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Written and Directed by Roger Donaldson
STARRING ANTHONY HOPKINS
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This is the best thing I’ve done...
the best experience I’ve had.
anthony
anthony hopkins
hopkins
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all my life i’ve wanted to do something
big... something bigger and better than
all the other jokers.
Burt Munro
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Anthony Hopkins stars as
Burt Munro, a man who never
let the dreams of youth fade.
After a lifetime of perfecting his classic Indian
motorcycle, Burt set off from the bottom of the
world to test his bike at the Bonneville Salt
Flats in Utah. With all the odds against him, he
set a new speed record and captured the spirit
of his times. Burt Munro’s 1967 world record
remains unbroken and his legend lives on today.
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Burt Munro races to the lead; Oreti beach, Southland, New Zealand.
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I think this is what the spirit of this film is about
— the great passion of life that some people have.
anthony
anthony hopkins
hopkins
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I wanted to make an entertaining film without any compromises —
an uplifting and inspirational story in the spirit of such films as
Rocky, Billy Elliott and Chariots of Fire.
roger
roger donaldson
donaldson
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burt is the sort of
character i’ve never
played before – upbeat,
not like some of those
other guys. most of the
parts i have played are
troubled, tortured,
lonely souls - and i’m
not like that at all.
Anthony Hopkins
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he has taken the life force of
burt and put it up on the screen.
Anthony Hopkins
Roger Donaldson on Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins is Burt Munro
In a career spanning more than three decades,
Hopkins has more than 90 film and television
credits to his name.
Gwyneth Paltrow in John Madden’s
adaptation of the critically acclaimed West
End stageplay Proof.
In 1991 he won the Best Actor Academy Award®
for his unforgettable performance as Hannibal
Lecter in the thriller The Silence of the Lambs.
He was subsequently nominated in the same
category for his performances in Nixon (1995)
and The Remains of the Day (1993) for which he
received the BAFTA Best Actor Award.
Anthony Hopkins’ many other films over
the years include: The Lion in Winter; Shadowlands;
Red Dragon; Bad Company; Hannibal; Dr. Seuss’s How
The Grinch Stole Christmas; Meet Joe Black; Instinct; Titus;
The Mask of Zorro; Howard’s End; Bram Stoker’s Dracula;
Legends of the Fall; The Road to Wellville; Surviving Picasso;
The Edge; 84 Charing Cross Road; The Elephant Man;
Magic and A Bridge Too Far.
Hopkins recently appeared in the feature
adaptation of Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis;
The Human Stain opposite Nicole Kidman;
and as Ptolemy in Oliver Stone’s historical
epic Alexander. He will next be seen alongside
The Bounty was his first collaboration with
Roger Donaldson.
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he’s a great director, a perfectionist.
it’s a fine script that he wrote.
Anthony Hopkins on Roger Donaldson
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i have been intrigued by burt’s story for many,
many years. some would say my obsession with
this film matches burt’s obsession with his bike.
Roger Donaldson
Roger Donaldson
Director – Writer – Producer
In 1971 Roger Donaldson and his collaborator
Mike Smith filmed Offerings to the God of Speed,
a documentary about the life of New Zealander
Burt Munro, one of the oldest people ever to
set a land speed record at the famed Bonneville
Salt Flats in Utah. This became the inspiration
for a script to be written by Donaldson entitled
The World’s Fastest Indian.
In 1977 Donaldson directed his first movie Sleeping
Dogs starring Sam Neill in his feature film debut.
In 1982, after completing his hit film Smash Palace,
Donaldson moved to the United States and was
signed to direct The Bounty. The epic retelling of
the famous mutiny on the Bounty starred Anthony
Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, Daniel Day
Lewis, and Lawrence Olivier.
Roger Donaldson’s films include:
Sleeping
Sleepin
g Dogs starring Sam Neill
Pala
alace
ce starring Bruno Lawrence
Smash P
The Bou
Bounty starring Anthony Hopkins & Mel Gibson
No Wa
Way Out starring Gene Hackman & Kevin Costner
Cocktail starring Tom Cruise
Cockt
White Sands starring Willem Dafoe & Samuel L. Jackson
The Geta
Getaway starring Alec Baldwin & Kim Basinger
Species starring Natasha Henstridge & Ben Kingsley
Cadillac Man starring Robin Williams & Tim Robbins
Cadillac
Dante’s P
Peak
eak starring Pierce Brosnan
Thirteen Days
Days starring Kevin Costner
The Recruit starring Al Pacino & Colin Farrell
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it’s an amazingly visual location, it’s dead flat, it’s white, everything gets reflections on
it off the salt, it has fabulous mountains in the distance that give it a sense of depth. the
light continually changes as the sun moves across it until, at the end of the day, it sinks
behind the mountains. i think there is nowhere else on this planet that comes close to it.
Roger Donaldson on shooting at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
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Masaharu Inaba
Charles Hannah
Megumi Fukasawa
Satoru Iseki
Barrie M. Osborne
OLC/Rights Entertainment (Japan) Inc, is a
with Inaba. Together with Inaba, they worked
wholly owned subsidiary of Oriental Land Co
closely with Donaldson and Hannam to secure
Ltd, which is Disney’s Theme-park operator
the film’s finance. Barrie Osborne (The Lord
in Japan with revenue of over US $3billion.
of the Rings, The Matrix) is the fourth partner in
The World’s Fastest Indian is their first film project.
3 Dogs & A Pony, and helped secure a major
OLC/Rights Entertainment’s Masaharu Inaba,
sale for the film.
