Veteran actor Temuera Morrison has offered his congratulations to Taika Waititi on being named director of a new Star Wars film , saying he is helping to put New Zealand on the map - and into the galaxy.
Mr Morrison, who has starred in a Star Wars film himself, playing the bounty hunter Jango Fett (and all his clones) in Episode II Attack of the Clones, told 1 NEWS he was excited to see Waititi's latest astronomical success.
"I wasn't really surprised because I think there's been a little bit of talk about this for quite some time," Mr Morrison said.
"Taika's obviously been maturing as this wonderful director - he's very popular in Hollywood and I know this from a personal point of view, because when I went in to do Aquaman, we followed things like Thor - the crew were talking about Taika and how wonderful he was to work with."
"He just has this wonderful sense of humour that seems to be igniting a lot of the producers in Hollywood.
"Congratulations to him and I'm just very, very proud of him - here we have a young Kiwi talent from the east coast of New Zealand - the Māori boy from Waihau Bay - and doing very well in the cinema world."
Mr Morrison said Waititi's fresh comedic approach to films was proving very popular in the US, with studios seeing as a bit of "fresh air".
"He has wonderful opportunity here to really express himself, and if he's involved with the writing as well, it will be interesting to see what kind of quirkiness he can bring to it," Mr Morrison said.
Seeing a Kiwi making such a splash overseas was rewarding for not just Waititi, but for the whole country, Morrison said.
"At the Oscars, when he gave that speech - that wonderful part about 'this is for the indigenous kids who dream of dancing, that dream of directing, dream of writing' - it just creates inspiration, it creates that thing that 'hey, we can all do this thing together'," Mr Morrison said.
"It just gives us that thing that if Taika's doing well, we're all there with him, in a way - we're all there with Taika on his waka on this wonderful journey that he' s been able to achieve.
"He's a tenacious kind of guy - he's the guy that deserves this success."
Taika Waititi recently won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for Jojo Rabbit.
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