Parr, who spends his summers in Queenstown as downtime from a hectic schedule of international travel, won six Emmys as a senior producer of CBS television show The Amazing Race.
Through his Queenstown-based company SO3 Projects, the 57-year-old now provides safety and security services to film and television productions throughout the world.
Parr said it was time the country used its scenery and ''fantastic skills base'' to become a ''centre of international production excellence'' and attract some of the world's best talent to live and work here.
Employment in the film, television and commercial industry was volatile in New Zealand because it was ''always waiting for the next production from overseas'' and the profits went offshore.
The industry could generate vastly more revenue and employment by developing its own productions from writing through to filming, post-production and distribution.
''Only Peter Jackson has been doing that.''
He wanted the Government to help fund thirty $10 million films over the next five years to help the industry become self-sufficient.
Born in England, and a New Zealand citizen since 2008, Parr has overseen security for more than 200 television productions in the past decade, many in some of the world's most challenging environments.
In the past year alone his work has taken him to five continents, to places as diverse as Siberia and Greenland.
Despite his accomplishments in the television industry, it is his second career - one he has parlayed from 25 years in the British military and intelligence services, including 18 years in the Special Air Service (SAS).
Parr said he spent a week skiing in Queenstown in the mid-1980s while in New Zealand on a training exercise with the SAS, and decided the resort would be ''a fantastic place to live''.
