By Virginia Winder

Kiwi film all-rounder Ian Mune has written the first draft of a screenplay about Taranaki leader Riwha Titokowaru.

But Mune is cagey about the planned film on the famous Ngati Ruanui leader, who is described in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography as a military leader, prophet and peacemaker.

"It's not my project," says Mune, sitting at his dining table in Muriwai on a dark August night this year. "I was just working on the screenplay so there's really nothing intelligent I can tell you about it."

When asked if Lee Tamahori was the director, Mune replies: "Can't think of anybody else!"

Tamahori directed the powerful New Zealand film, Once Were Warriors, and Mune directed the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

The Titokowaru project is the second Taranaki movie Mune has been involved with. In 1984 he co-wrote and directed a screen adaptation of Ronald Hugh Morrieson's novel, Came A Hot Friday. The film was shot around Eltham, Waverley and Wanganui - all places not far from Morrieson's hometown of Hawera.

From pre-dawn to dusk

This time around, Mune has been soaking up the sites in Taranaki.

"I did go, a couple of times, to look up what is left of the original sites - not much, though Turuturu Mokai (near Hawera) is pretty good," he says.

Mune has also been delving into the region's museums and reading about Taranaki's stirring past. "There will be more trips, and I look forward to the day I can talk with the people of Ngati Ruanui."

He spent about three months researching the story of Titokowaru's 1868-69 campaign to retain Maori land in south Taranaki.

"It took me a two-to-three-month burst to actually get it written. I was doing five and six days a week starting at four in the morning and finishing at sometimes six or seven at night."

Mune says his part of the project is on hold: "Until they tell me to do the rewrites. And I would expect there to be rewrites because this is the early stages of developing the project.

"As they get further down the track and as they approach the tangata whenua with the story, I would expect to work stuff through more. I wasn't able to make those approaches (to Maori in Taranaki) because the film was not ready - but that will all happen."

Out of the loop

However, Mune isn't certain of the movie's timeframe or recent developments. "When you're a writer on somebody else's project you really are very locked out of things. You've got direct connection with the directors, talking about characterisation, about narrative, about all sorts of stuff, but the production of the programme is out there in the ether somewhere.

"You're a long way away from it. As a director you're much closer to it, but really the only person who knows what's going on is the producer, and the producers keep their mouths pretty closed," he says.

In the meantime, Mune is focused on another film project. "I've been working with another director with a bunch of actors improvising and building up a screenplay from their improvising and then writing it from that material. And we hope to make that this summer, if God is good."

Mune and his team have so far spent more than 18 months on the free-flowing script.

"This is a project which takes a long time and a lot of work and just getting 15 actors together in the one room when, I mean, we're paying them chicken shit, that's really hard to do."

Cantering with thoroughbreds

Despite the poor pay, Mune is rapt about the project. "It's a wonderful way to work."

Also, it's completely opposite to the developing culture of New Zealand filmmaking, in which movies are limited by ever-diminishing budgets and time constraints.

"The effect of that is that actors tend to come on the set and say, 'what do you want me to do?'" Mune says. "They don't come on the set saying, 'I worked my arse off preparing for this and I'm going to give you my best shot'."

Because of this, many Kiwi directors now have a tendency to tell actors what to do so their performance fits a particular shot.

"So the actor tends to be a bit of a glove puppet and I think that's very sad," Mune says. "That's like saying 'let's have a rugby team, but all the backs have just got to do three legged races'.

"The thing about doing the improv is that the actors are freed up and it's like going out for a canter with thoroughbreds - they're fantastic and have wonderful energy and passion.

"Trying to shape that all into a movie is another story but it's been a wonderful experience so far. That one (movie) will be called, Birth, Death, and the Bits in Between. I figured it was a title that gave us room to do anything," he laughs.

Bound to be a hobbit

Mune himself appears to be able to fit into anything and everything in New Zealand's film industry - even rubber hobbit feet.

In Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings, Mune plays the hobbit, Bounder.

"There were three grades of rubber feet - there were the Cadillacs (for the stars), Fords for the smaller parts and the extras had Fiats. It depended on how long you had to wear them for," says Mune, who wore the middle-of-the-road footwear. "By the time it was all over my feet were awash, and so very, very sore."

But it was worth it. "It was very enjoyable and it was nice to be on the film."

Mune also got a week's work directing the second unit on the box-office hit. "I did have a lot of big toys to play with - lighting cranes, special effects. It was like a holiday."

Even better, one of his shots got into the trailer for The Two Towers. "It was the bit where the hobbits were being dragged from the burning tavern by the orcs," Mune says with refreshing enthusiasm.

Long time between drinks

The 62-year-old loves the drama of life, as long as it involves variety.

"I do love directing, but I love acting and I love writing and I love teaching - it's just I don't love any of them forever."

"If I've been doing too much acting I've got to get in and do some writing or do some directing and it's one of the ways I've been able to survive in New Zealand because I do have a number of strings to my bow," Mune says.

"Working in New Zealand has one major problem and that is that it's so long between drinks that every time I've made a movie I've spent the first day on the set going, 'What the hell am I going to do now, how do I do this?' I have to learn my job every time because it's been two or three years since I've done one."

Mune is a willing student.

Ian Mune: I do love directing, but I love acting and I love writing and I love teaching - it's just I don't love any of them forever.