A 10-metre-high wall of King Kong-sized building blocks has gone up to create a backdrop for Peter Jackson's latest $NZ200 million movie.
Filming is due to start next month on Jackson's remake of King Kong and work is two-thirds finished on a state-of-the-art $12 million sound stage in the Wellington suburbof Miramar.
Just next to the sound stage, a monster-sized "blue screen" has been built out of freight containers, more than 10m high, to create an outside "backlot".
A ship inside the backlot is a near full-sized model of the Manuia berthed at nearby Miramar wharf. Both ships will become Jackson's version of the SS Venture, the ship that took the great ape from Skull Island to New York.
The original 1933 King Kong, with its 15m ape and star Fay Wray, is regarded by some critics as the greatest and most famous classic adventure-fantasy film.
Late last year Jackson said that, because the film would be set in the 1930s, to create the period it would be easier to shoot about 80 percent of the film at his Miramar studios. Some of the natural locations, including King Kong's home, Skull Island, would also be shot at the studios.
Stone Street Studios, used to shoot Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, will expand with a huge 7010-square-metre sound stage up to 12 metres high.
Originally, the film-makers planned to have the sound stage finished by June, but that was put back to September, when shooting is due to start.
Film editor and sound stage project manager Jamie Selkirk said the sound stage was on track to be completed by September.
Its massive concrete walls and roof, which will be 20 centimetres thick, are being poured on site.
Inside there will be an additional 50-millimetre layer of soundproofing to keep out the noise of jets at nearby Wellington airport.
"It will be a lot better than the previous studios," Selkirk said.
Outdoor scenes will be shot in front of the blue screen, which allows for special effects to be added to the background.
The blue screen was temporary and would be taken down after King Kong was completed early next year. The same system had been used when filming Lord of The Rings.
"It is not ideal leaving it up for too many months," Selkirk said.
The blue screen also made an "excellent windbreak". There would be a "fair bit" of outside shooting for the film, he said.
