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James Ashcroft
James Ashcroft (born 12 June 1978) is a New Zealand director, actor, writer and producer. He had a career in theatre, film television and radio, before moving to directing films. He has directed two films based on short stories by New Zealand writer Owen Marshall, and in 2025 is directing '' The Whisper Man'', starring Robert De Niro. Early life and education Ashcroft was born to a Māori mother and an English father. He is of Ngāti Kahu and Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe) descent. He is the youngest of six siblings and grew up in Paraparaumu. He trained as an actor, and graduated from Victoria University and Toi Whakaari drama school. He served internships with theatre companies The Wooster Group in New York and Robert Lepage’s Ex Machina in Quebec. Career Ashcroft has had a career in theatre, film television and radio, including becoming the artistic director and chief executive of Māori theatre company Taki Rua Productions. Ashcroft's work as an actor includes roles in The Insid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Owen Marshall
Owen Marshall Jones (born 17 August 1941), who writes under the pen name Owen Marshall, is a New Zealand short story writer and novelist. Early life and family Marshall was born in Te Kūiti on 17 August 1941. He was the third of nine children; his father was a Methodist minister, and his mother (whose maiden name was Marshall) died when he was two. His father remarried about three years later and went on to have a further six children. The family lived in Blenheim, New Zealand, Blenheim and Timaru, and Marshall was educated at Timaru Boys' High School. He graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Master of Arts degree in English in 1964, and taught at Waitaki Boys' High School for 25 years before becoming a full-time author. Marshall is the older half-brother of Rhys Jones (soldier), Rhys Jones. Awards and honours In 1985 and 1988, Marshall received the Lilian Ida Smith Award (Fiction). In the 2000 New Year Honours (New Zealand), 2000 New Year Honours, he was appoin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Spinoff
''The Spinoff'' is a New Zealand online magazine and news website that was founded in 2014. It is known for current affairs coverage, political and social analysis, and cultural commentary. It earns money through commercial sponsorship and subscriptions. The business is owned by its founder and former editor Duncan Grieve and his wife Nicola. Business model and content ''The Spinoff'' began as a TV blog sponsored by the streaming platform Lightbox: it has expanded to a multi-platform news site that also publishes current affairs newsletters, podcasts and online video series. 'Spinoff Members', offering a range of benefits to subscribers, was launched in 2019. ''The Spinoff'' and the '' New Zealand Herald'' started sharing journalism and content in July 2020. "Our business model is partnership and sponsorship and we make it clear when our content is funded in that way. When our journalists are not writing for a partner, they are writing whatever they want. We give them impl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Henare
George Winiata Henare (born 11 September 1945) is a New Zealand actor with a career spanning over 50 years. Early life Born in Gisborne on 11 September 1945, the third youngest in a family of ten children, Henare affiliates to the Māori tribes (iwi) of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Hine. He lived on a farm until the age of 12 on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. Career Henare has a distinguished career as an actor in New Zealand with 50 years on stage and screen. Henare began his acting career after a stint as a postman and a trainee teacher. He has played lead roles in film, television, opera and theatre as well as radio and voice work. An early success was landing a role in a New Zealand Opera production of ''Porgy and Bess'' in 1965. He later toured Australia in ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' and '' Phantom of the Opera''. Film Henare played the role of social worker Bennett in the classic New Zealand movie '' Once Were Warriors''. Other films include '' Crooked Earth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. Known for often playing eccentric roles on both stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Geoffrey Rush, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, making him the only Australian to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, in addition to three British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Rush is the founding president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year. Rush began his professional acting career with the Queensland Theatre, Queensland Theatre Company in 1971. He studied for two years at the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq starting in 1975. Rush starred in international productions of ''Oleanna (play), Oleanna'', ''Waiting for Godot'', ''The Winter's Tale'' and ''The Importance of Being Earnest''. He made his Broadway theatre, Broadway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. He studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his John Lithgow filmography, diverse work on stage and screen. He has received List of awards and nominations received by John Lithgow, numerous accolades including six Primetime Emmy Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, four Grammy Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Lithgow has won two Tony Awards, his first for Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, Best Featured Actor in a Play for his Broadway theatre, Broadway debut in ''The Changing Room'' (1972) and his second for Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical for ''Sweet Smell of Success (musical), Sweet Smell of Success'' (2002). He was Tony-nominated for ''Requiem for a Heavywe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rule Of Jenny Pen
