‘Rock’ star brings TV show to NZ

JOSEPH Gordon-Levitt is reportedly in Wellington, after leaving Los Angeles in the US with his family to escape the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an interview with The Talk on CBS, Gordon-Levitt – pictured – praised Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s response to the pandemic and said this was one of the few countries in the world where he felt safe.

He appeared on The Talk last week to discuss his new Netflix film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and let slip that he was working in New Zealand. The Spinoff reported that the

Third Rock

From The Sun star had been spotted in

Island Bay,

Wellington.

He told The

Talk he was in New Zealand to work on a new project, which he’d been unable to get going in Los Angeles.

‘‘We couldn’t find a way that felt really safe to us, so we came here to New Zealand,’’ he said.

‘‘They’ve handled the pandemic in an incredible way and life is like normal.’’

Gordon-Levitt is set to star in and produce a new comedydrama for Apple TV, Mr Corman. Work got under way on the project late last year, according to Variety. GordonLevitt is the director and plays Josh Corman, a San Fernando Valley teacher.

New Zealand’s relative success at subduing Covid-19 has attracted global film and television productions, which have moved here or been able to continue production while Hollywood and other locations have had to stop.

The biggest of the productions, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings teleseries, is continuing to film in Auckland. In Wellington, James Cameron is continuing work on the

Avatar sequels.