Outrageous Fortune

Two join Californication

Heather Graham and Mary Lynn Rajskub are joining Californication for guest roles. Both actresses will appear in the seventh season premiere.

Good start for Bowler’s Defiance

The new American/Canadian series Defiance, which features Outrageous Fortune’s Grant Bowler in one of the lead roles, has become one of the most-watched premieres on the Syfy network with 2.7 million viewers. Continue reading »

The man behind the song every Outrageous Fortune fan will be familiar with has passed away.

David McArtney, a founding member of Hello Sailor, passed away at his Pt Chevalier home this week.

He wrote and sung the band’s 1977 track ‘Gutter Black’, which featured on the opening titles sequence for TV3’s Outrageous Fortune. Continue reading »

South Pacific Pictures, the production company that has bought us Outrageous Fortune, Go Girls, Nothing Trivial and Shortland Street has been sold to UK based All3Media.

CEO John Barnett has sold his minority share in the company that he led the management buyout from TVNZ of in 1998 for an undisclosed amount. Continue reading »

We sat down to watch the pilot of Agent Anna on the weekend, excited at the prospect of Robyn Malcolm’s return to the small screen after her epic performance over six incredible seasons of Outrageous Fortune.  TVNZ had pegged the show quite closely to OF in its description as the story of an embattled solo mum who is down on her luck and turns to the world of real estate to reverse her fortunes but it is there that the comparisons end.

Malcolm wanted to play a different type of character to the Westie mum Cheryl West.

Anna (my character) was built on the idea that I wanted to play someone who had no hint of hero about her at all.

And hero Anna most certainly is not. Continue reading »

Outrageous Fortune’s Antony Starr plays a crook turned cop in the new US cable drama Banshee.  It’s fantastic.  He’s more Jethro than he is Van and it’s easy to see why he picked up the lead role.

Banshee started on SoHo last night but the US cable network, Cinemax, has put the entire episode online for free!  Well done.  May everyone else follow suit.

Warning: This is NSFW viewing

It’s not all that often we get the chance to see a Kiwi actor or actress take the lead role in a big new American drama series.

Therefore it’s pretty exciting that Outrageous Fortune’s Antony Starr will hit American screens in Alan Ball’s new series Banshee on Friday night, with Kiwi viewers able to see him in action from Tuesday, January 15 on SoHo.

The series centres on ex-con/martial arts expert Lucas (Starr) who seeks his own form of justice while posing as a murdered sheriff in Banshee, a small Amish town in Pennsylvania. Continue reading »

The courtroom drama of Outrageous Fortune played out for realfor Robyn Malcolm this morning as she lost her licence for six months after pleading guilty to drink driving.

Malcolm was 41mg over the legal blood alcohol limit of 80mg when she was stopped at a checkpoint on May 19. After the incident the actress made a statement to the Sunday Star Times.

”It was, and is my intention to front up the media about this as I have no interest in hiding what happened,” she said in the statement. Continue reading »

Kiwi TV exports are pumping millions of dollars into the country thanks to our shows being snapped up by countries all over the world.

According to Statistics New Zealand, $37 million was made from TV exports in 2010/11.

Countries such as Macedonia, Bosnia and Ukraine screen Go Girls, while Outrageous Fortune entertains those in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

Even classic kiwi series Wonder Dogs has been acquired by a Russian broadcaster. Continue reading »

Grant Bowler has snared a role in the controversial Elizabeth Taylor telemovie alongside Lindsay Lohan.

The former Outrageous Fortune actor, who is currently hosting the Australian version of The Amazing Race, will play Richard Burton alongside Lohan’s Taylor.

The film will chart the fourth and fifth marriages of Taylor, both of which were to Burton.

Producer Larry Thompson appeared pretty excited to have the pair involved in such an intimate production.

“We had seen him [Bowler] on tape and liked him but wanted to confirm the chemistry between the two. But this morning we had Lindsay and Grant come into a room at Lifetime and the chemistry exploded.

“It was just Fourth of July firecrackers going off in the room. We knew from the chemistry that Liz and Dick live again.

“Chemistry means movie magic for sex. This movie will definitely have as much sex as Lifetime will allow. Richard Burton was quite older than Elizabeth Taylor. This is from a visual point of view just about equal to Liz and Dick. Visually speaking, it is a perfect match.”

Filming is scheduled to begin in early June.

Source: Digital Spy

Left: George Zimmerman is confessed killer of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

Right: You’ve seen him on Outrageous Fortune, Go Girls, Shortland Street and Power Rangers and now John Tui is about to star along Liam Neeson and Rihanna in the sci-fi blockbuster Battleship.  Perhaps, when they turn Trayvon’s story into a movie there’ll be another acting role for him.