King Kong on Queen St

Auckland's Civic Theatre.

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings had many New Zealand landscapes for locals to play a topographical guessing game and to induce foreign fans to come here as tourists.

In his version of King Kong, the locations are mostly a product of computer-enhanced movie sets.

But one Auckland icon gets its own big scene - the Civic Theatre doubles for the Broadway palace Alhambra, where showman Carl Denham reveals a chained Kong to a New York audience (all local extras), complete with dancing natives in black-face makeup.

Kong comes down with stage fright and does to the Civic what many a property developer once dreamed of.

"I know, and all they needed was a big ape," laughs Jackson. "They didn't need all those cranes and bulldozers and to get through the regulations. They just had to unleash Kong on the Civic."

"The irony is that we were so careful with the Civic. Obviously it's a place that is very precious and we were careful not to scratch it or do anything to damage it. All the chairs had to be removed by the staff if we had to lay our dolly tracks down.

"All the time I was thinking: 'I can't wait to see when Kong just trashes the place.'

"It's a beautiful theatre but that's the reason it makes it all the more fantastic when he unleashes on the Civic."