FULL-LENGTH FILMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 8

FULL-LENGTH FILMS

1 PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND PLANNED TO INCLUDE SCENIC BEAUTY [ Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Feb. 7. The production in New Zealand of full-length and short talking films, which he believes will have a market overseas, is planned by Mr. C. Brown, an Englishman with many years’ experience in the entertainment world.

Interviewed to-d’ay, Mr. Brown said that a film production company with a capital of about £40,000 was already being formed. He expected that the first big feature would be ready for distribution within a year. A story dealing with the colonisation of New Zealand and introducing some of the romantic Maori figures of that period was being written by a leading English scenarist. It would be filmed against a natural background, including some of the most striking scenic attractions of the Dominion. In general, the company will make as much use a.s possible of the natural beauties and phenomena of the country which, Mr. Brown believes, will have a just appeal to overseas audiences. He considers that the film industry in Australia made a mistake at first in trying to imitate Hollywood productions of the “glamour” type with inferior settings. Mr. Brown has made tentative arrangements with an associate-director in Hollywood to come to New Zealand to assist in the production. He believes there is plenty of latent acting talent in the Dominion which could be developed with some training. Mr. Brown was on the stage himself at one time and he managed the first, personal appearance of the film star, Pearl White, in London. He took Jack Smith, the whispering baritone, and Francis Day, popular singer, from the United States to England. He was connected with the Co-Opti-mists and he ran for some time a £40,000 pleasure resort known as the Thames Rivera. In 1937 he received the freedom of the City of London.