Hollywood horse hopes lie with Ruakaka trainer

Hollywood movie maker Brian Cook has lost a "lot of money" betting on horses down the years.
Now he's taking a punt on a Northland horse trainer. The producer of Eyes Wide Shut (starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) and assistant director of The Shining (starring Jack Nicholson), Englishman Cook has been in New Zealand overseeing the final 10 weeks filming of the controversial movie River Queen after Kiwi director Vincent Ward was sacked.
With filming finished on Tuesday, Cook sauntered into Northland to check a young horse he bought about a year ago that is being trained by Ruakaka's Donna Logan. Asked how much he had paid for two-year-old Malkovich - named after Hollywood actor John Malkovich - the relaxed movie man said he didn't know.
Logan said it was $150,000.
Cook admitted losing plenty from horse betting over the years.
When inspecting Malkovich for the first time at Logan's stables yesterday he said it was a "nice-looking horse ... but let's see if he can run. I wouldn't have a clue".
He was also coy about overseeing the final weeks of filming River Queen in Wanganui. "I just came down to represent (the company) who are putting up the money to finish the movie. We had to make one or two changes and finished on Tuesday. It's okay, we will see how it does. I am always wrong about anything which I think is good, like horses really."
He hoped bad luck that had beset River Queen earlier would not transfer to bad luck for his horse. "There was no bad luck with River Queen while I was here. It's up to Donna with the horse. We will see what she can do with it."
Cook met Logan at the Ellerslie races a couple of years ago and they agreed she would train a horse for him. Logan helped buy Malkovich at last year's Karaka sales and Cook named it, despite having never seen it until yesterday.
John Malkovich is the star of a film Cook has just finished directing called Colour Me Kubrick. It's a black comedy based on a true story about a homosexual man who went around England masquerading as film director Stanley Kubrick. Cook made several films with Kubrick.
Logan, who planned to take Cook to the Otamatea High School prize-giving yesterday to have a chat to the children, was given a sneak preview of Colour Me Kubrick in Whangarei on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, River Queen is expected to be on the big screen in about 12 months.