Bootleg blow to disaster-prone River Queen

Samantha Morton in River Queen.

River Queen - the problem-plagued New Zealand epic - has suffered another major blow with the discovery of bootlegged copies of the film.


The New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft confirmed last week that four men had been arrested and charged with the illegal distribution of the pirated copies. The maximum penalty on these charges is five years in jail or a $150,000 fine.


This is the latest setback for the $20 million movie which has lurched from one high-profile disaster to another.


The film's visionary creator Vincent Ward was dumped from his own project and leading lady Samantha Morton was hospitalised. Then extreme weather washed out the set and stopped shooting several times, crew were injured and actor Cliff Curtis crashed his 4WD into a house on the way to filming.


Now just under two months before the DVD release of the film, authorities have confirmed the film has suffered the same fate as Sione's Wedding, which was also pirated.


DVDs were apparently sold for as much as $20 before the film's release this year - and are still in circulation.


Sources told the Herald on Sunday that someone was believed to have naively given a copy of the movie to an acquaintance, who copied it for commercial gain.


Following tip-offs from the public, authorities traced two men from Gisborne and two from Turangi. They were apprehended and charged and will appear later this month in the Auckland District Court.


Federation director of operations Tony Eaton said investigations were still ongoing into how the film was pirated before it even made it to the cinema. He did not want to speculate about whether it may have been an "inside job".


"This can have a devastating impact on the industry. It (piracy) can stop the next Peter Jackson," he said.


The federation's executive director Kevin Holland was playing down the scale of the piracy saying while serious, he did not believe it was on the scale of Sione's Wedding, which could end up costing the film industry up to $500,000 - and possibly more when it was released on DVD.


River Queen is due for rental release on June 28 and will be available on sale in mid-August.