Kiwi model and aspiring actor Rachel Hunter is to star alongside Hollywood star Joan Collins in a movie to be filmed at several locations around Auckland from next week.
The film, Sydney, is about a boy, a koala and "a gang of bumbling thieves."
British actor Collins will play ruthless businesswoman Maxine Happy. Hunter will play the boy's mother, Beth.
Filming begins in Auckland next Monday and will continue for about seven weeks. Collins is expected in Auckland on February 28 and is scheduled to stay for two weeks.
New Zealand company Daybreak Pictures is making the film, which is partly set in an Aboriginal village. The koala, Sydney, becomes the target of a plot to steal it and clone it to make pets.
The company expected to sell the film in the United States and Europe.
Daybreak spokeswoman Sandra Roberts said Hunter played a "very warm mum" to on-screen son Spencer Breslin, who starred opposite Bruce Willis last year in the Disney movie The Kid.
"Joan's always played the ruthless, hard-nosed businesswoman. Rachel's fairly mumsy," said Ms Roberts.
She did not know how much Hunter would be paid.
The film will employ a New Zealand crew and is to be directed by American Bill Tannen, best known for his work on the television series Tarzan.
Sydney will be Hunter's ninth film. Her others include Just a Little Harmless Sex, Best Actress, Two Shades of Blue and Pendulum 2001.
Her diverse television roles include a walk-on part in the sitcom Suddenly Susan and a spot on the British television show Stars In Their Eyes, in which she imitated a famous voluptuous pose of Marilyn Monroe.
Collins is a veteran of 55 films, 30 television series - most notably the devious Alexis Carrington Colby in the soap Dynasty - and 60 years in showbiz.
Daybreak Point Entertainment has been in the industry for 20 years. One of its most recent efforts was Wild Blue, released last year.
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