Party to kick off filming

There's so little public activity you'd hardly know a full-length feature film was being made in South Taranaki, but that's all about to change.

The South Taranaki District Council is laying on a welcome party next Friday for the 50-odd cast and crew of Midnight Productions, who are involved in the making of Predicament.

Invited guests will get a chance to meet the star (as yet unnamed but almost certainly Jemaine Clement, one half of the Flight of the Conchords), the director and screenplay writer Jason Stutter and producer Sue Rogers.

A new clue to the star's identity is the latest reprint of Ronald Hugh Morrieson's novel by Dunmore Publishing, which has a black-haired, black horn-rimmed spectacled chap on the cover that strongly suggests Clement in the lead role of Cedric Williamson.

Company publicist Sue May says everything is going according to schedule with filming starting in mid-July and running through to August, at unidentified locations through the district. However, they are urgently looking for more crew accommodation.

"We need good quality furnished houses in Hawera that are available to rent. This is because although the motels are very helpful, and we are using them, we seem to have booked out the whole town and we have more people still to accommodate," she says.

Anyone able to help should contact Gerald Langford, communications manager at the STDC.

Set building is in full swing in the old Warehouse building right in the centre of Hawera, but the windows have been covered over.

One thing that is known is the director has asked Taranaki Newspapers to print a 200-copy run of a special newspaper, called The Harperton Herald, so obviously something in the movie is going to make headlines.

The big unknown is: Whose house will be used to represent the Williamson family home?

- © Fairfax NZ News