Zombies wrapped up in Northland - for now

LAST GASP: R: Rage of the Zombies director Fred Potts and the movie's star, Sophie Gonzalez, 11, from Florida, who wrapped up their filming in Northland this week. PHOTO/MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

Filming for part of a three-part zombie movie has wrapped up in Whangarei, with the director delighted with how the shooting went and hoping to come back to film more.

Scenes for R: Rage of the Zombies have been filmed around Whakapara, Whananaki North and in Kawakawa in the past two weeks by American director Fred Potts.

Shooting wrapped up on Thursday and Potts said yesterday that he would now spend some time going through the footage and getting it in shape to put before his backers.

The director - who's previous credits include Clear Eyes: Scourge of the Zombies - said the filming had gone very well, with the footage for the first of three movies in the R: Rage of the Zombies trilogy.

"There will be three, two-hour movies. The first is set 20 years after the zombie apocalypse, looking at how the world is now. The second is a prelude, showing how we got to this stage, while the third will be about what happens from now," said Potts, who also wrote the screenplay.

The world has been ravaged by a zombie outbreak and resources are running low for the living and the undead alike. The zombies have become even more crazed by their hunger for human flesh.

An 11-year-old named Newt, played by Sophie Gonzalez, has been fending for herself her entire life. She needs to get to the Tecon River if she is going to have any chance of surviving. While roving zombies pose a threat, there is something else lurking, that even the zombies fear.

Potts said if the backers of the trilogy give the go-ahead to complete it, he hopes to be back in Northland with the movies' stars for more filming. He described the Northland locations as magic and looked forward to returning.

He was also pleasantly surprised by how much the public here embraced the movie and just how many people came forward to volunteer as zombie extras.

Part of the filming was done on Kawakawa's main street in the early hours of the morning. State Highway One was closed to allow the shooting to go ahead.