River Queen premiere could cost $1 million

Staging the world premiere of the film River Queen in Wanganui will cost $500,000 to $1 million.

It is a cost the Wanganui District Council does not expect to pay in full if Wanganui is chosen as the venue.

River Queen was filmed in the Wanganui hinterland and is set during the New Zealand Wars.

The council is vying to host the premiere, likely to be in November or December this year.

Mayor Michael Laws said yesterday the likely cost of staging the event in Wanganui was between $500,000 and $1 million, based on the premiere of The Lord of the Rings in Wellington and The Last Samurai in New Plymouth.

The council had set up a working party, led by deputy-Mayor Dot McKinnon, to push Wanganui's case to the film's producers and distributors.

Mr Laws said the premiere would probably be the biggest thing to happen in Wanganui in terms of promotional events in a decade.

It was by no means a done and dusted deal and negotiations were still to happen.

Hosting the premiere would be a wonderful opportunity to promote Wanganui to the rest of New Zealand and the world and for Wanganui businesses and the commercial community to own the event.

The council did not expect to have to meet the full cost of hosting the premier, with funding shared from partnerships from central Government and the private sector.

Mr Laws said the council was looking to the private sector to provide the vast bulk of the money needed and had already received indications of funding and sponsorship.

The venue would either be the Royal Wanganui Opera House or Embassy 3 Cinemas. Both would require quite significant refurbishment to be brought up the to standard needed for what was in essence an international event.

- NZPA