Film Infrastructure A Silver Lining For Halo

6 October 2005

Wellywood Film Infrastructure A Silver Lining For Halo

Positively Wellington Business is delighted that investment into local film infrastructure is paying off with the announcement that multi-million dollar movie Halo will be winging its way to Wellington.

The $100 million-plus feature is based on a best-selling video game and will be funded by Universal Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Microsoft, with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh acting as executive producers. Halo will make use of Peter Jackson’s world-class suite of production and post-production facilities, including the recently completed sound stage, which Positively Wellington Business (PWB) helped to secure for the region.

“Positively Wellington Business recognised that by supporting the building blocks of film industry infrastructure we could help to entice other productions from overseas and use the amazing skill base that we have in the Wellington region, with potentially enormous economic benefits. Films like Halo are just the sort of thing we were hoping for,” says PWB’s CEO Philip Lewin.

PWB secured $2 million under New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Regional Partnership Programme to go towards development of the sound stage facility that was launched in April of this year, and was principally funded by Camperdown Studios. It is estimated that between $250 and $650 million will be injected into the Wellington region’s economy over the next ten years from films shot in the sound stage. The 24,500 sq. ft., 40 ft. high facility is on a par with the biggest and best in Hollywood and London and provides a studio space in which filming can take place uninterrupted by weather and other noise.

Last week Chris Lipscombe, Film and Creative Sector manager for PWB, won the New Zealand Regional Development Practitioner Incentive Award for his contribution to developing the sound stage from the Economic Development Association of New Zealand (EDANZ).

PWB’s Film Wellington programme will work to assist the filming of Halo in the Wellington region, by helping to streamline logistics with filming and location permits. Film Wellington was the first dedicated film office in New Zealand and has been operating under PWB and its predecessors for nearly ten years, helping to maintain Wellington region’s reputation as being ‘film friendly’.

“Film production is one of our signature industries and we are very committed to ensure that the world’s cinematic lens stays focused on the Wellington region,” says Philip Lewin.

ENDS

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