Written by on Dec 24, 2013. Posted in On Location

The Dead Lands filming in New Zealand as NZ-UK co-production

New feature The Dead Lands is filming on location in and around Auckland, New Zealand, as a New Zealand-UK co-production. Described as a “Maori action epic”, the film will chart a revenge story and will showcase the Maori martial art known as Mau Rakau.

Production is being financed by multiple organisations including the New Zealand Film Commission, Maori funding body Te Mangai Paho, and Day Tripper Films and Lip Sync Productions in the UK. California-based production company XYZ Films has picked up worldwide sales rights for the film.

“It's an important film. These guys are bringing Maori history and culture to life in an authentic, unsparing, and dramatically spectacular way,” said XYZ executive Simon de Bruyn, overseeing the project from Melbourne.

The New Zealand government is currently resisting pressure to increase its filming incentive for big-budget international productions and government ministers have indicated they are more interested in boosting local production.

Instead of increasing the incentives, grants for high-end TV have been made more accessible by drastically reducing the spending threshold productions need to reach to access them. Spartacus: Blood and Sand was the last high-end international series to film in New Zealand and the country faces intense global competition to attract the next big production.

These guys are bringing Maori history and culture to life in an authentic, unsparing, and dramatically spectacular way.

Simon de Bruyn, XYZ Films

James Cameron’s Avatar sequels are reportedly now in doubt for New Zealand as a result of the incentives situation for big-budget shoots. The government seems wary of making concessions, especially after being criticised for making so many allowances to keep Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy filming locally.