The Seeker’s Omnibus

Not a whole lot new here, but I’m personally glad to see Craig getting some interview time.

New US fantasy TV series being made in NZ

West Auckland has been over-run with wizards and seekers the past few months. The people who brought us Hercules and Xena are at work on a whole new world.

Legend of the Seeker, a TV series based on The Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind, hit screens in the US in November.

It’s shot entirely in New Zealand, and as Film3 discovered, has a few familiar faces in the lead roles.

Kiwi actor Craig Parker is of course no stranger to the fantasy genre after starring in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Now, gone are the ears, and gone are the good intentions. In Legend of the Seeker Parker goes from Elven good guy, to Darken Rahl – not so good guy.

“It’s always better to play the baddie,” says Parker. “You get to do cooler things, get cooler lines, its much less work than playing the hero.

“You basically lurk in your lair, every now and then you kill someone and you get the hair and clothes.”

Along with his fellow cast and crew, Parker began shooting the series four months ago. There’s obviously a rather medieval feel to the series and like Lord of the Rings before it, there has been plenty of on-location shooting in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand.

Xena and Hercules became cult hits, running for ten years and pumping money and jobs into the local television and film industry.

Legend of the Seeker premiered on US television on the first of November last year and if it continues to rate well in these tough times, a second series will get the green light.

“When a company like this comes in,” says Parker, “They make – for 10 years they were doing Hercules. A crew is 200 to 300 people working – it’s vitally important.”

There is no word yet on whether the show will make it onto Kiwi screens – but for now, Parker reckons it’s a good advertisement for a holiday down under, saying: “The show does look beautiful – a tourism ad really, except for the monsters and the demons and the death.”

Source: 3news.co.nz (New Zealand’s TV channel 3)