Cowboys have long held a special place in the hearts and minds of the populace.
The archetypal figure has been a mainstay of the literary and cinematic folklore since the first pioneers came back from the frontier to talk of man alone and against the landscape.
Mike Wallis says he has always been captivated by the character of the cowboy.
So much so, as a Mosgiel schoolboy on summer holidays in Central Otago, he dreamed he was out in the Wild West.
The connection he felt with the rocky, sun-baked spaces of the South Island interior and its similarity to the empty deserts of the Wild West remains to this day.
As Wallis tells it, when you're an aspiring New Zealand film-maker determined to fulfil an ambition of making a Western movie, where else would you locate the most classic of film genres than in the borderlands of Central Otago and the Mackenzie Country?
"I spent all my summers on what I still think of as the quintessential central South Island holiday. I've had this deep connection to those landscapes ever since.
"What I've always really, really wanted to do is make a Western there. It is the Wild West of Aotearoa."
Wallis has long had a fascination with films and especially the Western genre.
He decided he wanted to make movies, but as a boarder in the hostel at Otago Boys' High School, he had little idea about how to make his pipe dream a reality.
The Otago athletics secondary-school sprinting champion certainly knew how to run with an idea, though, and his determination to stick to his guns has resulted in his first feature-length film, Good For Nothing.
After he finished school, Wallis moved to Queenstown and spent three years working at a video retail store and as a barman.
He kept an eye open for any opportunities in the tourist town's small film industry, which was largely focused on making commercials.
Wallis wanted to get involved in feature films. Following the advice of a friend in the industry, he moved to Wellington and managed to score a job at Wingnut Films, Sir Peter Jackson's production company, which, at that stage, held the rights to start making the Lord of the Rings films.
He has been a part of the Wellington-based film industry for the past nine years, eventually moving to the animation and motion-capture department as a manager at Weta Digital's Miramar Park Rd production unit.
He has been involved behind the scenes with most of the major blockbuster films to have emerged from the studio in recent times, including Avatar and The Adventures of Tintin.
Good for Nothing exemplifies the epic scale and top-end production values of a major studio film - qualities that belie its shoestring budget, but which are a testament to the skills, resourcefulness, and technical know-how of a tight-knit crew and production unit, Wallis says.
It's fair to say the South Island hinterland hasn't looked this good in a movie since the last time it featured as Middle earth.
However, this time around, the film's western setting enables the inclusion of instantly recognisable locations, which come straight out of Central Otago's colourful gold-mining history and pioneering past.
From the opening shot, when the Kingston Flyer steams its way across a plain of golden tussock to deposit the leading female character Isabella on the edge of the great wide open, local viewers will struggle to shake the feelings of familiarity and "I'm sure I've been there before."
A historic Bendigo stone hut houses an Indian medicine man, and the goldfields village and tourist attraction in the Kawarau Gorge doubles as a Chinese settlement in the film.
Wallis' vision of substituting Central Otago's back country for the Wild West is a major local drawcard for the movie.
However, to focus only on the film's wonderful use of scenic locations is to do a disservice to the quality of the movie's screenplay and its characters.
Wallis wrote, produced, and directed Good for Nothing. United States critics, in particular, have been quick to award accolades for his debutant effort.
"Westerns have this great American tradition to them, but it is now a genre which has become transferred to an international setting."
Wallis cites the defining movies of influential Italian film director Sergio Leone, who took the "clean-cut" Hollywood Westerns of the 1950s and made them in his home country, using Italy and Spain as backdrops for the American Wild West.
"Sergio [Leone] redefined the genre, and his movies gave rise to the movement they dubbed the `spaghetti Western'," Wallis says.
Subgenres in the Western subsequently made in China and India respectively brought about versions named noodle and curry Westerns.
Given Good for Nothing is a Kiwi take on the classic genre, Wallis decided to name the New Zealand-produced effort in line with the culinary-themed tradition.
"The Italians really showed that the Western belongs to all makers and lovers of movies from all around the world. So we've delivered the world's first `Pavlova Western'," he says.
The film was selected for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere; a situation Wallis describes as "unbelievably exciting".
Even more exciting for Wallis was having "celebrity" film reviewer Leonard Maltin choose Good for Nothing as the only movie he would review at Santa Barbara.
"I mean I'm a total movie nut, and I was seriously star-struck at the prospect of having Leonard Maltin review our movie as the only one at the festival. I mean, come on. How corny is that?
"We were lucky because he was incredibly generous in his review. He told me he wished American film-makers remembered how to make movies like Good for Nothing."
The good reviews from several respected industry publications meant Good for Nothing found a distribution company to back the film in cinemas across the US.
Wallis talks about the struggle film-makers have to get their movies screened in the competitive industry.
The challenge has been worth it, though, because Good For Nothing has made history as the only self-financed New Zealand-made film to secure a distribution deal across the US.
Good For Nothing received no funding from the New Zealand Film Commission.
Good for Nothing is an unashamed homage to the films of Sergio Leone. Wallis wanted his main character, known only as "the Man", to mirror the "Man with no Name" protagonist personified by Clint Eastwood in the classic spaghetti Westerns.
Wallis says he also wanted the Man to reflect characteristics that were recognisable to a New Zealand audience.
"The archetypal character of the cowboy, in my opinion, has a lot in common with that image of the Southern Man. Staunch, brooding, and self-reliant. A man of few words who prefers to let their actions do the talking."
From his opening on-screen appearance, the Man certainly likes to let his guns do the talking, shooting down an entourage of chaperones, and kidnapping the lead female character Isabella shortly after she has arrived en route to stay at her uncle's ranch.
Driving the main plot line of the movie is the relationship that develops between the Man and Isabella, Wallis says.
Quick on the draw with his six-shooter, the Man finds himself left wanting when he tries to force himself on Isabella, but fails to rise to the occasion.
"I wanted to put this very, very tough and iconic cowboy character and put him in a confusing situation, and one which he has probably never ever experienced before: How he comes to terms with that, how it influences his behaviour and relationship with Isabella, and the personal journey he undertakes to figure out his problem.
"He's in a situation which is very confusing to him and he's also got this incredibly strong-willed woman alongside him.
"He's a real tough, mean, man of the land, but probably doesn't know any better and can't figure out what's happened to him.
"Westerns embody a certain type of freedom. By that I mean a freedom to do either right or wrong.
"The West was always wild because it was lawless. But in this instance, the Man can't do what he wants, and that changes him."
Featured alongside the Man, played by New Zealand actor Cohen Holloway, is Isabella, the female lead, played by newcomer Inge Rademeyer; Good for Nothing's co-producer and a longtime collaborator with Wallis.
Rademeyer and Wallis have been engaged for six years, putting their wedding and hopes of buying a house together in Wellington on hold so they could make a movie instead.
The couple went south on one of their first holidays together, where the South African-born Rademeyer was introduced to the landscapes of Central Otago and Wallis told his soon-to-be fiancee how he wanted to make his Kiwi Western there.
"It's not every day you find someone who's prepared to put everything on hold to follow a dream. But so many people have come along with us for the ride ...
"I'm thrilled we made the decision because the connections we've been able to develop have been great."
Wallis eventually quit his job - Rademeyer is also an employee at Weta Digital - to work full-time on the post-production and editing of Good for Nothing.
Industry heavyweights also assisted with the production, including Academy Award-winning editor Jamie Selkirk and renowned composer John Psathas, who was behind the music at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics.
Psathas composed the score for Good for Nothing and also brought with him industry contacts, which resulted in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performing the music.
"We were lucky we had people who were willing to dream with us, not knowing what the outcome would be, but who were willing to give it a shot," Wallis says.
