Photo: Geoffrey Short
Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood has returned to New Zealand for a new adventure comedy.
Bookworm follows 11-year-old Mildred, played by Nell Fisher, and her estranged father Strawn Wise, played by Wood, on their quest to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury panther.
Ant Timpson wrote the character of the hapless Strawn with Wood in mind, having previously worked together on the dark comedy Come to Daddy.
Prior to the shoot, Wood had no inkling about the Canterbury panther, he told RNZ's Nine to Noon.
New adventure comedy 'Bookworm' brings Hollywood to Canterbury
"We spent nearly two months shooting the film last year, we heard direct stories from people who had had sightings of this particular panther, which is kind of amazing.
"Reading the script, I just thought it was something that Toby and Ant made up, and I was proven wrong."
Wood and Timpson are close friends, and he enjoys Timpson's deadpan Kiwi humour, he said.
Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher in Bookworm. Photo: Geoffrey Short
"I'm dear friends with Ant Timpson. We made a movie together called Come to Daddy that Toby Harvard co-wrote, so the cadence, the language, the atmosphere of this film felt very familiar to me and enjoyable."
Timpson and his collaborator Harvard funnelled their insecurities as parents into the project, he said.
"This all stemmed from Toby and I being parents, and we sort of wanted to make a wilderness film, we've been talking about doing it for a long, long time.
"The genesis of Bookworm was really not stepping up in a time of crisis as a parent, and basically pooing the bed in front of your kids."
Nell Fisher and Elijah Wood starring in Bookworm. Photo: Supplies
The film rests on Mildred, played by Nell Fisher, he said, who "smashes" the role out of the park.
"Toby has written some just gorgeous dialogue, which is a lot for an 11-year-old to get their chops around. But she was just a complete natural in terms of inhabiting this character from word go."
Wood was equally impressed.
"She is an absolute delight, super professional, came so prepared. And so, we just had a blast. I mean, the reality is in most of this film, 85 to 90 percent of it is outside with very few interior scenes.
"And so, it was really Nell and I, for the duration of this experience in the wilderness of New Zealand, tromping around together, and it was a total delight."