KEY POINTS:
A special effects expert beloved in the blockbuster movie industry was farewelled by hundreds yesterday, weeks after his death during a Batman stunt car rehearsal.
Conway Wickliffe, 41, was honoured at a tangi in Te Kuiti, following the September 25 accident in England.
He was killed when a four-wheel-drive vehicle he was travelling in crashed into a tree. It was believed to be following a stunt car, possibly the Batmobile, at a Surrey special effects facility while preparing the vehicle for the latest Batman film, Batman: The Dark Knight.
It was the second service held for Wickliffe: a wake in London two weeks ago attracted more than 300 mourners, including Christian Bale, who played Batman in Batman Begins.
Daniel Craig, the new James Bond in Casino Royale - which Wickliffe also worked on - sent apologies he could not attend. Friends laughed that Wickliffe had once put Craig in a headlock while demonstrating a wrestling move at a film premiere.
Wickliffe had worked on several multi-million-dollar films - he made robots for the Tomb Raider films starring Angelina Jolie, worked on the James Bond film Die Another Day, plus Children of Men, Black Hawk Down, and V for Vendetta.
More than 200 people were at his tangi yesterday at Te Tokanganui-a-noho Marae. His whanau and friends, including more than 25 visitors from England, had stayed up all night previously sharing stories about Wickliffe.
The devoted family man grew up in Paeroa, attended Hato Petera College in Northcote, Auckland, then studied graphic design. He loved surfing and had touched many people with his warmth and humour, guests said. During the service, his distraught wife Derryn Chase, whom he met while both were teenagers, held their daughter Eden, 4, and son Sabian, 12, next to their father's coffin.
High-school friend Shane Law said Wickliffe would constantly come up with inventions, - including a breathable watch for underwater diving.
He was passionate about making machines and cars for the blockbuster films he worked on. "He was our superhero," Law said. "He was our own movie star."
Close friend Nick Bonathan worked with Wickliffe for the past eight years, and was wearing a Batman Begins shirt to commemorate one of the films the pair worked on together. "It's going to be a struggle to get the job done, but we have to do it for him now - finish The Dark Knight. Hopefully it will be dedicated to him," said Bonathan.
"This is an extreme loss to New Zealand film, and Maori film-making too," said Chase's cousin, Mihirawhiti Searancke. "He was a Maori boy from Paeroa, who conquered the world doing what he did so well."
Searancke said the family did not want to speculate on the accident, but reiterated it was not Wickliffe's fault. She said the driver of the vehicle would be "going through hell".
A neighbour of Wickliffe and Chase in London, Lee Wilkins, was "dreading going home" after losing one of his best friends. He told how Wickliffe placed a small hangar he had built for Casino Royale in the backyard to watch rugby games in.
All Black legend Colin Meads also attended the tangi, as a close friend of Wickliffe's father-in-law, Mana Chase.
