Children’s film to be made in N.Z.

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32783, 7 December 1971, Page 4

Children’s film to be made in N.Z.

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) A two-hour feature film to be shown to over a million British children in Saturday morning "cinema clubs is to be shot in New Zealand in February and March next year, featuring only. New Zealand children.

Tentatively named “Rangi’s Catch,” the film will contain excitement and adventure, the action ranging from the Marlborough Sounds to Rotorua, with stops at Wellington and other spots. The film is being made for the British Children’s Film Foundation by' the joint efforts of New Zealand’s National Film Unit and a British film company tun by two former New Zealanders, MiChael Forlong, and his wife, Margaret. Mrs Forlong said that the story, . which was "purely entertainments, adventure all the way,” was based on a script that her husband had been working bn for most of his 18 years away from New Zealand. It concerned the adventures of four children, two of them Maori youngsters, all of whom would be recruited in New Zealand by Mr Fprlong early in the new year. Mr Forlong, originally from Wanganui, learned his trade with the National Film Unit before coming to Britain. He. has visited New Zealand since then, but his wife, who is from Wellington, has never been back.

They will also be taking on this trip their three children Aged, between 6 and 12, who have never been to New eZaland. The Children’s Film Foundation in Britain is believed to have few parallels in the world, in that it sponsors films that are made solely for showings to children. Such actors as David Hemmings, Michael Crawford, Jack Wild and more recently the stars of “The Railway Children,” made their acting debuts in the foundation's films, and about a million children see its films each Saturday morning in cinema clubs throughout Britain.

Mr Forlong’s company, which works at. Shepperton Studios, near London, produces about nine or - 10

fielms each year, mainly industrial productions, and this year won the “Financial Times” award for the film "most likely to promote British exports.” The winning film was about the new Range Rover multi-purpose vehicle.

But the company is no stranger to children's films, as last year it won the Chiffey award for a Film Foundation production named “Lionheart” and this year has made another full-length children’s film, “Raising, the Roof,” that is due for release in the new year. Mrs Forlong said that “Rangi’s Catch” would eventually be released as eight half-hour episodes for showings to cinema clubs. She and her husband would be in New Zealand for about four months, although the actual shooting would require only about eight week in February, March and possibly April.'