Styles & Scenes

Party on Skull Island, anyone?

Hey, got any plans for Friday, March 3?

Wanna stop by Skull Island (inside the Beverly Hills Hotel) and sip some of New Zealand's 42 Below vodka-infused green jungle juice, Kong's favorite way to wash down screaming natives?

Then stick around for a lavish dinner (fresh New Zealand lamb, passion fruit dessert) in the hotel's Rodeo Ballroom, with elegant décor inspired by the ‘30s Art Deco design, and sprinkled with stars like Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Dominic Monaghan and Viggo Mortensen?

And do you want to stay for made-for-the-occasion new videos from Peter Jackson (“King Kong”) and Andrew Adamson (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”)?

Of course you do.

And so does everyone in Hollywood, anxious to swing an invite to the Fifth Annual Celebration of New Zealand Filmmaking and Creative Talent, otherwise known as the wild 'n' wooly Kiwi pre-Oscar bash.

This year the event celebrates seven Academy Award nominations for “Kong” and “Narnia,”  along with other movies filmed in New Zealand or helmed by Kiwis: “The World's Fastest Indian” (Anthony Hopkins), “River Queen” (Kiefer Sutherland and Samantha Morton), “North Country” (directed by Niki Caro and starring Charlize Theron), “The Legend of Zorro " (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas and “No. 2”, (with Ruby Dee). “Narnia” producer Mark Johnson has already signed on as a guest speaker.

“It’s a celebration of New Zealand achievements in the world of cinema on the eve of the Academy Awards,” says New Zealand Consul General Rob Taylor. “It’s a celebration of our talent, our creativity and our innovation.”

The event is infamous for being the loosest weekend party preceding those stuffy Oscars. In recent years, it's where vintner Sam Neill held up the bar, “Xena: Warrior Princess” Lucy Lawless rocked out onstage and Russell Crowe swooped through the party, offending everyone within earshot.

Lord only knows what could happen this year when Jackson's big ape gets the party started.

Photo: "Kong" stars Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts may be back on Skull Island again for the New Zealand pre-Oscar party.
(Universal Studios)

Gregory Peck: the first Aslan

In the beginning, there was Gregory Peck.

Long before Liam Neeson was cast as the voice of Aslan, the noble lion in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the film's visual effects team had to get to work.

“We needed to find a way to model the performance to create the essence of the noble, all-powerful lion,” explained Dean Wright, the film's Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor, “So we used Gregory Peck in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' His Atticus Finch performance has some of the same regal qualities we wanted, so we used frames of Peck from that film to create movements for Aslan. That helped us build our library of movements, emotions and expressions so that when Liam gave his performance, it gelled perfectly with our Aslan.”

According to Wright, Aslan is “the single most remarkable achievement in CG character animation and technology.” Not only does Aslan deliver a wide range of emotions equal to any human actor but he also looks real, indistinguishable from a live lion in every scene, right down to his matted and always-moving fur.

And the one "Narnia" scene Wright is constantly asked about is the one in which Lucy Pevensie grabs Aslan’s fur as they’re walking through the woods.

“That was one of those surreptitious moments in filming when Lucy [Georgie Henley] reaches out and naturally grabbed 'Stuffy' [the stuffed Aslan head] just the right way and we were able to blend that with our CG counterpart,” Wright explains. “These kids did such an amazing job acting with ping pong balls and stuffed heads. The kids are always hugging Aslan in the film and it looks wonderful onscreen but from a technical viewpoint, it’s daunting. So to be able to make them interact that closely with a digital creation was just amazing.”

Wright and the technical Oscar-nominated team that created “Narnia,” including Howard Berger (best achievement in makeup) and his fellow best achievement in visual effects nominees, Jim Berney (Imageworks) Bill Westenhofer (Rhythm & Hues) and Scott Farrar (Industrial Light & Magic) came out of their respective wardrobes Wednesday for Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s DVD preview "bruncheon" on the Imageworks lawn.

Photo: Aslan looks as noble as Atticus Finch in the famous courtroom scene of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
(Buena Vista Home Entertainment)

After lunch...