Green Lantern v red carpet

Taika Waititi will be starring in Green Lantern. Photo / Martin Sykes

It's all very well acting and starring in the second feature based on your Oscar-nominated short. But when it comes to attending the premiere, sometimes you need to get on with the next thing instead.

That's the case for Taika Waititi's whose Boy - extrapolated from his Academy Award-contender mini-flick Two Cars, One Night - takes its bow in Auckland next week.

Only the director-actor won't be in attendance.

He's needed on the set of The Green Lantern, the superhero movie based on the DC Comics character, being filmed by expatriate New Zealand director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Edge of Darkness) in New Orleans. Waititi has been cast as the Green Lantern's best friend.

And he's to have even more Kiwi company. Temuera Morrison has joined the cast as Abin Sur, an alien member of the Green Lantern Corps, who recruits Hal Jordan into their superhero fold. It's Morrison's first foray into the sci-fi fantasy world since he was Jango Fett in the Stars Wars prequels.

Waititi has already attended the New Zealand premiere of Boy, a hastily arranged screening at his home marae, Maru o Hinemaka in Opotiki.

Says Waititi: "I really wanted to be in Auckland for the New Zealand premiere, but to be offered this role in Green Lantern is a great opportunity to pretend I'm an actor and pursue my dream of becoming the next Cliff Curtis. Typically, everyone in New Zealand has been supportive and understanding and encouraged me to accept the role.

"The premiere will be a great event without me. In fact, it's better I'm not there, I'm a terrible drunk and would just cause a scene.

"Seriously though, there are fantastic people working on making the premiere a great night; I've been told a few of the plans and I know it will be choice. Anyway, there's no point in me taking up a seat in the audience ... I've already seen it."

* Boy is getting a 50-screen New Zealand release from next Thursday.