Dunedin film-maker Robert Sarkies' latest film, Two Little Boys, premieres next month and local hopes are high it will put the Catlins on the map.
"We're really excited about it. This movie is going to really enhance tourism here. It's going to be huge for us," Catlins Coast projects co-ordinator Kim Dodds said yesterday.
"I think we'll see a huge increase in domestic tourism and a later spin-off in international tourism. It will really encourage people to make the journey and explore the Catlins," she said.
"You couldn't get a better promotional movie. It was not only filmed in the Catlins, but the story is about the Catlins."
Two Little Boys is based on the 2008 debut novel of Sarkies' younger brother, Duncan, and recalls the siblings' childhood holidays in the area.
"If the film does well - and it's always an if - then I'm confident it will have a really good tourism spin-off for the Catlins," Robert Sarkies said from Wellington yesterday.
It's essentially a road trip through all the tourist hot spots of the Catlins. Duncan actually wrote the book during a trip through the Catlins, when he was imagining bogans were in the car driving with him."
The film stars Oscar-winner Bret McKenzie, of Flight of the Conchords, Hamish Blake, of Australian comedy duo Hamish and Andy, and Dunedin actor Maaka Pohatu.
The Sarkies brothers also collaborated on the 1999 film Scarfies, about Dunedin university students, which became New Zealand's sixth-highest-grossing film.
Two Little Boys has its world premiere in Invercargill on September 11 and opens for general release on September 20.
"I'll be coming down to Dunedin for a screening, sometime after the premiere in Invercargill," Robert Sarkies said.
Duncan Sarkies will unveil a series of Catlins history panels at the Florence Hill lookout, near Tautuku, at 2pm on September 9.
