When Amazon commissioned a behind-the-scenes documentary series on the All Blacks, the production promised to be on "a level we've never seen before," according to Tom Pullar-Strecker of STUFF. However, sources said that "there have been major misgivings about early work done on the documentary." One industry insider said that New Zealand Rugby had been "very unhappy" -- a claim NZR denied -- and that the documentary had required "major repair work." The sources "believed producers might have had their work cut out gathering compelling material" from the All Blacks, who were "close-knit and polished media performers," not open to "outsiders." One source said, "It is all about themselves and their team, and that's it." Another said that despite having a budget of about NZ$20M ($14.6M), "there was talk the series might be cut from an originally-planned eight episodes down to just six." Warner Bros, which is co-producing the documentary for Amazon, "had drafted in an additional post-production expert" from the U.S. at Amazon's request to "try to sort out issues with the footage and audio, they said." Amazon "would not comment on that or other claims." But NZ Rugby CCO Nick Brown said that both Amazon and NZ Rugby were "very happy with the content capture and the production process so far" (STUFF, 1/14).
