King Kong plane bound for museum

www.dompost.co.nz ^ | 19 May 2004 | KIM RUSCOE

[maquiladora]

A replica pre-World War II plane being built for Peter Jackson's King Kong movie will be housed at a new $3 million aviation museum in Blenheim when filming finishes in March next year.

Long-time plans to build the Aviation Centre and Business Park at Omaka Aerodrome took flight yesterday, getting a $2 million grant from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

To mark the occasion, the centre's creators flew into Wellington in a restored 1938 Lockheed 12 aircraft to meet Jackson and Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton.

Jackson, who does not have a pilot's licence but has his own World War I aircraft at Omaka, became involved in the project before filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy started in 1999.

"I'd love to learn to fly but I've never had the chance to concentrate on it . . . and flying is something that if I was going to do it, I would want to concentrate on it," he said.

Instead, he settled for wheeling out his vintage aircraft every two years for air shows.

A World War I aviation buff, Jackson said he would bring in his special effects team and art department – including Oscar-winning Richard Taylor – to help design "in their spare time" an authentic hangar, complete with oil-drenched dirt floors, aviation artefacts, mess room and waxwork dummies in period uniforms.

"It's not just a museum . . . it's a living environment. You'll be able to open up the hangar doors and wheel the planes out and fly them," he said.

"I've been collecting World War I memorabilia since I was eight. I can now get them out of the box they're stored in."

The replica 1930s Curtiss Helldiver being built for King Kong would be used as part of a static display at the museum. "We need to build it and use it in the movie first, but then it will have a home at Omaka."

Built in 1921, Omaka aerodrome is rich in history. Aviators Charles Kingsford Smith, Ernle Clark, Jean Batten and Arthur Clouston either started or finished pioneering flights there.

Marlborough Aviation Heritage Centre Trust chairman David Dew said the centre would be built in time for Omaka's Classic Fighters Airshow in April 2005.

[HairOfTheDog]

OK - I'll go see the King Kong movie! :~D

I haven't heard ~any~ details about EE RoTK. Certainly soon there will start to be some spoilers that get out, and we'll ping!

[weegee]

I don't doubt the director's ability but he can't do much to eliminate eye-rolling from a ham of an actor. He can minimize that actor's patented gimmick by minimizing his screen time but frankly Jack Black doesn't have depth.

It's like the director of Heathers who said that Christian Slater's "Jack Nicholson" impersonation was all wrong for the part, fire the actor and replace him (he wasn't a name then) or else get him to shape up.

The director is in charge but doesn't always get the performance out of an actor that he needs (Marlon Brando has phoned in his performances for decades and even Dustin Hoffman has done this a lot in the last decade).

And for the record I still don't like Michael Keaton's performance as "Batman".