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Production is underway in the lush and remote northern tip of New Zealand on “Far North,” a premium drama series for Sundance Now.

The fact-based series stars local acting legend, Temuera Morrison and award-winning actress, Robyn Malcolm (“Top of the Lake”) as an everyday couple who foil an international crime ring’s largest ever deal in the Pacific.

The series was researched and created and is being directed by David White. The screenplay was written by White, Suli Moa and Mingjian Cui.

Filming will take 14 weeks in total, with seven of those on location in Ahipara, where the real events took place. The completed show will be delivered as six one-hour episodes, with All3 Media International handling rights sales outside of the producer territories.

South Pacific Pictures and White Balance Pictures are producing for Sundance Now (U.S.), Paramount+ (Australia), Warner Bros. Discovery (New Zealand) and All3Media International. The show...

Released in 1992, the erotic girls-with-guns thriller “Naked Killer”, written and produced by Wong Jing, the crowd-pleasing, prolific filmmaker and starring Chingmy Yau and Carrie Ng later reached a cult status. A decade later, he’s back with “Naked Weapon” but with a different director and filmed in English in order to attract the international audience.

The movie kicks off in Rome; a beautiful lady arrives at a hotel, goes to a room and kills a man with her bare hands after performing some sort of erotic dance moves first . More dead bodies start to pile up while she makes her escape and her car is finally blown up leaving her fatally injured. Her boss, Madame M (Almen Wong) promptly shows up and kills her in cold blood, while two CIA agents on surveillance also meet the same fate. But agent Jack Chen (Daniel Wu) manages to escape without a scratch.

(l-r) Amanda Seyfried stars as Anne Sherman, Shirley MacLaine as Harriet Lauler, and Ann Jewel Lee as Brenda, in The Last Word. Photo by Beth Dubber. Courtesy of Bleeker Street ©

In The Last Word, Shirley MacLaine stars as Harriet Lauler, a successful, wealthy but not beloved retired businesswoman, who decides to write her own obituary prior to her death. To craft the perfect obit, she hires a young writer at the local newspaper, played by Amanda Seyfried, mostly for her skill in making unpleasant people sound admirable.

Shirley MacLaine plays the kind of flinty character she has played so often and so well since Terms Of Endearment. The film looks like a showcase for the iconic star and indeed MacLaine is the best thing in this unremarkable if well-meaning film. The film credits open with a montage of photos, apparently from childhood to present of the star, which suggests a...