Daffodils: Official Preview Trailer and Production Stills

With all the excitement around ‘A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding’, I completely forgot to update the site with the latest on one of Rose’s other upcoming films – Daffodils! Daffodils is New Zealand’s first ever movie-musical, and is a love-story told with beautiful re-imaginings of the most iconic New Zealand pop songs from artists like Crowded House and Bic Runga. I absolutely love this trailer (we get to hear Rose sing!), and it’s possibly the film of hers so far in her career that I look the most forward to – but sadly we’re up for a bit of waiting, as it won’t hit cinemas until March 2019. Make sure to check out the preview below, and afterwards head over to our gallery for some beautiful production stills in HQ…

The Greatest Showman, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody. This has been a stellar year for the movie musical, with the above quartet all looking set to be amongst the biggest earners of 2018 at the New Zealand box office. However, for Kiwi fans of the genre, there’s even more exciting news. In 2019, we’ll finally be getting our own homegrown big-screen musical. Based on the popular stage show of the same name, Daffodils is set to debut in New Zealand cinemas on March 21. Written by Rochelle Bright (the author of the original play, which was first staged in 2014), who was inspired by her own parents’ love story, it will feature some of Kiwi music’s most beloved songs, from artists like Crowded House, The Muttonbirds and Bic Runga. The cast includes iZombie’s Rose McIver, Home and Away’s George Mason and Kiwi popstar Kimbra.

Speaking after the release of the movie’s first trailer on Wednesday afternoon, Daffodils’ producer Richard Fletcher admits it was funny how “all the stars have aligned” for the movie, with viewer interest in cinematic musicals currently skyhigh. “It’s extraordinary, because when we started developing the stage show as a film [in 2016], we had no idea this would happen. La La Land hadn’t even come out.” Filming took place at Wellington’s Avalon Studios, in the Wairarapa and parts of the Waikato over eight weeks last summer, with Fletcher describing it as broadening, but in no way changing the essence of the much-loved play. “Obviously the stage show was essentially a two-hander, with the only other character the narrator – the one that Kimbra plays in the movie. We’ve added in a lot more characters, friends, the leads’ parents – to create a wider pool and wider storylines, but it’s still very true to the play.” (Read full story)