Jackman to film in South Island
By DAVID WILLIAMS - The Press | Friday, 19 October 2007
Hugh Jackman will be filmed in the Southern Lakes this summer, employing hundreds of people.
Rumoured to have a budget in excess of $100 million, pre-production is well under way in Sydney for X-Men prequel Wolverine – a 20th Century Fox film, in conjunction with Jackman's own company, Seed. The majority of filming will take place at Fox Studios in Sydney.
The film's New Zealand production supervisor, Simon Ambridge, confirmed to The Press that locations around Queenstown and Central Otago would be used during a four-week shooting period in late December and early January.
Asked if the Aussie heart-throb would be coming to New Zealand, Ambridge said: "He's the central character in the film so, yes, it would be fair to assume that he's coming."
He did not know whether Jackman would be accompanied by his wife, actress Deborra-lee Furness, or their two children.
Jackman, who celebrated his 39th birthday in Sydney last week, has been across the Tasman shooting director Baz Luhrmann's epic film Australia, with Nicole Kidman.
Ambridge said the production office in Queenstown was opened last week by Woz Productions, a New Zealand offshoot of 20th Century Fox.
With eight weeks until shooting started, things would now ramp up pretty quickly, Ambridge said.
"We're still looking for locations," he said. "There's ongoing scouting and the key creative people have had a look. Obviously, we want to shoot here and have a number of options for different sequences in the film."
Accommodation was being sought in Queenstown for cast and crew, he said. He was still in the process of finding crew.
"A lot of Kiwis have done significant work on films before. There will certainly be a lot of Kiwis working on the film."
The final mix would include "hundreds" of industry professionals, from New Zealand, Australian and the United States, he said, including many Queenstown locals.
Wolverine has been scheduled for release next July. It will be a busy time for the film industry in the Southern Lakes over summer, with Dutch film Bride Flight and another project called Mood Indigo also to be filmed in the region.
Good thing he's been able to prep for Wolverine at the same time.
t:
Good idea!
