Hollywood comes to Wairarapa with The Lovely Bones

Scenes shot in Wairarapa will feature in the upcoming Peter Jackson film, The Lovely Bones, with the possibility of other Jackson projects yet to come for the region.
Jackson said yesterday no further shooting for the film is planned for Wairarapa "at this time" although some "visual effects elements" may be shot in the region in the near future.
"I'm grateful for the local support we received and I'm thrilled with the experience. I 'm shooting at the moment but I'm hoping to use the Wairarapa for future projects," Jackson said.
"It all depends on the locations needed, which is very much a function of the story being told."
A "number of scenes" were shot for The Lovely Bones at locations near Greytown and Masterton over two days last week involving about 100 cast and crew members, according to a production spokesman for the Wellington-based Wingnut film company owned by Jackson.
"One scene was set in a 'Californian' orchard and the other was a rural landscape that will be enhanced in post-production to look quite surreal," he said.
Productions crews in October shot scenes for the film on location in Pennsylvania "due to seasonal requirements", he said.
The Lovely Bones is the story of 14-year-old Susie Salmon, played in the film by Irish actor Saoirse Ronan, who is raped and murdered and from heaven tells of the aftermath and impact on her family, community and murderer.
Jackson and partner Fran Walshe wrote the film screenplay drawn from the best-selling book of the same name by American author Alice Sebold, herself the victim of a brutal rape that sparked both The Lovely Bones and her memoir, Lucky. Ronan was in Wairarapa along with fellow cast member and Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz, Kiwi actors and extras, and film crew for the scenes shot in the region, the spokesman said.
Weisz plays Abigail Salmon, mother of the murdered girl in the film with Mark Wahlberg playing her father, Jack Salmon.
Owners of the property near Masterton where some scenes for the film were shot, who declined to be named, said production crews were "absolutely professional and really nice people".
"It was a great experience and important to Wairarapa because there's a chance of them coming back for other projects."
Last year Jackson shot a critically acclaimed short film over two days in Masterton, Crossing The Line, which is set during World War 1 and featured biplane dogfights, bayonet charges and 30 cast and crew. Scenes for the 10-minute work were shot at Hood Aerodrome in May using a $25,000 prototype Red One digital camcorder that boasts an advanced Mysterium sensor chip that produces "better than film" quality footage Crossing The Line, which drew plaudits from Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, was the first "masterpiece" shot in the world using the Red One camcorder, which is set to slash film production costs and revolutionise film making.
Jackson had also filmed on location at Cape Palliser in the late 90s during the shooting of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.