New film will show when sheep go bad

Koreans are paying millions to see New Zealanders attacked by sheep.

After years of Asian tourists flocking to our shores to take photos and pat our most abundant livestock, a Korean company is providing funding to have genetically engineered sheep take on their Kiwi captors.

Relax, it's only a movie. It's called Black Sheep and the New Zealand Film Commission announced yesterday that South Korea's Daesung Group will be a co-financier of the comedy-horror due to start shooting early next year.

The film shows what happens when GE goes - stop us if you've heard this before - horribly wrong.

As the commission's promo says: "The sheep start turning nasty and it's people that begin bleating."

It's the first film by director-writer Jonathan King, the film-making son of late-great historian Michael.

Also involved in the film are Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop and post-production facility Park Road Post, which now has a partnership with Daesung.

Jackson himself started out with comic horror Bad Taste, which featured sheep being blown up by a stray bazooka.

Black Sheep has already been sold to distributors in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, with more territories being negotiated.