Kiwis score key roles in Hollywood superhero movie

Avatar's blue aliens are making way for a new Kiwi-created 3-D extravaganza with a distinctly green hue.

New Zealand veteran actor Temuera Morrison and Eagle vs Shark director Taika Waititi have supporting roles in Warner Bros' Green Lantern, directed by fellow Kiwi Martin Campbell.

Two other Oscar-winning locals have taken on key backstage roles in the 3-D superhero feature, based on DC Comics' Green Lantern character and scheduled for release in June next year.

Grant Major, who won an Oscar in 2004 for his work as production designer on The Lord of the Rings, is the film's art director.

Costume designer Ngila Dickson, who took home an Oscar the same year for her work on the Sir Peter Jackson trilogy, is taking on the same role for Green Lantern.

Green Lantern, about an interplanetary police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, stars X-Men actor Ryan Reynolds as test pilot-turned superhero Hal Jordan.

Waititi will play Jordan's best friend, while Morrison will play Abin Sur, another member of the Green Lantern Corps.

Waititi said the role was "a great opportunity to pretend I'm an actor and pursue my dream of becoming the next Cliff Curtis".

His friends and colleagues in New Zealand had been supportive and encouraged him to take the role, he said.

He is already in New Orleans for filming, which begins today, so will miss the New Zealand premiere of his acclaimed feature film Boy, which opens next Thursday.

However, the premiere would be "better [if] I'm not there", he joked. "I'm a terrible drunk and would just cause a scene."

Waititi wrote, directed and starred in Boy as the deadbeat father of two boys being raised on the East Coast in 1984. His performance caught the attention of Green Lantern's casting directors.

The film won best feature at the Berlin International Film Festival last month and screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

- © Fairfax NZ News