Two more Whakatipu residents are set to walk the red carpet at the Emmys.
Costume supervisor Jenny Rushton, of Kingston, is one of a team of six costumers nominated for their work on the first episode of the American fantasy television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, in the ‘outstanding fantasy/sci-fi costumes’ category.
And Queenstown costume designer Amanda Neale’s been nominated for ‘outstanding costume design/styling’ for her work on 2021 Netflix TV series Sweet Tooth, along with her assistant costume designer Lucy McLay and costume supervisor Simone Knight.
Both were filmed in New Zealand.
Rushton tells Mountain Scene it’s her first Emmy nomination and it’s exciting to be part of a team in contention.
The episode, A Shadow of the Past, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on September 1, 2022.
Along with the second episode, it had the most viewers of any Prime Video premiere within 24 hours.
While on some productions costumes might be bought or rented, on this production about 90% were made specially.
Rushton has 14 years’ experience in film and television in NZ and internationally, including working on Avatar in 2007-2008.
The others in the Rings team are costume designer Kate Hawley, assistants Libby Dempster, Lucy McLay and Jaindra Watson, and supervisor Pip Lingard.
They’re up against nominees from Disney’s Hocus Pocus, HBO Max’s House of the Dragon, The Heirs Of The Dragon and Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Queenstown’s run of Emmy successes began with Queenstowner Julian Grimmond who won in 2003, 2004 and 2005 for producing The Amazing Race.
In 2010, television producer Robert Michael ‘Bob’ Parr, of Arrowtown, was nominated for his role as senior producer of that series.
Then, in 2013, the television miniseries Top of the Lake, authored and directed by Jane Campion and shot in the Queenstown-Lakes district, received eight Emmy Awards nominations, including for best mini-series, and won for outstanding cinematography for a mini-series or movie.
And, in 2017, Queenstown make-up designer Davina Lamont was shortlisted for her work on Genius, a National Geographic Channel drama that charted the life of physicist Albert Einstein.
This year’s event, delayed by the Writers Guild of America strike, is due to be held on January 15.
And, closer to home, at the New Zealand Television Awards this month, John Allan, of Queenstown, won the production design award for his work on Great Southern Television’s series One Lane Bridge.
Shoot reaches lofty heights
About 100 film crew have been based around Glenorchy shooting a gruelling elimination-style reality TV show in which contestants have to summit a mountain to share in a substantial prize pool.
The American production, The Summit, was a spin-off of the Aussie series of the same name, whose first season, aired earlier this year, was also shot around the head of the lake.
The recent 15-day shoot featured extensive helicopter flying time, however the boss of the chopper company concerned wouldn’t comment
to Mountain Scene due to a non-disclosure agreement.
An industry source says the show will be ‘‘good for Glenorchy tourism’’.
Following the shoot, it’s understood many of the crew relocated to Wānaka, where a second Australian season of The Summit was due to be shot.
