Gazza's long learning curve | Auckland Entertainment | Events, Movies and TV Guide for Auckland

Dad grows up - after a too-long adolescence - in a new movie shot in Howick and Pakuranga, writes Sharu Delilkan.

Like many writers, Brendon Donovan has based his first full-length feature film on a topic close to home.

Having grown up in the area, Donovan says Howick was the obvious choice.

He's chuffed that The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell is premiering at the 2010 New Zealand International Film Festival.

"It's taken seven years to get done but it's been worth it. I'm particularly happy about the cast who suit their roles to a 't'," says Donovan. "They are so well cast that sometimes I think William is partly Gazza," he chuckles.

"William" is William McInnes, who many readers will recall from his years playing a country police sergeant in the popular Aussie television series Blue Heelers and as a burnt-out war correspondent in another Australian production, Sea Change.

Centred on an ordinary, infuriating, charming, obsessive suburban bloke, Gazza Snell, it's about a dad who finally grows up when his world is turned upside down following his son's karting collision.

Donovan says directing the movie has been an amazing journey for him, "working with the likes of Robyn Malcolm (Gail) and William McInnes (Gazza) and Joel Toebeck (Ron)".

But the lead director for television's Insider's Guide to Happiness and Insider's Guide to Love is no stranger to the film genre.

His first short film, Here, in 2001, featuring Lee Majors as an ageing hit-man, also premiered at the NZ Film Festival.

Besides reliving his childhood in East Auckland, writing the screenplay has been a learning experience for Donovan. The social structure of East Auckland, where the film is mostly set, has changed since he was a boy and he's had to reacquaint himself with the character of the place.

"I made sure that I did a whole lot of research with the local Chinese community because I felt it was important to gain insight into these families in order not to portray them as cliches.

"I felt it was time someone told the story of the white male relationship with his father since that's something I'm qualified to do and it hasn't been told for a while."

World Premiere of The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell, The Civic, July 11, 6.30pm. Tickets: ph 0800 842 538 or see www.ticketek.co.nz
Details, see www.nzff.co.nz