Del Toro volunteers for Q&A night

Fairfax Media

GENEROUS CHAP: Guillermo del Toro is helping out some movie guys in Wellington.

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Film director Guillermo del Toro is to take time out from making The Hobbit to help out some other little movie guys in Wellington.

Mexico-born del Toro has given up his valuable time to help independent New Zealander Sam Kelly raise money to make a musical feature film. One For The Road, directed by Kelly, is due to begin filming in January, with just $60,000 of its $1.5 million budget raised so far.

In a bid to close the gap, the film's makers are hoping to sell out Wellington's Paramount Theatre tonight.

If they do, they will raise another $20,000 with An Evening with Guillermo del Toro, a question and answer event from 8pm. This will be facilitated by Jonathan King, director of the New Zealand movie Under the Mountain.

Having del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy series, on board was a massive coup, Kelly said.

"It's great that he's taking that first step in the relationship with Wellington because, you know, Peter Jackson had a really strong relationship with Wellington, and Guillermo has been great."

Del Toro will do his best to answer questions about The Hobbit and his past films, along with his intriguing personal history - including the 1997 kidnap of his father in Mexico.

One For The Road producer Bonnie Slater worked with Richard Taylor at Weta Workshop, where she met del Toro and asked for his help.

"She told him about the project, said we were making this film, and 'we need more money to make this happen, would you be interested in supporting us?', and he said he'd love to," Kelly said.

The film is billed as the story of a Palmerston North band made up of close friends and high hopes. It is adapted from the 2005 musical It's a Whanau Thing.

- NZPA