Spy: Taika talk - pirates, Dads on tour ... and is he about to tie the knot?

Speculation is mounting that Taika Waititi and Rita Ora are planning an English wedding. Photo / 123RF, Getty Images

Looks like it's a full-on year for our beloved super-star film director Taika Waititi with a jam-packed filming schedule and rumours flying that he's about to wed his partner, British singer/song writer Rita Ora.

Both Waititi and Ora have remained tight-lipped about their plans but speculation is mounting in the British press that the couple are planning an English wedding.

Now the stars are aligned with Waititi flying business class this week with his two daughters, Te Hinekaahu, 9, and Matewa, 6, to London where Ora owns a six-bedroom mansion. She bought the $15.3 million home in London's Primrose Hill last year and has since overseen an extensive renovation of the property, including installing a panic room, a hi-tech security system and a fireplace in the master bedroom.

Kiwis are likely to see more of the award-winning director this year with Waititi's series Time Bandits speculated to be filmed in Wellington next month. Now we hear Auckland will also get some of the director's love, with the second season of Our Flag Means Death set to film here in October.

Our Flag Means Death stars Waititi as Blackbeard and Rhys Darby as gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet. The first season was filmed in Los Angeles and last month Waititi told US entertainment site Collider that he would film the second season in New Zealand.

Taika Waititi with his children at the UK Gala screening of Thor: Love and Thunder on July 05, 2022 in London. Photo / Getty Images

"We start filming hopefully I think by October, and we're gonna shoot in New Zealand. We shot the last one in L.A. Weird place to try to do something all on the ocean, so we're going to go down to New Zealand, which is surrounded by it. That's one of the things I am most excited about for the next year," Waititi told Collider.

Spy's sources say the project will be filmed at Kumeu Film Studios, where Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings filmed its first season. The studios have a giant water tank, fit for purpose for pirate-ship battles as it was for the giant megalodon shark in Jason Statham's The Meg, filmed there in 2018.

Waititi told his social media followers both he and Thor star Chris Hemsworth would be doing their own "dads on tour" for the rest of the Thor: Love and Thunder press roll-out in Europe. The Waititi clan braved the heat for a tour of London's sights this week.

The devoted dad spends as much time as he can with his girls, who also live with their mother, film-maker Chelsea Winstanley in New Zealand. Te Hinekaahu and Matewa often appear on the red carpet with Waititi, including at the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, and appear in Thor as Asgardian children. They can often be seen on set, headphones on, watching a production.

Waititi delighted fans with another funny Dads-on-tour instalment earlier this week showing his youngest daughter getting increasingly grumpy because she couldn't work the inflight entertainment system. "I'm putting her in economy next time," he quipped.

This week Ora posed in Soho, telling her social media followers how much she loved London's steamy weather, with a "home sweet home baby". The 31-year-old showed off a tanned-and-toned midriff thanks to a boho-style crop top, and low-rise trousers topped with a sheer netted skirt. She added a Kiwi touch with a pair of black flip-flops.

Ora has spent much of the past year working in the US and Australia, where she is a judge and team coach on The Voice Australia. Now back in the UK, she announced this week that she would return to her lovely Tirana, Albania, to perform a free concert to celebrate the city being 2022's European Youth Capital.

If and when the wedding takes place, friends and fans will want to know if there will be a good old-fashioned Kiwi honeymoon in Aotearoa - an ideal time for Waititi to introduce Ora to kina and pineapple lumps.