Flying Fish has signed up to co-produce Orphans & Kingdoms (O&K), a feature film from Paolo Rotondo (writer/director) and Fraser Brown (producer) that’s scheduled to shoot in June this year.
The movie (‘One night. One house. One island. Everything changes for a lonely man & three delinquent kids’) explores the unlikely meeting between a lonely man and three teenage kids. And it will be the first narrative feature set and shot entirely on Waiheke
Island.
“We’re excited to be involved in O&K,” says James Moore, executive producer Flying Fish. “We’ve been doing a lot of work on envisaging what our business looks
like over the next five to ten years and we’re driven by the opportunities out there.
Paolo is a fabulous talent and the timing is perfect for him to join the team.”
In the face of a rapidly changing media
and advertising environment, many production companies are diversifying, with the likes of Curious and The Sweet Shop increasingly supporting directors film projects and dabbling in distribution. Moore says Flying Fish is evolving too and as well as its core TVC production business, it is also creating innovative content
for any screen—including the silver screen. Brown, who has been producing with Flying Fish for the last two years, has been a big part of that process, Moore says.
Rotondo has been a part of the film
industry for a long time and his experience ranges from performance, to screen
writing through to directing emotive TVCs. He was previously with Waitemata Film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_EpzHzfvf0
“I get an incredible buzz
collaborating on bringing ideas to life, it’s a process I love,” he says. “Working with Flying
Fish is a perfect fit and they’ve totally got into the spirit of making an
amazing feature film. It feels like a hot house of fresh thinking at Fish.”
Both Rotondo and Brown have been working
together creatively since 2005 developing feature films, and making award
winning short films and TVCs.
The film, which will be executive produced by Philippa Campbell, gained funding from NZ on Air’s Escalator, an initiative ensuring filmmakers receive extra guidance and practical support alongside low-budget production funding.
“I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far from the talented emerging filmmakers involved in Escalator,” says NZFC chief executive Graeme Mason. ”Existence has already been released and has done fantastically well screening at film festivals here and overseas—and we have six more Escalator films in various stages of production and post production to look forward to.”
