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Goodbye Pork Pie director helped put his country on the cinematic map in the early 80s before moving to Hollywood

Geoff Murphy, the film-maker who was a key pioneer in the development of the modern New Zealand film industry, has died aged 80, the New Zealand film commission has confirmed. With hits such as Goodbye Pork Pie and The Quiet Earth, Murphy stood alongside Roger Donaldson as a central figure in the creation of a homegrown industry.

Born in Wellington in 1938, Murphy made his mark playing the trumpet in travelling performance co-op Blerta in the 70s, performing at festivals and living as part of a commune. Having made TV shorts in the early 70s, Murphy’s first feature, Wild Man (1977), grew out of his friendship with Blerta founder Bruno Lawrence – who would go on to act in a number of Murphy’s films as well as Donaldson’s 1981 hit Smash Palace.

Iconic New Zealand film maker, Geoff Murphy, known for “The Quiet Earth” and work on “Dante’s Peak,” has died. He was 80.

Murphy’s death on Monday was confirmed by the New Zealand Film Commission. The organization called him “one of the leading figures in New Zealand cinema’s renaissance of the late 1970s and 1980s.”

A writer, director and producer, Murphy directed three films in that period – “Goodbye Pork Pie,” “Utu,” and “The Quiet Earth” – that were timely and locally-rooted. They are now considered as Kiwi classics.

Murphy’s creative career kicked off as a founding member of musical, theatrical troupe Blerta. His first film, “Wild Man” was largely developed and improvised by Blerta regulars. Murphy’s road movie “Never Say Die,” gave Temuera Morrison his first starring role.

“At the end of the 1980s, Geoff worked mainly in the U.S., directing films like ‘Young Guns II,’ and...

Geoff Murphy, a leading figure in the New Zealand movie industry in the 1970s and ’80s who also helmed such Hollywood fare as Young Guns II and Freejack and was second-unit director on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died. He was 80. Murphy’s death was confirmed by The New Zealand Herald.

His directing credits also include Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Never Say Die , Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu and The Quiet Earth, for which he won Best Director at the 1987 New Zealand Film and TV Awards. He also was second-unit helmer on such films as xXx: State of the Union and Dante’s Peak. Murphy also produced more than a half-dozen of the films he worked on.

Murphy was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film in 2014 and previously had been named as an Arts Icon by the Arts Foundation, which...

Geoff Murphy.

Producer, director and screenwriter Geoff Murphy, a leading figure in New Zealand cinema’s renaissance of the late 1970s and early 1980s, died in Wellington on Monday. He was 80.

Murphy was best known as the director of Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu and The Quiet Earth. Action-comedy Goodbye Pork Pie, a road movie starring Kelly Johnson, Tony Barry and Claire Oberman, became the first local film to gain blockbuster status at the box office in 1981, according to the New Zealand Film Commission.

“He deserves every ounce of credit for the brilliant things he did with The Quiet Earth,” writer-director Sam Pillsbury told Stuff Nz. “He was a genius and one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever worked with and I learned a lot from him.”

He was was a founding member of Blerta, the musical and theatrical co-operative that toured New Zealand in the early 1970s. His first feature,...

Get Out..

Despite falling over 40 per cent, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 remains on top of the box office, earning almost $5 million over the weekend; an average of $7,875 per screen. The Disney title stars Australia's Elizabeth Debicki and has grossed $23 million in just two weeks..

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eOne tearjerker A Dog.s Purpose, which stars Dennis Quaid, has opened on 271 screens to make $1.2 million.

Behind it was The Fate of the Furious, which.dropped some 46 per cent to take $928,792 over its fourth weekend. The Universal film now sits on $27.4 million overall..

Now in its third week, Roadshow.s Going In Style brought in $580,556, taking its cume to $3.8 million.

Showing on just 51 screens, the Hindi version of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, distributed by Eros Australia,...

(l-r) James Rolleston and Dean O.Gorman.

Kiwi director Matt Murphy grew up helping out on shoots with his filmmaker father Geoff.

Geoff made his feature debut with Goodbye Pork Pie in the early 80s. Murphy the younger worked on the film as a teenager before embarking on his own career as a gaffer, an art director and finally a director himself, based out of Sydney but shooting commercials globally.

