Written by on Dec 12, 2013. Posted in Incentive News

Narnia director joins call for better New Zealand filming incentives

New Zealand filmmaker Andrew Adamson has joined the call for more generous filming incentives in the country. The filmmaker directed both of Disney’s big-budget Narnia films and has also steered the Shrek movies.

Production professionals in New Zealand are calling for the government to expand the country’s national filming incentive programme. The existing Large Budget Screen Production Grant is worth 15%, a figure that is far lower than New Zealand’s main global competitors. Since Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films wrapped principal photography and TV series Spartacus came to an end, the country has had difficulty attracting large international productions.

“[New Zealand’s film industry is] doing very poorly at the moment,” Adamson told Fairfax Media: “I have a lot of friends who are having to leave the country. The choice for the government right now is whether they want a film industry or not.

“[Skilled crew] will leave and then people won't be able to make films here because it will be too expensive to start all over again. I would like to keep making films here. My kids go to school here. It makes sense.”

The New Zealand government recently made the country’s TV incentive more accessible, but is resisting industry pressure to increase the incentives for feature production.

James Cameron’s Avatar sequels could be a high-profile loss for New Zealand if the incentive programme stays static. The filmmaker had seemingly committed to a New Zealand shoot earlier this year, but negotiations are reportedly underway to arrange a more generous tax deal for the behemoth sci-fi production.