Screenwriting students at the Southern Institute of Technology are putting their toes in the entertainment business for the right reasons - not because making movies is the cool thing to do, the brothers behind Two Little Boys agreed yesterday.

Director Robert Sarkies and his brother, Two Little Boys author and film co-writer Duncan Sarkies, are teaching a screenwriting class at SIT for the next six weeks and said after a few days with the year 1 and 2 students, they were impressed with the "really interesting minds" that came alive in the classroom.

"They're doing a film course because they have cool ideas - that's pretty refreshing," Robert said. "This place attracts really passionate people."

They had wanted to return to Invercargill to do a teaching course at SIT as a way to give back to the community after Two Little Boys wrapped up filming in the Catlins and Invercargill in 2011, with the help of interns from the polytech.

The film starring Bret McKenzie and Hamish Blake was the second collaboration for the brothers, after their 1990 cult hit Scarfies.

They said they had been stopped in Invercargill through the week by people wanting to know if they were in town scouting out locations for the next Sarkies brothers film.

The answer was no, they said, though they were "hatching plans" for a new project.

Robert would not say if this had anything to do with Duncan's new book Demolition of The Century, which Duncan was putting the finishing touches to during his teaching time in Invercargill.

Duncan said the book was about the demolition of the Century movie theatre in Dunedin, to make way for a parking lot. It was also about losing someone: "It's not about loss, as in death - it is actually about losing them."

Robert said there was no promise the book would be their next film project.

"But I might buy a copy."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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