Show me the money and back movie: Tem

POSSIBLE PROJECT: Temuera Morrison is excited to be working on a new film with Lee Tamahori but funding is still needed. PHOTO/FILE

Temuera Morrison and director Lee Tamahori have reunited for a new movie but need funding.

The duo first worked together on Once Were Warriors and want to start filming The Patriach, which is based on the novel Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera.

A plea on equity crowd funding website Snowball Effect has been made asking for $500,000 - the last 5 per cent of the total budget to film.

It will reunite many of the Warriors team, including producer Robin Scholes and Morrison. The book is about a generational conflict in an East Coast Maori family in the 1950s.

"Lee came to see me, we're very good friends and we've been working on the script for three years now," Morrison told the Rotorua Daily Post.

"Crooked Earth took us seven years until we finally got the money. That's the most difficult part of making a movie, getting the finance.

"After 20 years since we first worked together, Lee and I are making another movie. He wants to make his mark here again and wants to put his stamp again on the East Coast, where he's from."

The region has been the background to many popular Maori-based movies such as Whale Rider, Ngati and Boy.

"He's a top director, we've got a great producer with Robyn Scholes again and a great screenplay, adapted from Witi Ihimaera's work by John Collee. Marry those kinds of talent and you have a great dynamic going on there.

"There's definitely a recipe for success for people who are interested in investing and becoming part of the movie industry," he said.

Morrison is also set to appear on the small screen each week with the TVNZ show Happy Hour, which starts tonight. Alongside actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, he will host a mix of music and comedy, filmed in front of an audience.

"Doing the show, I couldn't help but feel and think about my Uncle Howard (Sir Howard Morrison), Prince Tui Teka and all those great Maori show bands," he said.

"All those great Maori show bands, I was brought up on, all those great Maori entertainers.

"I think there will be a renaissance of that old-time music, it will make a comeback.

"It's a colourful, very funny show."

Morrison said he grew up performing as a singer and felt very much at home as the host.

"I come from that background. Before I became an actor, I was a singer. I'm a Morrison from Rotorua, we were all singers. I toured North America with my aunties and uncles and grew up with the Howard Morrison Quartet and joined in singing with the [Modern Maori] quartet."

Happy Hour screens at 9.30 tonight on TV One.