Murphy has now made his own feature debut — with Pork Pie, a remake of his father.s film in Australian cinemas May 4.

The director began writing the screenplay, his first, five years ago, and describes his early drafts as .a bit too Hollywood..

.I wrote bigger car chases, more fantastic stunts,. Murphy tells If. .And then I realized films are about the characters, about people and their journeys. You can have the biggest event ever but if it.s not...

StudioCanal.s Elizabeth Trotman.

In If's most recent issue, we touched base with three of the nation.s distribution heads — Madman.s Paul Wiegard, StudioCanal.s Elizabeth Trotman and Village Roadshow.s Joel Pearlman — to get the lowdown on the year.s hits, the misses, and what they.ve got coming up.

How.s the year been for you?

Trotman: It.s been a positive year. Obviously I started in my role in March, so [I.m] still relatively new to the Australian landscape. We.re pleased with our results on Our Kind of Traitor. We.ve had a number of successes with our French films playing at the French Film Festival this year. We released Mother.s Day the week before Mother.s Day back in April, and it took $5.7 million in Australia. It took 17 percent of the Us result; usually Australia is tracking at ten percent of the Us, so 17 percent was strong.

StudioCanal.s Elizabeth Trotman.

In If's most recent issue, we touched base with three of the nation.s distribution heads — Madman.s Paul Wiegard, StudioCanal.s Elizabeth Trotman and Village Roadshow.s Joel Pearlman — to get the lowdown on the year.s hits, the misses, and what they.ve got coming up.

How.s the year been for you?

Trotman: It.s been a positive year. Obviously I started in my role in March, so [I.m] still relatively new to the Australian landscape. We.re pleased with our results on Our Kind of Traitor. We.ve had a number of successes with our French films playing at the French Film Festival this year. We released Mother.s Day the week before Mother.s Day back in April, and it took $5.7 million in Australia. It took 17 percent of the Us result; usually Australia is tracking at ten percent of the Us, so 17 percent was strong.

The New Zealand Film Commission has named the recipients of its one-off business development scheme Boost, with total funding of more than $NZ450,000.

The scheme is designed to accelerate the slates of active producers and to enable screen businesses to move films more quickly into production.

Applicants were invited to apply for $NZ50,000 - $NZ130,000 per business. At least 50 per cent of the money must be allocated to third party development costs and the commission expects the entire amount to be spent within 12-18 months.

The recipients are Jump Film and Television, Centron Pictures, Pop Film, Four Knights Film and Firefly Films.

Making the announcement at the Big Screen Symposium conference, Nzfc CEO Dave Gibson, said that screen companies in New Zealand are growing in number and scale and he expects the five Boost companies will contribute to this growth.

Founded by Robin Scholes, Jump Pictures is completing Lee Tamahori...

The New Zealand Film Commission made conditonal offers for four feature films including a remake of Kiwi classic Goodbye Pork Pie at its last board meeting.

That brings to 16 the total number of feature films invested in during the financial year, the largest number ever supported in a single twelve months.

One Thousand Ropes

Tusi Tamaese's follow-up to The Orator. A traditional Samoan midwife's ordered existence is thrown off balance by the arrival of his bruised daughter seeking his protection. Produced by Catherine Fitzgerald, the Australasian distributor is Transmission and International sales agent Mongrel Media.

Pork Pie

The remake of Geoff Murphy's 1981 road comedy Goodbye Pork Pie is written and will be directed by his son Matt Murphy, produced by Tom Hern (The Dark Horse) and executive produced by Tim White. The action comedy follows a guy who is determined to reconnect with the woman he left at the altar,...

Mention Dizzie Gillespie, Charles Mingus, or Thelonious Monk and jazz fans will likely begin to wax nostalgic, recalling the moment they first heard "Salt Peanuts," "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," or "Well, You Needn't," respectively. But mention Ina Ray Hutton, Mary Lou Williams, or Vi Redd, and you'll likely get blank stares. Although one should be familiar with these ladies of jazz, the sad truth is most individuals cannot name one female jazz musician. While their contributions rank as important points in the history of jazz, female musicians were often considered a novelty, with the fame and glory left to the men, as playing jazz was considered a man's job. Women were expected to look pretty, stay at home, and take care of the children, and though that fate befell many a talented female musician, others bucked the stereotype and set off on careers in jazz.