Tenzing Was Shot on Real Winter Peaks, Not Green Screens
The climbing scenes in Tenzing, a film about the 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest, were shot on real mountains, director Jennifer Peedom told Deadline. The crew filmed in New Zealand's Southern Alps during winter, not against green screens.
The story follows Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese-Indian Sherpa who reached the summit alongside Edmund Hillary in 1953. Luke Davies wrote the screenplay. Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing, and Tom Hiddleston plays Hillary. Willem Dafoe also stars, Variety reported.
For Peedom, this is a first narrative feature, meaning a fictional story with actors rather than a documentary. She has spent more than twenty years filming in the Himalayas. Her earlier documentary Sherpa (2015) followed an Everest expedition from the Sherpas' point of view. That shoot was marked by tragedy: an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, a shifting field of ice on the route up Everest, killed 16 Sherpas.
Tenzing's family trusted Peedom with the story, the interview says. Filming on the Southern Alps was hard going. The locations could only be reached by helicopter, so crews stayed small and shooting days were short.
To recreate Everest, Peedom worked with New Zealand mountain guide Guy Cotter, who has climbed the mountain five times. Together they found stand-in locations for the Khumbu Icefall, the summit and the Hillary Step, a steep rock face just below the top. A second unit then went to Everest itself to capture background views. Visual effects artists later combined those images with the New Zealand footage.
The cast also prepared on the ground. Phuntsok spent time in the Himalayas to absorb Sherpa culture and dialect. Hiddleston went on walks with Alexander Hillary, Edmund Hillary's grandson, to get a sense of the man he was playing. Stefan Duscio was the cinematographer.
The film has a commercial history too. Apple acquired it in 2024, Variety reported at the time, when casting for the role of Tenzing Norgay was still underway. The production is being made by See-Saw Films, a UK-Australian outfit.
Tenzing was also chosen to open the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, Variety reported in August. Opening slots are a festival's way of putting a film in front of the industry and the press at the start of its run.
What stands out most is how much of the film was built from real places and real people. The Sherpa community, Hillary's family and a working mountain guide all had a hand in it, and Peedom's time in the Himalayas gave her the experience to bring them together.
