News for Aug. 03, 2005

Sci-fi 'classic' tipped for NZ

8/03/05, 8:58 pm EST - Xoanon

A big-budget Hollywood sci-fi film featuring aliens and Vikings is to be shot in New Zealand – and it is likely to star Kiwi actor Karl Urban. Outlander, set during the time of the Vikings, is the only Hollywood production – other than Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones – known to be filmed in New Zealand in the next 12 months. Urban confirmed Outlander in an interview about his next film Doom, based on the popular sci-fi computer game. Doom is to be released in October. Urban told film website Aint It Cool News he was in negotiations to play the lead in Outlander – a pilot from a distant solar system chased by an alien predator. He crash-lands on Earth at the time of the Vikings. Urban said Outlander would be shot in New Zealand, with Wellington special effects company Weta creating the film's creatures. [More]