Government grants border exemption for nearly 90 Netflix film crew members

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

71 people, relating to Netflix's upcoming show Cowboy Bebop that stars actor John Cho, have been determined to be critical workers, and allowed into New Zealand along with their 17 dependents.

The government has given 88 members of an international film crew exemption to travel to New Zealand to shoot the Netflix show Cowboy Bebop.

Immigration NZ confirmed three members of a British film crew, working on a BBC documentary starring David Attenborough, also had a border exemption request approved.

Former economic development minister Phil Twyford says granting film crews border exemptions will create jobs for New Zealanders.

Meanwhile, many New Zealanders have struggled to return home to visit dying relatives, prompting a rule change.

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is a live-action reboot of a Japanese anime television show that has a cult following.

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The ten-part series is being produced by Tomorrow Studios, a joint venture of British television company ITV Studios, American writer Chris Yost, Japanese studio Sunrise and Midnight Radio.

A spokesperson for Immigration NZ said 71 people relating to the show have been determined to be critical workers, along with their 17 dependents.

'It was determined that these workers met the ‘other critical worker’ requirements and therefore, they were granted a border exception,” they said.

“The first workers of this group arrived in New Zealand in July, with others continuing to arrive as needed.'

19 of the workers and their 9 dependents were approved under the 'other essential worker category’ by Minister for Economic Development Stuart Nash, according to Immigration NZ.

“Since June 18, when the criteria and process for the 'other critical worker' border exception category changed, 52 people have been determined to be critical workers, along with their 8 dependents.”

The 'other critical worker' criteria is based on whether the skill or experience the person has is readily obtainable in New Zealand, or whether the worker is undertaking a time-critical role in specific areas.

This applies to work which brings significant wider benefit to the national or regional economy.

Davina Stonex is struggling to get back into New Zealand to see her terminally ill mum.

Three crew members from the BBC’s natural history and factual productions unit were also approved to shoot a David Attenborough documentary in the sub-Antarctic islands.

The crew would travel to New Zealand when places became available in our currently booked-out managed isolation facilities, the BBC said.

Attenborough will not be among them.

It was unclear what project the filming was for, but it may well be Frozen Planet II, due to premiere next year, a decade after the original series.

Another contender is the third instalment of Planet Earth, which should air in 2022.

Screen Industry Guild Aotearoa NZ vice president Sioux MacDonald said denying large production crews entry to the country would jeopardise jobs.

“To me 71 people coming in, when you put it in perspective, is not a lot. Those 71 people are probably creating eight or nine hundred jobs, and the same could be said for any large production that comes to New Zealand,” she said.

'If we were not to let in some of those really essential crews, those jobs are jeopardised, and they wouldn’t come here, and they’d go to Canada, the UK or the United States instead, and we don't want to risk that.'

Despite the tight restrictions on New Zealand’s borders as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, these are far from the only foreign productions to be given a special exemption to shoot here.

At least seven others have been allowed to bring cast and crew into the country: James Cameron’s Avatar sequels, Jane Campion’s Power of the Dog, the Lord of the Rings television series, film Greatest Beer Run Ever, the Power Rangers Beast Morphers series, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop, and post-apocalyptic TV film Sweet Tooth.

Inception and The Trial of the Chicago 7 actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has also recently decamped to New Zealand, where he is understood to be working on a new Apple TV production.

Several of those projects shifted to New Zealand when Covid-19 shut down production in other parts of the world.

Former economic development minister Phil Twyford claimed they would employ thousands of Kiwis and bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy, but the exemptions have been met with anger from some quarters.

Davina Stonex is struggling to get back into New Zealand to see her terminally ill mum, and welcomed a Government change that will make it easier for people in her position last week.

The criteria for people making emergency applications for a spot in managed isolation has been widened into a new tier system, the Government announced on Friday, allowing a better chance for those with dying relatives to get in.