Taika Waititi unleashing his Wilderpeople

Hunt for the Wilderpeople filmmaker Taika Waititi
Hunt for the Wilderpeople filmmaker Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi's latest film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, has its New Zealand premiere tonight after debuting to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival.

Waititi calls it his most ambitious, most accessible film yet.

The story is based on the Barry Crump classic Wild Pork and Watercress, and throws our most famous export -- Sam Neill -- into the dense New Zealand bush with young up-and-comer Julian Dennison, playing a foster kid far more at home in the big city.

If they sound like an unlikely duo then you'd be right.

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For Waititi, Neill was a dream casting.

"The great thing about Sam is he never once tried to big time anyone. He's not arrogant; he was never like, 'When I worked with Steven Spielberg I never had to put up with this s**t.' Nothing like that."

For 40-year-old Waititi, Wilderpeople is his film for all people, unashamedly appealing to his hometown crowd with his love of Kiwi cinema front and centre.

"I'm at a stage now where I'm not scared of anything. I turned 40 and I gave up worrying. I gave up caring what people think."

He's not even scared of Thor; his next stop is Hollywood, helming Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok.

"Hopefully I can bring my sensibility and my style to a studio film," says Waititi.

"I am already having a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to it. It's a good challenge, and I need to keep challenging myself. I need to stop making films about 12-year-old Maori boys!"

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is in cinemas nationwide tomorrow.

Newshub.