Hillary movie plan could cost $80m

A movie celebrating the life of Sir Edmund Hillary could be on screen within two years but it might cost $80 million.

New Zealand Film Commission member Bob Harvey has just returned from Los Angeles where he discussed with Kiwi film-maker Roger Donaldson the script written by cartoonist Tom Scott.

The film is provisionally titled Higher Ground and centres on Sir Edmund's 1953 conquest of Mt Everest.