New Zealand Censors Ban Elijah Wood's Slasher "Maniac"

New Zealand's national censors have banned Elijah Wood's forthcoming film "Maniac," a slasher remake about a serial killer, citing "graphic violence" and "content that may disturb." It will be restricted to festival screenings and "academic viewing," but will not be available for a cinema or DVD release.

"Maniac" has been admitted to screen at a number of festivals and private screenings in New Zealands, particularly the International New Zealand Film Festival, which begins next month. Director Frank Khalfoun and Niel Foley, from the film's distributor Monster Pictures, seem to be shocked. Foley wrote on the company's website, "Banning the film beyond festival screenings is an insult to the intelligence of the adult population of New Zealand and does little more than to serve as an open invitation to illegally pirate the film."

Ant Timpson, an organizer of the New Zealand festival, has said the Office of Film and Literature Classification was concerned that the "POV [point of view] nature of the film mixed with the psychopathic behavior of actor Elijah Wood is more than disturbing, that it's potentially dangerous in the hands of the wrong person".

Star Elijah Wood has had a long relationship to the country; he spent years on end shooting " The Lord of the Rings" trilogy on its ethereal landscapes.