''The Rule of Jenny Pen'' is a 2024 New Zealand psychological horror film based on Owen Marshall's short story of the same name. Directed by James Ashcroft and written by Ashcroft and Eli Kent, it stars John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush, and George Henare. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on 19 September 2024, and was released in New Zealand on 20 March 2025. Plot An elderly judge, Stefan Mortensen, suffers a stroke while passing sentence in court. Partially immobile, but determined to fully regain his faculties, he takes up what he hopes will be temporary residence in a care home. To his displeasure, Stefan finds himself sharing a bedroom with former rugby player Tony Garfield. His first day, he witnesses another resident, Howie, accidentally set himself on fire while drinking and smoking. Cantankerous and somewhat snobby, Stefan largely keeps to himself. He soon catches the attention of long-term resident Dave Crealy, who masquerades as a confused old man by day but bulli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor Theatre, stage performance, the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film ''Léolo''. Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango Media, Fandango ticketing company. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. The site is influential among moviegoers, a third of whom say they consult it before going to the cinema in the U.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Review Aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where users can view the reviews, sells information to third parties about consumer tendencies, and creates databases for companies to learn about their actual and potential customers. The system enables users to easily compare many different reviews of the same work. Many of these systems calculate an approximate average assessment, usually based on assigning a numeric value to each review related to its degree of positive rating of the work. Review aggregation sites have begun to have economic effects on the companies that create or manufacture items under review, especially in certain categories such as electronic games, which are expensive to purchase. Some companies have tied royalty payment rates and employee bonuses to aggregate scores, and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. The festival was established in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival. The festival moved to nearby Park City, Utah, in 1981 and was renamed the US Film and Video Festival. It was renamed the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. From its inception through 2025, the festival took place every January in Utah. In March 2025, it was ann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NZ Herald
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 600 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1769 the British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot on and map New Ze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miriama McDowell
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari. McDowell has a long association with Massive Theatre Company in Auckland, and has both acted and directed for the Pop-up Globe, including directing a Pasifika-inspired ''Much Ado About Nothing'' which was revived for the Pop-Up Globe's final season, and an all-female version of ''Emilia''. She co-wrote ''Cellfish'' and has appeared in numerous stage plays, including ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ''Astroman''. Television appearances include ''Shortland Street'', '' Outrageous Fortune'', ''The Brokenwood Mysteries'', anthology series ''Taonga'', ''Interrogation'', ''Hope and Wire'', ''Head High'', and ''Find Me a Māori Bride''. McDowell's film roles include '' No. 2'', '' The Dark Horse'', '' This is Not My Life'', ''The Great Maiden's Blush'', and horror film ''Coming Home in the Dark''. She wrote ''Te Whare Kapua: The Cloud House'' for Massive Theatre Company's thirtieth anniversary. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Thomson
Erik Thomson is a Scottish-born New Zealand-Australian actor. He is known for playing Hades in the television series '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', '' Xena Warrior Princess'' and '' Young Hercules'', Dr. Mitch Stevens in '' All Saints'' and Dave Rafter in '' Packed to the Rafters''. Thomson won an Australian Film Institute Award for his performance in the Australian feature film '' Somersault''. Early life Erik Thomson was born in Inverness, Scotland, and his family emigrated to New Zealand when he was seven. He studied performing arts at the New Zealand Drama School in Wellington and English Literature and drama at Victoria University of Wellington. Career Thomson had a number of television roles in New Zealand, starting with ''Marlin Bay'', a drama set in a casino and resort. He won a wider fan following for his occasional appearances as the god Hades in the series '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' and '' Young Hercules'', all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
