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Michael Hurst
Michael Eric Hurst ONZM (born 20 September 1957) is a British-born New Zealand actor, director and writer. He is known internationally for acting in the television programs ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and companion series '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' as Iolaus. Most recently, he is known for his role in directing the Starz series '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand'' and ''Ash vs Evil Dead''. Biography Hurst was born in Lancashire, England, the eldest of three brothers. When he was seven his family moved to Christchurch, New Zealand. He enrolled at Papanui High School, then University of Canterbury, but for only one year. He is married to New Zealand actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand and they have two sons. In 1984, Hurst won the lead role of David Blyth's '' Death Warmed Up'', New Zealand's first splatter movie. The plot saw Hurst's character weathering institutionalisation, sundry wackos, and a motorcycle chase in the tunnels below Waiheke Island. The film won the grand prize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Order Of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits", to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity. In the order of precedence, the New Zealand Order of Merit ranks immediately after the Order of New Zealand. Creation Prior to 1996, New Zealanders received appointments to various British orders, such as the Order of the Bath, the Order of St Michael and St George, the Order of the British Empire, and the Order of the Companions of Honour, as well as the distinction of Knight Bachelor. The change came about after the Prime Minister's Honours Advis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desperate Remedies (film)
''Desperate Remedies'' is a 1993 New Zealand drama film directed by Stewart Main and Peter Wells. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Set in "Hope, New Britannia", an overwrought nineteenth century New Zealand community seemingly on the edge of destruction, Dorothea Brooke (Ward-Lealand) is a shopkeeper and dress designer with a troubled past. She strives in vain to keep her feckless, opium-addicted sister Rose out of the clutches of her former lover, Fraser (Curtis). Dorothea is in a lesbian relationship with Anne Cooper (Chappell) but tempted by newcomer and former radical Lawrence Hayes (Smith). MP and war profiteer William Poyser (Hurst) wants her business and property to shore up his tottering career, through marriage. Dorothea, Anne and Lawrence become enmeshed in a tortured triangle, resolved when Lawrence agrees to marry Rose for convenience and to get her away from Fraser. Rose dies ravaged from her opium addiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arts Foundation Of New Zealand
'The Arts Foundation of New Zealand Te Tumu Toi is a New Zealand arts organisation that supports artistic excellence and facilitates private philanthropy through raising funds for the arts and allocating it to New Zealand artists. The concept of setting up an organisation to raise private funding for the arts was initiated by Creative New Zealand in 1997. Its chair Brian Stevenson approached Richard Cathie to chair a working party on the subject and Sir Ronald Scott was appointed consultant, with help from Gisella Carr. Early working party members and trustees included Lady Mary Hardie Boys, Lady Gillian Deane, Dame Jenny Gibbs, Sir Paul Reeves, Sir John Todd, Sir Miles Warren and Sir Eion Edgar. The foundation was incorporated as a charitable Trust in 1998 with Richard Cathie remaining as chair. Seed funding of $5m was secured from The Lottery Grants Board payable over 5 years and the foundation was launched in 2000. The foundation produces award programmes that provide recog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viagra
Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is unclear if it is effective for treating sexual dysfunction in women. It is taken by mouth or by injection into a vein. Onset is typically within twenty minutes and lasts for about two hours. Common side effects include headaches, heartburn, and flushed skin. Caution is advised in those with cardiovascular disease. Rare but serious side effects include a prolonged erection (priapism) that can lead to damage to the penis, vision problems, and hearing loss. Sildenafil should not be taken by people on nitrates such as nitroglycerin (glycerin trinitrate), as this may result in a serious drop in blood pressure. Sildenafil should not be taken within four hours of taking an alpha blocker. Sildenafil acts by blocking phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5), an enzyme that promotes breakdown of cGMP, which regulates blood flow in the pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mockumentary
A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. While mockumentaries are usually comedic, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. However, pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Also, docudrama is different from docufiction, a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements. Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documentaries, with B roll and talking heads discussing past events, or as '' cinéma vérité'' pieces following people as they go through various events. Examples emerged during the 1950s when archival film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Smith (New Zealand Actor)
Kevin Tod Smith (16 March 1963 – 15 February 2002) was a New Zealand actor and musician, best known for starring as the Greek god of war, Ares, in the TV series ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and in its two spin-offs – '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' and '' Young Hercules''. He died in a fall at a film studio in China. Early life Kevin Smith was born in Auckland in 1963. His mother was of Tongan and German ancestry and his father (of English descent) hailed from New Zealand. Smith's family moved to the South Island town of Timaru when he was eleven. He attended Timaru Boys' High School from 1976 to 1979. He was involved in the drama club at his high school. Smith played in rock and roll bands during high school, working out each morning at the gym and watching television in the afternoon.''New Zealand Herald'' (17 February 2003). He painted and played rugby and hoped to become a member of New Zealand's world-famous rugby team, the All Blacks. At the age of 17, Smith m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Sinclair
