KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's "fourth most popular folk duo", Flight of the Conchords, may be stepping up a notch in the calibre of co-stars in their next New York TV series.
Wellingtonians Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie may be joined by Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston in the next series commissioned for the HBO cable network, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported.
"To think that we have had calls from Jennifer Aniston's people saying she really likes the show and Steven Spielberg requesting a copy of the series, it's pretty crazy," McKenzie, 32, said.
The first series, aired in the US last June and McKenzie said Americans warmed to the undertones of transtasman rivalry.
In the series set in New York, Clement and McKenzie played struggling musicians and recount their attempts to crack the big-time.
"We have just started 10 weeks of writing the second series and we are definitely going to explore the rivalry between Australia and New Zealand at a government ambassadorial level.
"One storyline is one of us ending up in a relationship with an Australian.
"Americans really latched onto it and strangers keep coming up to me on the street and asking me about the rivalry, which we all know generally only comes out during a rugby match," McKenzie said.
"I think it's similar to the Canadian and American relationship, so now they feel like they have been let in on a secret joke."
The pair won a Grammy Award for comedy album of the year in February.
The soundtrack from the TV show went to number three on the Billboard chart, and recently had Oscar winner Susan Sarandon asking to meet them after a comedy show.
"Luckily we are working a lot which is keeping us fairly grounded," McKenzie said.
- NZPA
