especially back in your home country, where it’s…
Edgy roots an asset
Actor Karl Urban, 38, is happy to commute between Auckland and Los Angeles saying that his New Zealand roots are proving to be an asset to his craft. Unlike Hollywood-based actors, those from Australia…
A New Sheriff in Town
Russell Crowe has signed for US$20 million to play the Sheriff of Nottingham in a “revisionist” version of the Robin Hood story. Titled Nottingham, the Hollywood film will follow “the premise that Robin Hood…
The Deal’s Not Just Big, it’s Massive
New York based company, Massive Inc, of which Wellingtonian Claudia Batten is a part owner, has been sold to Microsoft for up to $US 400 million. Founded four years ago, Massive Inc pioneered a…
Russ stands his ground
“I’d move to LA if Australia and NZ were swallowed up in a huge tidal wave.” December cover feature by UK Vanity Fair finds Russell Crowe firmly rooted Down Under despite being one of…
Gender Studies 101
Guardian writer Julie Burchill questions Russell Crowe’s status as “sole standard bearer” for old-school Hollywood hell-raising in the wake of his latest public brawl. Back in the bad old days, she notes, stars did without the “semi-official…
Independent Film in the Wars
An independent British film telling the story of a New Zealand WW2 hero has ignited a “trans-Atlantic row over Hollywood movie muscle.” Two Men Went to War is to be screened in a paltry…
“I am an Illusionist”
“She is a ball of fire in Chinese pajama pants; she is a whirling dervish, a Nepalese tonka with a million faces, a human mandala.” The work of LA-based artist Joanne Gair – the…
Heavenly Creatures
“Director Peter Jackson knew something Hollywood did not. He knew that his home country was more than a match for the imaginative breadth of Tolkien’s vision. The Lord of the Rings blows the secret – there is…
Russell: Our Man
Winning the world from the edge, Russell Crowe walks away with Hollywood’s biggest award. It was the day the boy from the west Auckland suburbs achieved the dream that once seemed “kind of ludicrous…
Russell reasserts his edge roots
“Hollywood is carving a bust for Crowe in the action-hero pantheon, but Crowe is keeping his distance. “I’d move to Los Angeles if Australia and New Zealand were swallowed up by a huge tidal…
Spider pic hatched – New Zealander to direct
Hollywood: the duo behind Independence Day and Godzilla are producing “Arch Attack”, an f/x driven comedic thriller about a toxic waste spill that causes giant spiders to go on a rampage. Will shoot in…
