Rob Tapert: On Hercules, Xena and more...

American producer Rob Tapert first heard that New Zealand was 'an undiscovered production treasure', in a studio carpark. He was later responsible for bringing the internationally popular syndicated TV shows Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules here to realise that vision.

In this ScreenTalk, Tapert talks about:

• His beginnings in the industry: dropping out of grad school in Michigan to make films with long-time business partner and Hollywood director Sam Raimi
• Making blood mixture on their first feature Evil Dead
• The inherent difference between feature films and television
• His involvement in Hercules and the challenges of juggling global productions
• His commitment to local cast and crew and the impact of the movie Desperate Remedies on Hercules’ casting
  
• His inspirations for Hercules’ spin-off Xena and the internet’s influence on Xena becoming a pop culture icon
• The fact that local actors and directors have succeeded on these productions, but NZ writers haven’t managed the crossover, and why post-production effects were done in the US
• The inspiration for Legend of the Seeker

This video was first uploaded on 29 January 2009, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview - Clare O'Leary, Camera and Editing - Leo Guerchmann