Stephen Sinclair is a New Zealand playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the co-author of stage comedy '' Ladies Night''. In 2001, the French version won the Molière Award for stage comedy of the year. Other plays include ''The Bellbird'' and ''The Bach'', both of which are prescribed texts for Drama Studies in New Zealand secondary schools. He has co-written several films with Peter Jackson and Frances Walsh, notably ''Meet The Feebles'', '' Braindead'', and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers''. He also wrote and directed the feature film ''Russian Snark'', which premiered at the 2010 New Zealand Film Festival in Auckland, and won numerous international awards. Sinclair has written the novels '' Thief of Colours'' (Penguin Books, 1995), and '' Dread'' (Spineless Press, 2000), and a book of poetry, ''The Dwarf and the Stripper'' (2003). Plays * ''Le Matau (The Fish Hook)'' (1984), co-written with journalist Samson Samasoni. Premiered at New Depot Theatre, Wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Braindead (film)
''Braindead'' (also known as ''Dead Alive'' in North America) is a 1992 New Zealand zombie comedy film directed by Peter Jackson, produced by Jim Booth, and written by Jackson, along with Fran Walsh and Stephen Sinclair. It stars Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody and Ian Watkin. The plot follows Lionel, a young man living in South Wellington with his strict mother Vera. After Lionel becomes romantically entangled with a girl named Paquita, Vera is bitten by a hybrid rat-monkey creature and begins to transform into a zombie, while also infecting swathes of the city's populace. Made on a budget of $3 million, ''Braindead'' was Jackson's most expensive film up to that point. Although it received positive reviews from critics, it was a box office bomb. It has since received a cult following, and is now widely regarded as one of the goriest films of all time. Plot In 1957, zoo official Stewart McAlden and his team smuggle a captured Sumatran rat-monkey, a hybr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Curtis
Clifford Vivian Devon Curtis (born 27 July 1968) is a New Zealand actor. His film credits include ''Once Were Warriors'' (1994), ''Three Kings'' (1999), ''Training Day'' (2001), ''Whale Rider'' (2002), ''Collateral Damage'' (2002), ''Sunshine'', ''Live Free or Die Hard'' (both 2007), '' The Dark Horse'' (2014), for which he won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor, and ''Doctor Sleep'' (2019). Curtis had television series roles on NBC's ''Trauma'' and ABC's ''Body of Proof'' and ''Missing''. From 2015 to 2017, he portrayed Travis Manawa on the AMC horror drama series '' Fear the Walking Dead''. He is the co-owner of the independent New Zealand production company Whenua Films. Early life Curtis was born on 27 July 1968 in Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty. He is one of eight children, the son of an amateur dancer. Curtis is of Māori descent; his tribal affiliations are Te Arawa and Ngāti Hauiti. As a boy he studied mau rākau, a traditional Māori form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jubilee (2000 Film)
A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of years have passed. Religious usage The Jubilee ( he, יובל ''yovel'') year (every 50th year) and the Sabbatical year (every seventh year) are Biblical commandments concerning ownership of land and slaves. The laws concerning the Sabbatical year are still observed by many religious Jews in the State of Israel, while the Jubilee has not been observed for many centuries. According to the Hebrew Bible, every seventh year, farmers in the land of Israel are commanded to let their land lie fallow, and slaves were freed. The celebration of the Jubilee is the fiftieth year, that is, the year after seven Sabbatical cycles. In Roman Catholic tradition, a Jubilee is a year of remission of sins and also the punishment due to sin. Terms for anniv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Sorbo
Kevin David Sorbo (born September 24, 1958) is an American actor. He had starring roles in two television series: as Hercules in ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', and as Captain Dylan Hunt in '' Andromeda''. Sorbo is also known for acting in the Christian drama films '' God's Not Dead'' and ''Let There Be Light''. Early life and education Sorbo was born in Mound, Minnesota, on September 24, 1958. He is of Norwegian descent. He was raised in a Lutheran family. Sorbo attended Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he double majored in marketing and advertising. To help pay for tuition, he began to work as a model for print and television advertising. Career In the mid 1980s, Sorbo traveled around Europe and Australia working in television commercials and also modeled for print advertisements. By the early 1990s, he had appeared in over 150 commercials. One of the popular commercials he appeared in was for Jim Beam bourbon whiskey, known for Sorbo's repeated catchphrase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Mahy
Margaret Mahy (21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012) was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature". Mahy won the annual Carnegie Medal twice. It recognises the year's best children's book by a British subject, and she won for both '' The Haunting'' (1982) and '' The Changeover'' (1984). (As of 2012 just seven writers have won two Carnegies, none three.) She was also a highly commended runner up for ''Memory'' (1987). Among her children's books, '' A Lion in the Meadow'' and ''The Seven Chinese Brothers'' and ''The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate'' are considered national classics. Her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
