Latest in New Zealand

Several more overseas productions will join James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog Netflix film in New Zealand in the coming months. New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment has announced that Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series, Netflix series Cowboy Bebop and Sw…

New Zealand is due to end social distancing and all other domestic coronavirus restrictions beginning tomorrow, the government has announced. In doing so, the South Pacific nation with a population of about 5M, becomes the largest market to so far eliminate transmission of COVID-19. Announcing today that there were no…

Oscar winning Titanic producer Jon Landau showed off a photo on Instagram from the Avatar 2 set with a special message: “Our #Avatar sets are ready — and we couldn't be more excited to be headed back to New Zealand next week. Check out the Matador, a high speed forward command vessel (bottom) and the Picador jetboat…

EXCLUSIVE: New Zealand’s health and safety production protocols have been endorsed by the national government, we can reveal, meaning production can restart in the country after it was halted by the coronavirus pandemic. Some film and TV shoots “are already safely underway,” the New Zealand Film Commission has…

Stephen Colbert is heading down under! The Late Show is set to roll out a week of shows that will feature the host’s trip to New Zealand. The episodes will air on CBS starting November 18 at 11:35 PM ET/PT. The idea for Colbert’s trip started in September 2018, when New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared…

Pua Magasiva, who played the Red Ranger on "Power Rangers Ninja Storm," was found dead Saturday in New Zealand. Police arriving at a Wellington, New Zealand residence early on Saturday founder Magasive unresponsive, according to a <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12229976"…

Stephen Colbert has canceled plans to take The Late Show on the road to New Zealand due to Friday's mass shooting that left 50 people dead. Colbert told viewers Monday night he loves visiting New Zealand, and had scheduled a surprise trip there this week. "I just love that country," he said. "If you've never been, go…

Peter Jackson and Taika Waititi have responded to New Zealand's worst ever mass shooting. The directors have called the two extremist right-wing terror incidents, which left 49 people dead in Christchurch, "devastating" and "heartbreaking". Lord of the Rings director Jackson said, "New Zealanders are devastated. Our…

The shooter behind the New Zealand mosque attacks sent his manifesto outlining his sick philosophy to government officials and media outlets less than 10 minutes before the attack that killed 49 people, according to a report. The <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12213423"…

YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have been scrambling overnight and into Friday to remove horrific video footage recorded by one of the participants in the terrorist attacks that killed 49 people in New Zealand. A mounting backlash online suggests that many people don’t think the companies are doing nearly enough. The mas…

Forty nine people have been murdered at two mosques in New Zealand as part of an "extremist, right-wing" terrorist attack. The attacks took place at 1:40pm local time in Christchurch, NZ. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called it one of New Zealand’s “darkest days.” The news has taken over international…

Geoff Murphy, a leading figure in the New Zealand movie industry in the 1970s and ’80s who also helmed such Hollywood fare as Young Guns II and Freejack and was second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died. He was 80. Murphy’s death was confirmed by The New Zealand Herald. His directing credits also…