Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean Joins Comedy ‘Shearing The Love’ With Geoffrey Rush As Filming Wraps In New Zealand

EXCLUSIVE: Backstreet Boys star AJ McLean has joined sports comedy Shearing The Love with Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush.

Production has recently wrapped in New Zealand on the movie, which Essential Film Group will continue selling at the Cannes market. McLean and Rush will also serve as executive-producers. Also joining from the musical world is New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield, who will appear in the film as himself.

As we previously revealed, Dan Musgrove and Dom Hetrakul also star. Shearing the Love “follows Brian Castlehead (Musgrove), a washed-up hairstylist to the stars who returns home to enter the world of competitive sheep shearing to prove himself to his father Bob (Rush) a man who built his identity on the sport.”

McLean plays himself, “stepping into the high stakes, high pressure arena of New Zealand’s Golden Shears, the sport’s world championship, and directly into the path of a family in crisis”.

The film’s ensemble also includes Rima Te Wiata (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Johanna Cosgrove (Madam), and Michael Hurst (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys).

The film is written by Dan Musgrove, Natalie Medlock and Tom Hern. Hern, whose previous credits include The Panthers, The Dark Horse and Shadow in the Cloud, makes his feature directorial debut. Producers are Nua Finau and Belindalee Hope through Tavake, the company founded by Hern and Finau, along with Be Hope Films Limited.

The Backstreet Boys are currently in residency at Sphere in Las Vegas. McLean recently hosted Netflix’s music competition series Building the Band.

He said: “I was really drawn to the heart of it, the humor, the sense of family, and the journey of identity at the center of the story. It’s such a uniquely New Zealand world, but those themes are universal. Getting to be part of something like that, and share it with a cast led by someone like Geoffrey, was something truly special.”

Rush added about the film: “I won’t be sheepish. I shall be bold. The film community in New Zealand always makes storytelling sensational: new and full of zeal. I’ve never worked with a bunch of wilder people. Nothing was done in the shadows. We all had a whale of a ride. Everyone, at some time, a warrior. All took flight like Concordes. And it’s an hilarious comedy when sheepshearing champions clash with the drama of gender-defining hairdressers in the salons of the Long White Cloud.”

Pic is made in association with the New Zealand Film Commission. Rialto Distribution will release the film in Australia and New Zealand with Vertigo handling release in the UK.

McLean is represented by Wright Entertainment Group and Attentive Entertainment Group. Te Wiata is represented by Auckland Actors. Cosgrove is represented by Johnson & Laird who also represent Michael Hurst.