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Some Love from NZ

Kiwi comics net big US TV series
13 September 2006
By TOM CARDY

The achievement is being likened to Kiwi film-makers landing their first Hollywood blockbuster.

In what is a first for any New Zealand act, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement of folk music parody duo Flight of the Conchords have been commissioned by American cable channel HBO to make a 12-part, half-hour comedy show starring themselves.

Plans for the series were announced in the Hollywood Reporter yesterday.

The duo’s coup follows a successful appearance on HBO’s One Night Stand show. A pilot episode for the series – tentatively titled Flight of the Conchords – has already been shot, with help from Ali G director James Bobin and Stu Smiley, the executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond.

Clement and McKenzie are understood to be overseas and could not be reached for comment.

Scott Blanks, director of The Classic comedy venue in Auckland, said the duo’s achievement was as significant as Kiwi film-makers being backed by Hollywood.

“HBO are a heavyweight in the industry. The system is that they commission scripts for a lot of pilots and then of those thousands of scripts a fair number get made into pilots. Of the pilots, only a small number get made into series.”

In 2004, Flight of the Conchords developed a pilot show for rival network NBC after executives saw their shows. The HBO deal caps five years since Clement, who stars in upcoming Kiwi movie Eagle vs Shark, and McKenzie, who has a cult following over a tiny role in The Lord of the Rings, began playing small Wellington venues.

In 2003, they were nominated for the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and garnered rave reviews when they returned in 2004. Last year they made a BBC radio series with guests including Neil Finn.

From: Stuff.co.nz/The Dominion Post