Tinā has broken records for New Zealand's widest film release, and the makers are now looking to the US for a wider audience. Photo: NZ Film Commission
The producers of NZ movie Tinā are about to take their hit film to America, and are not letting the US president's threat of massive film tariffs stop them from spreading their story.
The final scene is yet to written in the Trump tariff drama - and that has the global film industry worried.
US President Donald Trump has said he will impose a 100 percent tariff on all movies produced outside the US, but issued few details on just how such a levy would work. Trump said the American film industry was dying a very fast death due to incentives being offered to lure film makers off shore and labelled it a national security threat.
New Zealand is among those offering tax rebates, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
But Dan Higgins - one of the producers of hit New Zealand film Tinā - told Checkpoint they were taking an upbeat view of the situation, because there were too many variables to worry about.
"We've got a showcase in LA later this month. We're inviting streamers, sales agents, distribution agents along to have a look at the film and see it and hear the story of how successful it's been here and in Australia. So we're taking a more pragmatic look at it."
He said it would be too hard to plan for any tariff trouble because the details were not there.
"We don't know where that tariff would fit, would it be on the producers, on the production company, is it going to be at the seat where the audience is sitting?
"So it would be a little short sighted to get too caught up in the hysteria that is playing out there at the moment when we just don't know how it is going to land."
Higgins said New Zealand would always draw movie productions due to the location available and the skills NZ film crews have.
But he said local filmmakers were always out there on the international stage.
"We're always looking to do co-productions and things like that. Cannes is coming up next week, there will be a big presence there from the NZ Film Commission and New Zealand producers."
Higgins said it was difficult to get theatrical release in America, with most cinemas looking for big hits that bring in the easy money, but the Tinā producers currently had several offers at the moment that they needed to look more closely at.
He stressed that they were not just focused on the American market: "The whole world is a market for us."
Tinā was released last week in Australia, and Higgins said they would be highlighting that success when they took the film to the US, rather than worry about any possible levies.
"That success will translate, and we know we've already got an audience in America, they're contacting us all the time. So we just have to do the best thing for the film, and the best thing for the audience."
The Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA) president Irene Gardiner told Morning Report earlier today that Trump's statement was "quite confusing".
"People are adopting very much a wait and see attitude," she told Morning Report.
Veteran studio executives in the US told Reuters the announcement left unanswered the timing of the proposed levy and how it would be enforced for an industry whose biggest-budget films are often produced across several continents.
One studio executive compared movie production to auto manufacturing, with various pieces - filming, visual effects and other elements - completed around the world, then assembled, through post-production, in the US. Some executives wondered whether the levy would apply only to the work done elsewhere, or attach to projects jointly financed by foreign investors.
The White House said it had not made any final decisions.
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