Executive Producers
Charles Hannah, Satoru Iseki and Megumi
OLC and 3 Dogs & A Pony
Fukasawa have a long-standing relationship
is a former banker who has arranged financing
for a number of acclaimed independent films
and who previously worked with Sir Anthony
Hopkins on Howard’s End. 3 Dogs & A Pony’s
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Gary Hannam
Producer
A key figure on the New Zealand film scene,
producer Gary Hannam first made his mark
with Smash Palace (1981), where he served as
executive producer with Donaldson directing.
In 1981 Hannam and his Smash Palace Investors
paid Donaldson to write The World’s Fastest Indian.
“Roger reminded me that he offered to buy back
the script several times. I refused him saying,
it’s too valuable to sell” noted Hannam.
Hannam collaborated with New Zealand director
Vincent Ward as co-producer on two films
which both screened In Competition at the
Cannes Film Festival: the critically acclaimed,
Vigil (1984) and the award-winning fantasy
Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1987).
To mark 21 years of business for The Film
Investment Corporation group in 2002,
Hannam founded the Film Investment
Corporation Foundation, a charitable trust,
to assist young New Zealanders to obtain
international experience.
Having moved to Europe in 2002, he recently
co-founded Swiss-based EuroAsset Partners
GmbH with Australian entertainment financier
Justin Pearce, and they jointly established with
Commerzbank AG, a ¤300 million film fund.
In 2004 he founded Tanlay AG to finance,
produce and sell new projects, including
The World’s Fastest Indian.
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John Gilbert
J. Peter Robinson
David Gribble
Editor
Music Composer
Cinematographer
John Gilbert was nominated for both an
Academy and a BAFTA award for Best Editor
for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Classically trained at the Royal Academy
of Music in London, Peter’s first major film
composition was the eerily percussive score
to John Schlesinger’s horror/thriller The Believers.
Soon after, he composed the score to Phillip
Noyce’s action/thriller Blind Fury, which grabbed
Roger Donaldson’s attention. He scored
Donaldson’s films Cocktail and Cadillac Man, followed
by Wayne’s World and Encino Man. More recently Peter
scored John Herzfeld’s Fifteen Minutes, starring
Robert De Niro and Ed Burns.
David Gribble has worked previously with
Roger Donaldson on the 1990 feature film,
Cadillac Man, starring Robin Williams and
Tim Robbins.
Gilbert has also executive produced seven
short films, which variously screened at the
Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and
New York film festivals.
His extensive performing career includes
producing, arranging and writing songs for
Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Melissa Etheridge
and Al Jarreau.
Since then David has worked on numerous
feature film and television productions
including US features The Quest; The 13th
Warrior; Chill Factor and the New Zealand film,
Crooked Earth.
David has been an accredited member of
the Australian Cinematographers Society
since 1996.
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He has edited a range of feature films including
Gaylene Preston’s Perfect Strangers, Annie
Goldson’s Punitive Damage, Alison Maclean’s
Crush, Anna Campion’s Loaded and Anthony
McCarten’s Via Satellite. He was Associate Editor
for Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners.
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Rob Gillies
J. Dennis Washington
Production Designer : New Zealand
Production Designer : USA
Rob Gillies is a production designer who over
25 years has worked on a variety of New Zealand
feature film and television productions.
J. Dennis Washington comes from an
architectural design and theater background.
His film design work aims for a sense of reality
to support and enhance the film experience.
He has designed projects as diverse as Gaylene
Preston’s New Zealand movie Ruby and Rata
through to production design for over 400
episodes of the successful TV series Xena
The Warrior Princess and Hercules.
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His current work includes theatrical design for
Whale Rider On Stage, Sam Raimi’s The Boogeyman
for Ghosthouse Pictures (February release) along
with Roger Donaldson’s The World’s Fastest Indian.
Washington has designed many films including
Prizzi’s Honor, Stand By Me, The Dead, No Way Out,
The Fugitive, Dante’s Peak, The General’s Daughter and
Thirteen Days. Dennis has worked with directors
such as John Huston, Sydney Pollack, Ron
Shelton and Rob Reiner.
Working with friend and collaborator Roger
Donaldson has always been a pleasure, never more
the case than with The World’s Fastest Indian.
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OLC/RIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT, TANLAY AG, THE NEW ZEALAND FILM PRODUCTION FUND AND THE NEW ZEALAND FILM COMMISSION IN ASSOCIATION WITH 3 DOGS & A PONY
PRESENT A ROGER DONALDSON/GARY HANNAM PRODUCTION OF A ROGER DONALDSON FILM ANTHONY HOPKINS THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN DIANE LADD PAUL RODRIGUEZ
AARON MURPHY CASTING BY DIANNE CRITTENDON DIANA ROWAN PRODUCTION DESIGN J. DENNIS WASHINGTON ROB GILLIES EDITED BY JOHN GILBERT MUSIC J PETER ROBINSON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID GRIBBLE LINE PRODUCERS DONALD SHAIN MURRAY FRANCIS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS MASAHARU INABA CHARLES HANNAH MEGUMI FUKASAWA
SATORU ISEKI BARRIE OSBORNE CO-PRODUCED BY JOHN J. KELLY PRODUCERS ROGER DONALDSON GARY HANNAM WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ROGER DONALDSON
INTERNATIONAL SALES
Japan / Korea / Taiwan - Satoru Iseki: iseki81@hotmail.com
North America - Gary Hannam: gh@tanlay.com
Rest of World - Kathleen Drumm: kathleen@nzfilm.co.nz
NZ Film | PO Box 11 546 | Wellington | New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 382 7682 | Fax: +64 4 384 9719 | www.nzfilm.co.nz