Filming has started in Queenstown of a 90-minute, million-dollar telefeature called Fearless.
The brainchild of Hollywood-based New Zealand director Roger Donaldson, whose previous credits include Dante's Peak, Cocktail and Cadillac Man, the telefeature is a pilot for a possible series.
The 100-strong film unit is expected to spend a month filming the pilot in and around the Wakatipu Basin.
Donaldson said the telefeature was the first television work he had done.
"I've had a link to Queenstown for many years - holidays, growing grapes and I have land near Millbrook that I keep claiming I'll build a house on.
The truth is I just love Queenstown, he said.
Fearless was being filmed for cable television but it would screen on New Zealand television later this year.
Donaldson has spent more than two years bringing the project together.
"I had a bright idea, then it took all that time to get it together, pitch the idea and get people interested in financing it, he said.
