North Otago set for stardom

Details are sketchy around the filming of Mr Pip at various North Otago locations but it is expected to take place in late August.

The region has been chosen as part of the setting for a film adaptation of Lloyd Jones' best-selling novel Mr Pip by Oscar-nominated Kiwi director Andrew Adamson, starring House and Blackadder actor Hugh Laurie.

It will take place over 1 1/2 weeks in late August, publicist Sue May confirmed yesterday. However, locations could not be confirmed, along with the number of cast and crew that would travel to the area.

"More information will be available as we get closer," Mrs May said.

Movie makers are not revealing the film's budget, but the New Zealand Film Commission has put $2.5 million towards the project.

No date has been set for the premiere.

A report by Waitaki District Council corporate services group manager Carolyn Carter last month said filming would take place at the Oamaru harbour and historic precinct, and at Campbells Park, Otekaieke and Fortification Rd.

Filming will also take place in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

Adamson, whose work includes the Shrek and Chronicles of Narnia film series, has written the screenplay and will direct and produce the film.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Mr Pip tells the story of the last white man left in war-torn Papua New Guinea, who reopens a school and inspires his pupils by reading his favourite novel, Great Expectations.

Laurie, who will be present only for filming in Bougainville, told the Hollywood Reporter last month he was "hooked" on the screenplay from the start.

"From the first words of the novel, and the first image of the screenplay, I was hooked on Mr Pip," Laurie said.

"It's an immensely touching, unique, yet completely unsentimental story of love. It is unlike any script I have read, or any story I have ever heard. Plus I get to go to Papua New Guinea and call it work. I am a very lucky man."

Adamson is quoted as saying he wanted to adapt Jones' book as soon as he read it.

"I read Mr Pip on a flight and, by the time of landing, knew I would make this film. It's a testament to Lloyd's wonderful novel that it has captured the hearts of Hugh ... and an incredible group of like-minded collaborators."

Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech of Olympus Pictures are financing and producing the film with Robin Scholes' Eyeworks New Zealand and Agio Capital, with support from the Film Commission, NZ on Air and TV3.