LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - New Zealand is home to a thriving film industry, one that has produced movies like the internationally acclaimed "Whale Rider." It was an early adopter of incentives that attract outside productions. It's also the home of Peter Jackson's effects companies, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, and their impact on New Zealand's film industry cannot be underestimated.

Weta has grown from a boutique effects house serving only Jackson's projects to one that services production the world over. And that has provided New Zealand with an edge that is as sharp as Aragorn's sword. [More]

From movieweb.com: From the imaginations of AnnaSophia Robb and Josh Hutcherson, comes the new film, Bridge to Terabithia. But, those creatures didn't just come out of no where - the good people at WETA worked tirelessly to get them looking spectacular. The film is an adaptation of the children's novel by Katherine Patterson; it's directed by Gabor Csupo, of Nickelodeon cartoon fame.

I had the chance to speak with Matt Aitken, one of the animators at the New Zealand workshop about creating the world of Terabithia. He told me making this land was a little different than working on King Kong and The Lord Of The Rings. [More]

New Line's option to make The Hobbit expires in 2009; maybe they don't think Peter Jackson can get the movie made in time. The company is also already turning its attention to another mega-budgeted fantasy franchise, the His Dark Materials trilogy. But the studio's motivations became more clear in January, when New Line co-CEO Robert Shaye couldn't refrain from a retort.

"I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me. It will never happen during my watch," he said, and then referred to Jackson as "misinformed" and "myopic." [More]

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Some very cool TV on DVD like 'All in the Family - S6', 'Beauty and the Beast - S1', 'Conan O'Brien 10th Anniv Special' & the entire series of the great American sitcom 'Men Behaving Badly'. The big releases of the week are 'The Departed' & 'School for Scoundrels'. Personally I'm interested in 'Hercules and the Captive Women/Hercules, Prisoner of Evil' & 'Marie Antoinette'! Check out the whole list here! [More]

Jack Black and Kyle Gass were on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' in the form of Tenacious D last week on ABC. They were there to promote 'The Pick of Destiny' on DVD. Take a look at the interview, and the amazing quasi-sports event 'Touch the Head' here!

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters Life!) - King Kong climbed it, thousands have proposed at the top of it, and its lights change color to match special events. On Wednesday, New York's Empire State Building, a 102-storey Art Deco skyscraper in the heart of New York City, added another award to a long list of accolades, topping a public poll of favorite architecture in the United States. The top 150 works across the United States were chosen from a preselected list of 248 structures in a poll conducted by market researcher Harris Interactive and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). [More]

Howard Webster - editor of Factory magazine writes: We will shortly be posting a free downloadable version of the Ian McKellen shoot we did for one of our recent editions on line at factory-publishing.com.

Howard's photography site, howardwebsterphotography.com, features some preview images of McKellen. You will also see images of William Moseley - who plays Peter King of Narnia shot last year and Ken Kamins - Peter Jackson's manager.

The prize for Best Special Effects at this year's Imagina Awards, held in Monte Carlo on February 1, 2007, was jointly awarded to Framestore CFC and Weta Digital for the VFX work on X-Men: The Last Stand. The award - one of Imagina's famous glass teapots - was accepted on behalf of the company by joint CEO William Sargent. X-Men: The Last Stand opened in May 2006 around the world, breaking many box-office records. Directed by Brett Ratner and starring Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart, the film is a 20th Century Fox production. The film's VFX Supervisor was John Bruno. [More]

Paul Davids writes: My film, THE SCI-FI BOYS, premieres Wednesday on Sci Fi Channel at 8 pm in Los Angeles if you have a direct feed cable system such as DISH NETWORK (otherwise it will screen at 11 pm, the time it screens in NY - please check your schedules). Same situation with mountain time and central time - could show up in your schedule at 9 pm mountain time and 10 pm central time, or it could show same time as it does in NY (11 pm).

Synposis: Legendary all-stars of cinema bring to life the evolution of science-fiction and special effects films from the wild and funny days of B-movies to blockbusters that have captured the world's imagination. This is the story of the Sci-Fi Boys, who started out as kids making amateur movies inspired by Forrest J Ackerman's FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine and grew up to take Hollywood by storm, inventing the art and technology for filming anything the mind can dream

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Some very cool aimation out like 'Amazing Screw-On Head', 'Hellboy: Sword of Storms', 'Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo' & 'Last Unicorn'. The big releases of the week are 'Hollywoodland' & 'Flags of Our Fathers'. Be sure to check out the new Bond re releases 'For Your Eyes Only', 'Goldeneye', 'Goldfinger', 'Licence to Kill', 'Spy Who Loved Me' & 'Thunderball'. Personally I'm interested in 'Amazing Screw-On Head' & 'Hellboy'! Check out the whole list here! [More]