Jim Hosking's third comedy feature Ebony and Ivory is one of the films opening Whanau Marama New Zealand International Film Festival in four centres soon. It is an unapologetically bonkers fictional take on two superstars collaborating.
Stevie Wonder rows across the ocean to visit Paul McCartney at his Scottish cottage.With much use of comic exaggeration, visual gags and dodgy accents, the couple move from awkwardness and grumpiness, through some rather stoned mishaps, to ultimately - as the 1982 hit of the same name goes - living in perfect harmony.
'Ebony and Ivory', the song doesn't even appear in the film, whose trailer begins with a legal disclaimer: "any resemblance to actual musical legends or duets that changed the world is purely coincidental and in no way intentional. "
Jim Hosking's first feature was 2016's comedy horror hit The Greasy Strangler, in which a man who makes up stories about the Bee Gees on disco-themed walking tours, covers himself in food grease before strangling fellow town residents. Hosking's second feature, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn features Aubrey Plaza and our own Jermaine Clement in dodgy wigs. The stars of Ebony and Ivory Sky Elobar (Paul) and Gil Gex (Stevie) appear in both films.
We caught up with writer and director Jim Hoskings earlier this week.
