Peter Jackson's Post-Production Company to Open L.A. Office

SYDNEY -- Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Productions is to set up an office in Los Angeles in a partnership with New Zealand locations marketing agency Film NZ.

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Under the new arrangement, Vicki Jackways, Park Road Post’s head of marketing will also work for Film New Zealand when she takes up a semi-permanent posting to LA in 2012.

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Park Road Post Productions, owned by Jackson’s WingNut Films, is a post production facility that’s located alongside a raft of other Jackson related film making companies and infrastructure in Miramar in the New Zealand capital of Wellington. They include Stone Street Studios where The Hobbit shoot s based, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop.

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Park Road Post general manager Cameron Harland said having a presence in LA was the best way to extract real value from the North American market.

“We are delighted to be partnering with such a progressive organization as Film New Zealand and grateful for the support of the industry as a whole. We look forward to delivering real benefit through a more focused market push into the States,” Harland said.

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The move comes as global competition, through tax and other prodcution incentives, intensifies for production of Hollywood films.

FilmNZ chief executive Gisella Carr said the US is a key market and several of New Zealand’s competitors, including Australia, have long had representation there.

“Thanks to the talents and entrepreneurship of our screen industry across the country, and the backing of successive New Zealand governments, New Zealand has built a remarkable reputation as a film-making culture. New Zealanders would be amazed, and proud, to see how highly New Zealand is rated. Los Angeles-based representation is an important next step in taking full advantage of this reputation,” she said.

The LA office and partnership expertise will also be available to other New Zealand companies and filmmakers to use.