Written by new-contact on Oct 15, 2014. Posted in On Location

Michael Fassbender to film The Light Between Oceans in NZ city of Dunedin

Location filming for Michael Fassbender’s historical feature The Light Between Oceans is scheduled to take place this week in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. The location is part of a broader schedule of filming on the country’s South Island.

Co-starring Rachel Weisz, The Light Between Oceans tells the story of a couple living on a remote Australian island after World War I who discover an infant in a washed-up boat and decide to raise the child as their own.

“In the novel it was set in a port town,” said Jared Connon, the film’s Supervising Location Manager, in comments to the Otago Daily Times: “We were looking for somewhere in New Zealand that was on the water, but still had all the great architecture and period buildings.

“The problem with Christchurch was because of the earthquake[s] a lot of their old architecture has disappeared. The Otago Peninsula has got all these amazing views and all the coastal stuff we want, but is really close to town.”

Location filming for the movie is also being done further north in the Marlborough region, and in Tasmania. The Light Between Oceans marks Fassbender’s return to New Zealand after his 2013 shoot for the period drama Slow West (above), which doubled the Canterbury region for Colorado.

We were looking for somewhere in New Zealand that was on the water, but still had all the great architecture and period buildings.

Jared Connon, Supervising Location Manager

Dunedin is the principal city of the South Island’s Otago region. Filming in the area is supported by Film Otago Southland, but the city itself has a low international profile.

“It's still undiscovered,” Connon added to the outlet: “There are cities around the world that market themselves on that filming aspect of where you can get old buildings, but it's still user-friendly ... They need to figure out how to package it up and promote it to international film-makers.”

(Photo: See-Saw Films)