Crown’s Kirby keen for Kiwi M:I6 premiere
Those hoping for a New Zealand premiere for the partly Kiwi-shot Mission: Impossible 6 have received a boost from one of its stars.
English actress Vanessa Kirby said it would be amazing if the cast could reassemble here to celebrate the release of the film. It is scheduled to debut in New Zealand cinemas on August 2.
Speaking while across the ditch promoting the return of Netflix’s The Crown, the 30-year-old, who plays Princess Margaret in the bigbudget period drama, said she loved her time shooting in and around Queenstown in June. ‘‘But really, I didn’t get to spend enough time there. We were filming from very early in the morning and it was intense. But it was beautiful, oh my God. And some of my best friends are Kiwis as well. I love you guys.’’
New Zealand was one of a number of locations used by the globetrotting production, with the cast and crew spending the secondhalf in June shooting in the Nevis and Rees valleys in Central Otago.
Sets included a prison-type structure that had been built to replicate Iraq.
Little is known about Kirby’s character in the latest instalment of the action franchise, although photos have emerged of her kissing Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, sparking rumours that the actors are an item.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the movie also stars Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan, Angela Bassett and Henry Cavill.
by Jan Bolwell, however, takes a fascinating look at a pair of female mountaineers whose achievements have gone almost unnoticed.
The fact that both are female, and controversy surrounded their sporting prowess, may also be a factor in their lack of recognition.
The success in their mountain climbing is separated by almost 90 years, yet the structure of Bolwell’s play is such that the interweaving and juxtaposition of their lives and the obstacles they had to overcome to achieve success are not too dissimilar.
The first is Australian Freda du Faur, who in 1910 was the first woman to climb Aoraki/Mt Cook. The second is New Zealander Lydia Bradey, who in 1988 was the first woman to get to the summit of Mt Everest without supplemental oxygen. Through the play we meet young Freda (Isobel MacKinnon) and older Freda (Jan Bolwell) looking back on her life, along with Lydia (Emily Regtien), and