For over 25 years, film director and screenwriter Lee Tamahori has wanted to work with acclaimed actor Guy Pearce.
Although Pearce was known in Australia for the series Neighbours, his international break came when he starred in L.A Confidential alongside Russell Crowe, Danny de Vito, and Kim Bassinger. The film received nine Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
This paved the way for a number of iconic roles in films such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento, John Hillcoat’s Lawless, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien Covenant and Oscar winners, The King’s Speech, and The Hurt Locker.
In 2011 Pearce won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Monty Beragon in the Todd Haynes adaptation of Mildred Pierce for HBO alongside Kate Winslet. More recently, Pearce reunited with Winslet in the hit MAX series, Mare of Easttown.
As one of the most versatile and more respected actors in the industry, Pearce has a profound presence about him; even across a zoom screen. It’s no wonder that Tamahori had his eyes set on Pearce for the lead role of Thomas Munro in The Convert.
Fascinated by the lawless period in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the time from first contact with European whalers and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Tamahori’s latest film follows Munro (Guy Pearce), a newly arrived preacher in a colonial town in early 19th-century New Zealand who finds himself at the center of a long-standing battle between two Māori tribes.
Of Ngāti Porou descent, Tamahori returned to New Zealand after 20 years working in Hollywood. His feature film credits over this period include: The Devil’s Double (2011), the real-life story of Latif Yahia who worked as a body double for Uday Hussein, which premiered at Sundance; Next (2007), starring Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore; and xXx: State of the Union (2005), starring Ice Cube and Samuel L. Jackson. In 2002, he directed the James Bond film Die Another Day, starring Pierce Brosnan. Other films Lee has directed are Along Came a Spider (2001), starring Morgan Freeman, The Edge (1997), starring Antony Hopkins, and Mulholland Falls (1996), with Nick Nolte and Melanie Griffith.
In The Convert, audiences learn about the Māori people in a beautiful and tragic world created by a team including Nick Williams (Production Designer), Gin Loane (Director of Photography), Luke Haigh (Editor), Liz McGregor (Costume Designer) and Gabrielle Jones (Hair & Makeup Designer under the direction of Tamahori.
Pearce sat down with LATF USA News and Pamela Price to discuss the film, its themes of conflict over culture and territory and other subjects including his thoughts on artificial intelligence.
An Official Selection at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, MAGNET releases The Convert in theaters and on demand July 12, 2024.
119 minutes / New Zealand
Based on a screen story by MICHAEL BENNETT
Inspired by the novel “Wulf” by HAMISH CLAYTON
