Tenzing Norgay Movie To Be Filmed At Aoraki/Mount Cook
Press Release – Department of Conservation
Filming in New Zealand is scheduled to begin next month. The production, which has already completed scenes in Kathmandu, Nepal, will feature Tom Hiddleston as Sir Edmund Hillary, Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay, and Willem Dafoe as English expedition …
Alpine landscapes within the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park will serve as the backdrop for a new biopic about Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's 1953 epic climb to the summit of Mount Everest alongside Sir Edmund Hillary.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) has approved filming on Malte Brun Pass near the Tasman Glacier and near the Hochstetter Icefall on the eastern side of Aoraki/Mount Cook, which will 'double' as Everest base camp and the famous Hillary Step on the world's highest peak.
'These sites have been used for filming Everest-related documentaries and films before,' says DOC Ranger Ray Bellringer.
'All filming activities are subject to strict environmental conditions to ensure the protection of the natural landscape. DOC staff will be onsite daily to monitor compliance. This is an incredibly special place and it's our role to protect it,' he says.
Bellringer also noted the long-standing relationship between New Zealand and Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, and the involvement of Nepalese students in conservation and education programs, including through Lincoln University's Parks and Recreation degree. Since 1953 around 70 Nepalese including many from the Sherpa community have come to Lincoln for study in nature-based tourism and community conservation.
'Sir Edmund Hillary dedicated much of his life after 1953 to supporting Nepalese communities,' Bellringer added. 'It is fitting that this project recognises the life and contributions of Tenzing Norgay, and we are proud to provide a setting that supports this storytelling. It's an iconic setting for an incredible story.'
Filming in New Zealand is scheduled to begin next month. The production, which has already completed scenes in Kathmandu, Nepal, will feature Tom Hiddleston as Sir Edmund Hillary, Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay, and Willem Dafoe as English expedition leader John Hunt.
The production is expected to bring a significant economic boost to the local area with a large production crew and cast staying in the village and surrounding area.
Set construction and logistical preparations are currently underway. DOC staff will continue to work closely with the production team to ensure minimal environmental impact. Ray Bellringer says he happy Tenzing Norgay's story is getting recognition.
'We're pleased to support this movie project and help showcase it to the world. For Aoraki and the staff here to play a small part in helping to make that happen is special,' he says.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
1News
5 hours ago
- 1News
Māori spirituality is part of family life in new TV show
A Māori family returns to a small North Island town after living in London in the bilingual and slightly supernatural TV show Dead Ahead. Writer and co-creator Scotty Cotter (Tainui, Fiji, Scottish) hopes the show will deliver plenty of laughs and also some insight into the Māori belief that our tūpuna (ancestors) walk "right next to us". "It's not seeing them, but having a sense of them there - that is what I really wanted to touch on - keeping them near us and keeping us connected with them," he tells Saturday Morning. Scotty Cotter as school principal Matua Kare in the new TVNZ+ series Dead Ahead. (Source: Supplied) Dead Ahead - launched on TVNZ+ - centres on the Wharekoa family; high-powered lawyer Kiri (Miriama Smith), her husband Matiu (Xavier Horan) and their kids Amiria (Mia Van Oyen) and Nate (Elijah Tamati). ADVERTISEMENT Cotter says he thought it would be hard finding a Māori boy with an English accent, but then Elijah Tamati - whose whanau also lived in London- walked into the room and nailed his audition. "[The kids in Dead Ahead] are just stunning. The future is bright with these two." Elijah Tamati as Nate in the TVNZ+ series Dead Ahead. (Source: Supplied) While it's a scary thing to write a TV show, Cotter says it was also really exciting to create a set of Māori characters with "all our flaws and our beauty and our crack-up-isms". "I wanted to create Māori characters who break the stereotypical mould, but also have authenticity." Starting out as a teen actor, Cotter's first introduction to New Zealand television was on the Māori learning programme Whānau, where he found a Māori woman "running the show". That was the late actor and director Nancy Brunning who became Cotter's friend and mentor. ADVERTISEMENT "I