A big-budget Hollywood sci-fi film featuring aliens and Vikings is to be shot in New Zealand – and it is likely to star Kiwi actor Karl Urban.

“Outlander,” set during the time of the Vikings, is the only Hollywood production – other than Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” – known to be filmed in New Zealand in the next 12 months. Urban confirmed “Outlander” in an interview about his next film “Doom,” based on the popular sci-fi computer game. “Doom” is to be released in October.

Urban told film website Ain’t It Cool News he was in negotiations to play the lead in “Outlander” – a pilot from a distant solar system chased by an alien predator. He crash-lands on Earth at the time of the Vikings.

Urban said “Outlander” would be shot in New Zealand, with Wellington special effects company Weta creating the film’s creatures.

“They (Weta) are so phenomenal. They’re really continuing to set the standard,” he said. “I’ve never read anything quite like it. The director is Howard McCain and he has an amazing vision for this movie… I think this will be a sort of mini classic of the genre, it’s that good.”

“Outlander” will be distributed by Hollywood moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who helped Peter Jackson get backing for “The Lord of the Rings.”

McCain has directed one feature film and two made-for-television movies, including “Perfect Prey” in 1998.

Urban, 32, starred in Kiwi films “The Irrefutable Truth About Demons” and “The Price of Milk” before landing a part in “The Lord of the Rings.”

He was then picked up by Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency.

Source: Stuff