Behind the scenes: The Luminaries wraps filming on the West Coast

Saturday, 30 March 2019

Filming of The Luminaries on the West Coast with Richard Te Are playing Te Rau Tauwhare and Himesh Patel playing Emery Staines overseen by director Claire McCarthy

The TV adaptation of Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries finished filming on the West Coast with a last minute location change thanks to flooding.

The two-day filming saw the tail end of wild weather on the West Coast which saw a state of emergency declared. The cast intended to film on the Arahura River but were forced to move to Crooked River, near Lake Brunner, due to flooding.

Stuff was invited on set for a behind-the-scenes tour of the much anticipated series, featuring six one-hour long episodes which will go to air in 2020; adapted for the screen by Catton and directed by Claire McCarthy.

The BBC-backed series based on Catton's 2013 Man Booker Prize-winning novel features Bono's daughter Eve Hewson (Robin Hood), Casino Royale's Eva Green, EastEnders' Himesh Patel and Top of the Lake's Ewen Leslie are among the international cast members.

Richard Te Are, playing Te Rau Tauwhare in the TV adaptation of The Luminaries on Crooked River, near Lake Brunner.

* New Zealand-shot The Luminaries adds to cast

* Adaptation of The Luminaries to shoot on West Coast

Eve Hewson as Anna Wetherell and Himesh Patel as Emery Staines, behind the scenes of The Luminaries at the production studio base in Penrose.

* Eleanor Catton's Luminaries mini-series stars Marton Csokas

* Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries set for the small screen

* Why we should all cheer for Eleanor Catton**

They are joined by an ensemble of antipodean acting talent including Marton Csokas as Francis Carver (Lord of the Rings), Erik Thomson (Packed to the Rafters), Benedict Hardie (Hacksaw Ridge, The Light Between Oceans), Yoson An (Mortal Engines, Dead Lucky) and Richard Te Are.

The Luminaries director Claire McCarthy.

Te Are, who played Teina Pora in TVNZ's In Dark Places, said it was 'incredible' to film in the birthplace of the novel.

Eleanor Catton has written the screenplay for the TV adaptation of her award-winning novel The Luminaries.

'The location itself - it's breathtaking. You have the river, the different sounds, the birds. Oh man, it's amazing.'

He was having 'heaps of fun' playing the 'spiritual and expansive' character of Arahura Valley greenstone hunter Te Rau Tauwhare. The Tauwhare surname is a real Poutini Ngai Tahu name of the era.

Te Are said the series was part-fantasy and part-Western from a Maori perspective.

Representatives from Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae visited the set and gifted greenstone for Te Are to wear and for a scene where Te Are and Patel are prospecting for gold and greenstone.

Patel loved spending time in New Zealand playing the character of Emery Staines: 'It is a real thrill to bring it to life in its home.'

Producer Lisa Chatfield, who has previously worked on Kiwi classics Scarfies and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, was thankful the West Coast's weather bomb had passed by the time filming began, and credited TVNZ for its support.

'It wouldn't have been possible with out a screen production grant from the New Zealand Government. We aren't talking about the budget but its period which makes it expensive,' she said.

'It's not a story about migration and settlement. It's a tale of international adventure to chase gold. Anybody can find it, anybody can get rich,' she said.

She said they had wanted to spend more time of the five-month long shoot on the West Coast but due to the scale of production Auckland was a better choice.

It required a 350-strong team, including construction and art departments to create sets depicting Dunedin and Hokitika in 1885 have been built in Auckland.