Spy: Guy Pearce is preaching in Aotearoa

Guy Pearce is in Auckland to film The Convert. Photo / Getty Images

Aussie Hollywood star Guy Pearce is in Auckland to film The Convert, the latest project of Once Were Warriors director Lee Tamahori.

And he's also mixing it up with a Celebrity Treasure Island cast member.

The former Neighbours star and multi-award-winning actor has starred in a string of hit movies including Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Memento and L.A. Confidential.

In The Convert Pearce plays Thomas Munro, a lay preacher who arrives at a British settlement in 1830s New Zealand. His violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test as he finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody war between Māori tribes.

Kiwi actors Dean O'Gorman (Pork Pie) and Te Kohe Tuhaka (The Dead Lands), are in the cast alongside Pearce. Tuhaka, a producer on The Convert, is currently on TVNZ 2 competing on Celebrity Treasure Island and appeared on TVNZ 1's My Life is Murder this week. Tuhaka is also in the cast of the Frozen reo Māori due out this month.

Spy understands the production is filming on Auckland's west coast beaches, and around the Auckland region and Northland over the next few months.

Pearce, who most recently appeared on Kiwi screens in the final episode of Neighbours and HBO series Mare of Easttown, can be seen starring in the recently released action movie Memory on Prime Video - alongside Liam Neeson.

An industry insider tells Spy that 54-year-old Pearce is about as un-Hollywood as it gets. He has requested no driver, has no long list of star demands for his trailer and if you run into him while he shops for himself at a West Auckland supermarket or dairy, he will definitely say "gidday".

The Convert sees a welcome return for Tamahori to his roots in Aotearoa. He directed Kiwi film Mahana in 2016 and has had a long list of successful Hollywood movies including Bond film Die Another Day, Mulholland Falls and he most recently finished directing the action-period epic Emperor, starring Oscar-winner Adrien Brody.