Keeping 'King Kong' under tight security control

Security experts plan to keep King Kong, one of the year's most anticipated movies, out of the hands of pirates.

Night-vision goggles will be used at early screenings of the Peter Jackson film to make sure no one is videotaping it to make illegal copies.

All reels of the film will be held in vaults and transported under escort.

The New Zealand distributor, United International Pictures, said this week that there would be "air-tight" security over the printing process.

King Kong is due for international release on December 14.

The copying and selling of movies has become a big blackmarket business around the world.

Illegal dealers try desperately to get movies before or around the time of release. They distribute copies on disks which can be easily packaged in bulk and smuggled around the world.

Universal Studios recently hosted a screening for 200 distributors and exhibitors in Wellington to show them the first footage of the remake of the 1933 classic.

The company's Peter Garner said it was such a confidential screening he was not able to comment further.

A spokeswoman for Jackson's Wingnut Films also refused to comment on security at the screening, held at the company's private cinema.

The Motion Picture Association's New Zealand representative, Kevin Holland, said the industry took seriously the job of keeping movies secure from pirates.

But within 72 hours of some movies premiering, pirated DVD copies were on sale in the markets of Asia. Pirated DVDs of Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers flooded the market after being copied from disks sent to Oscar judges.

Piracy is estimated to cost the movie industry US$3 billion ($4 billion) a year.