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GrahameMcLean

  • Producer
  • Director
  • Production manager
Grahame-McLeane-Key-Profile.jpg

Veteran producer and production designer Grahame McLean helped organise the shoots of a run of landmark Kiwi productions, from The Games Affair to Sleeping Dogs. Later he brought TV success Worzel Gummidge down under, and became the first — and will likely long remain one of the few — New Zealanders to direct two feature films back to back. He passed away on 15 October 2025.

Screenography

The Making of Sleeping Dogs
2004 Subject Short film
Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree
1989 Producer Film
The Lie of the Land
1987 Writer, Director, Producer Film
Worzel Gummidge Down Under
1986 - 1989 Director, Producer Series
Should I Be Good?
1985 Writer, Producer, Director Film

Biography

Grahame 'Superfly' McLean joked about having a "dangerously small knowledge" of many things.

But McLean's multi-faceted career personified the early days of the Kiwi screen renaissance, when hard work and a gung ho attitude were an antidote to inexperience. McLean went on to make his own movies, and win and lose fortunes. He also gave early opportunities to a host of names that impressed him with their own "get up and go" attitude: among them scriptwriter Fran Walsh, gaffer Brett Mills, and future Film Commission head Don 'Scrubbs' Blakeney.

“It was a brand new world. It was enormous fun ... and enormously hard work.”

— Grahame McLean, on the early days of the Kiwi film renaissance

Related images

The-Lie-of-the-Land-Gallery-2.jpg
Director of Photography Waka Attewell and at his right director Grahame McLean during the back to back shoot of Should I Be Good? and The Lie of the Land.
Photo: Guy Robinson.
The-Lie-of-the-Land-Gallery-3.jpg
Waka Attewell (pointing) and director Grahame McLean (far right) on location during the back to back shoot of Should I Be Good? and The Lie of the Land.
Photo: Guy Robinson.
The-Lie-of-the-Land-Gallery-4.jpg
Director Grahame McLean and Director of Photography Waka Attewell during the back to back shoot of Should I Be Good? and The Lie of the Land.
Photo: Guy Robinson.