CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Variety

Kiwi Scribes Enlist at Local Screenwriting Boot Camp
U.S., U.K. pros go down under for workshops
By Peter Calder

AUCKLAND -- Kiwi screenwriters are sharpening their pencils this southern summer as seasoned professionals head Down Under to workshop local scripts. L.A.-based screenwriting guru Joan Scheckel has just completed a 10-day intensive workshop with some of the country's established talents, including the brothers Duncan and Robert Sarkies, who made the comedy thriller "Scarfies," and Gillian Ashurst, the writer-director of local success "Snakeskin." And almost 200 budding writers bid for spots in a three-week Sundance-style screenwriting laboratory in February that will bring some seasoned professionals from the U.S. and the U.K. to work with six writers on their second drafts.

The workshop and lab are the initiatives of the New Zealand Writers Foundation, launched this year as a joint venture between the local Writers Guild and the state-funded film bank, the New Zealand Film Commission, which is the primary start-up financier of film projects.

Low standards?
Local observers have long held that the depth of technical talent in the industry is poorly served by the standard of scripts -- many of which are greenlit when they should have been spiked. The foundation, which includes expatriate talents like Jane Campion, Roger Donaldson and Sam Neill among its patrons, was established specifically to nurture local writing talents.