By Andrew Dalton, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Americans will soon learn there are more creatures in New Zealand than just hobbits.
Thanks to the expanding cinematic universe of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, the list now includes vampires, werewolves, zombies, disco-era ghosts and projectile-vomiting demons.
The "Flight of the Conchords" star Clement and the "Thor: Ragnarok" director Waititi co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the 2014 film about a group of New Zealand vampire housemates, "What We Do in the Shadows," and co-created the U.S. TV series of the same name on FX.
Now, they're bringing their New Zealand TV show, "Wellington Paranormal," to the U.S. with a premiere on The CW on Sunday.
A comic mockumentary with echoes of "Cops" and "The X Files," "Wellington Paranormal" follows a pair of uniformed police officers, played by Mike Minogue and Karen O'Leary, in the title city as they investigate monstrous happenings with bureaucratic banality.
"The way that the characters react to things are quite New Zealand, the way that people either are understated or they don't know what to do," Clement said with a laugh in an interview with The Associated Press via Zoom from Wellington.
The show is a spinoff of the "What We Do in the Shadows" film, with Minogue and O'Leary reprising their roles.
But unlike the New York-set "Shadows" TV series, which was made for an American audience, U.S. viewers will see the same episodes that first aired in 2018 in New Zealand, where the show's third season just aired and the fourth is in production.
Clement isn't worried about the jokes getting lost between hemispheres.
"We try to cram it with jokes so that you won't really notice if you don't get a specific cultural reference," he said.
A more significant difference may be the countries' police cultures, and the prevailing attitudes around them.
"I know that this comes at an odd time for America and the image of police in America," Clement said. "There's a different feeling around the police here. There's some crossover and some of the same issues, but because they don't carry guns, there is not the fear of the police."
And some of the jokes might play a little differently in 2021 after major U.S. protests of police violence than they did in 2018 when the first season of "Wellington Paranormal" was made.
In one episode, Minogue has blood all over his police uniform after trying to empty a pint into an evidence bag.
"I didn't brutalize anybody!" he feels the need to tell the people who see him.
"There's a few jokes like that that we did three years ago that I wonder if we could make today, because it's changed so quickly," Clement said. "I hope people still find that funny, but it feels more probably on the nose than it was at the time."
It was an easy call for Clement and Waititi to give these characters their own show, and to have O'Leary and Minogue play them, though both were basically beginners when they appeared in "What We Do in the Shadows." Their gifts for comedy, and for the improv that "Wellington Paranormal" relies on, were clear.
"We just put them together and instantly they had a chemistry like a great comedy duo, and we were just lucky," Clement said.
He and Waititi had a hard time keeping it together when they watched the two in the monitors as they directed the film, and an even harder time acting alongside them.
"You can see it in the movie if you watch the scenes where they're on and we're on, Clement said. "We're all hiding our faces and scratching our noses, covering our smiles."
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More