Premiere venue a Predicament

A tussle is brewing over which town gets to have the gala night first screening of Predicament.

Will it be Eltham or Hawera?

Eltham interests have started an intense lobbying campaign to have the movie premiere in the local town hall when it's ready for release around August next year.

Friends of the Eltham Town Hall secretary Pauline Turpie says Eltham is the obvious place, because of its historic business area and because most of the movie was filmed there.

The hall, fully restored in 2003 "will be a magnificent venue. Eltham should have the gala night and Hawera can have the commercial season starting the next day. We can both be winners."

But South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop says his council will decide which venue gets the nod.

"We own both the hall and Cinema 2 and we invested $200,000 in the movie," he said. "The movie was filmed about equally in Hawera and Eltham, so I don't agree Eltham has a greater claim on that basis."

He says Novel Productions had agreed to a premiere screening in South Taranaki during negotiations to secure the council grant.

"Nothing has been decided about where we hold the premiere, it hasn't come before the council yet.

"I'm open-minded about it, personally," he said.

"If Eltham can show they have the technical capability to match Cinema 2, then I wouldn't necessarily oppose it going there, but at the moment I'm pretty much sitting on the fence."

Mrs Turpie says she's "heard the council is not too happy with us, but we haven't been told to back off. Besides, they can't because we're completely independent."

She has written to Predicament director Jason Stutter, inviting him to "A Night at the Flicks" in the town hall on December 10, as part of the town's 125th anniversary celebrations, featuring Came a Hot Friday, filmed in Eltham in 1985.

"We are hiring a screen, projector and sound system for this event, to show what we are capable of doing here," she said.

Her letter offers the town hall for the Predicament premiere. It has an approved seating capacity of 425. Cinema 2's biggest theatre has 245 seats.

Mrs Turpie is also writing to Rialto Distribution, which will hire the movie to cinemas.

Daniel Evans of TSH Audio and Video says he has written to Novel Productions saying he has the experience and equipment to show a feature film in whatever format they want, "and that it would be very cool to have it in the Eltham Town Hall."

The movie's publicist Sue May said it was too early to comment on the likely venue for the premiere.

- © Fairfax NZ News