really felt her in the writing of [Dead Ahead], and I really felt her pushing me and guiding us." Nancy Brunning at the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin in 2016 (Source: AFP) Performing in te reo Māori plays with Brunning as a younger man, Cotter says he discovered the wairua (spirit) of words. "There's wairua in kupu (Māori words) - how we say it, how we feel it. It's not just blurting words out. You've got to put it in, feel it, hold it." Still on "that hikoi journey" of learning te reo, Cotter now studies online via Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. He hopes Dead Ahead will "gently introduce" te reo words and phrases to viewers who may not know them. "By the end of the season, hopefully they can understand and use kupu and te reo Māori in their everyday life." ADVERTISEMENT In the show, he attempts to show a "less Disneyfied" picture of Māori spirituality, including the role of kēhua (ghosts), which he sensed after his grandmother died. "The sense of not seeing tūpuna but having a sense of them there is what I really wanted to touch on. "It's my gentle way of showing people how we whakanoa [remove tapu from] ourselves." Fun fact: Saturday Morning presenter Mihi Forbes was Scotty Cotter's inspiration for the Dead Ahead character Meremereana (Kura Forrester) - an award-winning journalist who "just knows what's up". Dead Ahead was made with the support of NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho. Watch it on TVNZ+
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
A bewildering array of linguistic options: Wyn Drabble
Wyn Drabble is a teacher of English, writer, public speaker and musician. He is based in Hawke's Bay. Do you know one of the things that really gets my dander up? It's not knowing what dander is and whether indeed I have one/any. Okay, after writing that sentence, I
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Tourists ‘stoked' at whale pod discovery
Harbour tourist boat Monarch lurks close to a pod of up to 7 Right whales which mooched around in the harbour on Wednesday. PHOTO: STPEHEN JAQUIERY It was difficult to tell who was having more of a whale of a time — the whales, or the tourists on board an Otago Harbour wildlife cruise. Monarch Cruises guest ambassador AJ Carrick said they had about 10 people on board when they came across seven adult southern right whales near Harington Point. "I don't know exactly why they were there, but they seemed quite relaxed and they were kind of more like socialising, as opposed to feeding, because they were on their side a lot and waving their pectoral fins and you could hear them singing or chatting to each other as well, which was really cool. She said everyone on board was very excited and busy trying to take photos of the rare occasion. "They were all pretty frothing. I've heard of so many people hanging over the side to get a better look. "Everyone I've talked to was like, 'oh my gosh'. They were well stoked. Miss Carrick said she had heard from others, that the whales were also spotted further up the harbour at Waipuna Bay, before turning around and heading back out to sea. It was a special moment for all who were lucky enough to witness it, she said. Documentary film-maker Bill Morris, of Port Chalmers, said he had been "lucky enough to spend quite a lot of time with southern right whales down in the Auckland Islands but yesterday was the first time he had seen one — let alone seven — in Otago Harbour. A pod of seven southern right whales make themselves at home in Otago Harbour yesterday. PHOTO: BILL MORRIS "It was amazing just to hear the sounds, the reverberating sounds of their breathing, Mr Morris said. "It gave me chills, to be honest, to hear those noises echoing around the harbour and to see those whales back in after such a long absence. "It was, yeah, quite an emotional thing to see and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt that today. Department of Conservation marine technical adviser Hannah Hendriks said it was "an exciting sighting because it was unusual to see a group of this size, this close to mainland New Zealand. "Usually, we only see individuals or mother and calf pairs. "Their population suffered dramatic losses from whaling, and they came close to extinction. "Hopefully this sighting is a good sign the population is slowly recovering, and that we continue to see more southern right whales around our coast. She said during this time of year, they were typically found at their breeding grounds around the subantarctic Auckland and Campbell Islands, but there were occasional sightings around mainland New Zealand. "It's exciting to see whales like this, but we remind people to please share our coasts with whales responsibly by giving them plenty of space and following the Marine Mammal Protection Regulations.
