Once were warriors

Cliff Curtis and Temuera Morrison help paddle Jason Momoa's Hawaiian war canoe.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

Jason Momoa and screenwriting partner Thomas Pa'a Sibbett have put his stardom and their shared Hawaiian ancestry to use in their creation of Chief of War, a historic epic about inter-tribal warfare and how the arrival of Europeans affected the conflicts in the late 18th century.

Much of Chief of War was shot in New Zealand last year and some familiar local faces are prominent in the cast. That includes Temuera Morrison, whose Chief Kahekili sports an ornate uhi maka (facial tattoo), Cliff Curtis and Te Kohe Tuhaka, who are all warrior royalty based on historic figures, while actresses Luciane Buchanan (