An Oscar-winning producer is keen to make another movie in New Zealand, despite the tough border controls.
Mark Johnson is the force behind ‘Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ which was mainly filmed in this country and opens next week.
He says he has seen the film more than 50 times so he is blinded to it, but he is very hopeful that audiences will like it.
He says he really likes it and hopes everyone else will feel the same way, but says it would be presumptuous to assume they will.
Mark Johnson won a Best Picture Oscar for ‘Rain Man’ but says you just cannot tell beforehand if a film is going to be a success.
He admits there were some obstacles during filming – for example, a team of reindeer were not allowed into the country in case they carried Q-fever, which could affect the deer farming industry.
Mr Johnson says those kinds of hurdles will not deter him from filming in New Zealand in the future.
He says there is a huge commitment from those in the New Zealand industry to do more than just make films and he is already looking at filming another movie here.
One of Disney and Walden Media’s next projects is the film adaptation of Katherine Paterson’s book ‘Bridge to Terabithia’.
Meanwhile the movie’s director, New Zealander Andrew Adamson, hopes to make more movies in his home country though he does not know if he will make another big-budget film here.
He says he definitely wants to spend more time in New Zealand as he would love his children to grow up here.
Adamson is not committing himself to a Narnia sequel though – he says he has done back to back projects for the last few years, and is keen to just take a proper break.
However, Adamson hopes there will be more Narnia films and that the audience wants to see more. He says he feels responsible for the child actors in the film and finds it hard to imagine anyone else directing them.
He says that would probably be what draws him back to do another Narnia film.
He heads back to Los Angeles today to celebrate his 39th birthday with his family.
