'Noir' movie to be shot in city | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Forget Narnia and hobbits, Canterbury itself looks set to star in an American feature film this year.

Director Jay Mathews is in Canterbury location-scouting and casting actors for a detective noir thriller with the working title of Toby Brennan.

Mathews said Toby Brennan is a gritty story about a Canterbury woman who hires a private detective to travel from America to solve the case of her missing husband.

"We're shooting here as it's a beautiful landscape but the people are little kinda quirky.

"It's not a happy faces Disney story - that's why we're shooting it in winter when the weather's a little volatile, the lightings a little darker and there's a lot of clouds," said Mathews. 

Mathews, who also wrote the movie script, said the turnout for casting of leads and extras here over the past month had been phenomenal and some quality talent had applied for roles.

Shooting for the low-budget feature is set to start in the second week of June and Mathews hopes to finish in the first week of August in time to submit a copy to the Sundance Film Festival.

Theatrical release will not be until March or April next year at the earliest but Mathews aims to have premieres here and in Australia.

He believes the film will be internationally appealing due to its unique story, but maintained it will have a huge local appeal.

"Obviously, New Zealand's going to have a lot of interest in it because the film takes place here - we're not shooting here for it to be some mythical Narnia. This isn't Idaho or Sweden or Czechoslovakia, we're shooting Rangiora for Rangiora, Kaiapoi for Kaiapoi and Hagley Park for Hagley Park."

Twenty percent of the film has already been shot, including scenes in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the opening five minutes, which was filmed here several years ago.

The rest of the film will be shot in North Canterbury and Christchurch.