Mr. Grooism sends this along: A one-night only special event paying tribute to über-icon (and Film Forum member) Fay Wray (1907-2004) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth, will take place on Tuesday, September 18 at Film Forum at 7:45 pm, with a screening of Erich Von Stroheim's silent masterwork THE WEDDING MARCH (1928), Wray's first important role and her own personal favorite A 35mm print from the Library of Congress, complete with early Technicolor sequences, will be screened, with live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner. [More]

JOE MORGENSTERN writes: This fall Peter Jackson will be in Pennsylvania directing "The Lovely Bones," his screen version of the haunting Alice Sebold novel that inhabits both heaven and earth. For now, though, he's still working on preparations for the film at Weta, his production facility in the modest Wellington suburb of Miramar. On a New Zealand winter's day of brisk breezes and heavenly sunshine I visited him at Weta, which was named after a giant insect endemic to this country and has been fed by giant revenues from "The Lord of the Rings."

I'd been told by his people that it was to be a social visit. Freely translated, that meant he didn't want to sit still for yet another interview or profile, and understandably so. Translating more freely, I took it to mean he also didn't want to discuss his legal disputes with New Line, the Hollywood studio that produced the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. All of that was fine with me, since I had no agenda, apart from hearing what the reigning master of fantasy might have to say about the movie business and its foreseeable future -- maybe even its unforeseeable future -- and getting some idea of the scope of Weta, which has become a one-of-a-kind cauldron of creativity, as well as raw computing power. [more]

The first children’s picture book to be illustrated by artists from the award-winning Weta Workshop is due to be launched in September, New Zealand Book Month. Featuring a little rescue helicopter, Champ the Chopper is the first book in a series written by local author Rebekah Palmer with the illustrations done by artists from Weta Workshop, Daniel Falconer and Chris Guise. [More]

From wetanz.com: Every species has a family they depend on for food, water, shelter and love. So why not a scary creature from Skull Island, too?

This illustration, by Weta Designer Greg Broadmore, was created as part of the concept series, when Peter Jackson was working with Weta to create ideas for the King Kong film.

Says Greg: "This was one of the first designs I did for the flying creature in Kong: Terapus Mordax. Peter really liked the look of Sphinx Cats which are hairless and sometimes have a lot of excess skin."

The idea was to make an extremely uncouth and bizarre looking thing, to make a flying creature as horrible as possible. (as opposed to the brief for the rest of the creatures on Skull island which were all cutesy fluff balls)." [More]

Director Peter Jackson has announced that two young local girls will star in his up-coming feature film The Lovely Bones. The movie is due to start shooting later this year, when the two Kiwi unknowns will be rubbing shoulders with an impressive list of Hollywood's elite already cast for Jackson's next big movie. The Lovely Bones is the story of a young girl who is murdered, then watches her family grieve from heaven. [More]

Multiple Oscar-winner Weta Workshop will be key to Tourism New Zealand's new campaign to promote the country to overseas tourists. Animated images of Maui hauling the North Island from the sea have been devised by Richard Taylor's creative artists to re-launch the 100% New Zealand campaign. [More]

The folks at WETA send along their latest updates on all things geeky from the Kiwi hotspot in Wellington. [More]

For years speculation has raged that director Peter Jackson was making a World War I movie. Then secretly, in April this year, he did. The film, Crossing the Line, features biplane dogfights, bayonet charges and 30 cast and crew. It was filmed in Jackson's second home-town of Masterton - home to his palatial mansion and estate - and has had rave reviews at audience screenings. It's length? Fifteen minutes. Time taken to shoot? Just a few days. [More]

The technology that brought Gollum to life in the Lord of the Rings movies is now being used to treat injuries. Until recently, wound care nurses had to rely on their eyes and their memory to monitor progress, commonly injecting probes to test the depth of a wound. But now it is all hands off. The Silhouette Mobile uses lasers to record not only a wound's width, but its depth. The measurements are stored on the camera's computer and then compared to previous recordings, mapping the wounds exact progress. [More]

Andy Serkis has swapped the technical difficulties of playing characters such as Gollum in Lord of the Rings, and the giant ape in King Kong, for a role as Hoodwink, a tough local kingpin on a rundown London council estate in Sugarhouse. "He's a very visceral character and he's a very physical character. I suppose the fact of the matter is I'm surprised that more people aren't like Hoodwink," says Serkis. "I think most people live on the edge. How many times have you got into a car and someone's beeping their horn behind you - there's only that much between them getting out of their car and doing serious damage? The thing is [Hoodwink] doesn't have a limiter." [More]

From the Geek Gods at WETA: Thanks to everyone who visited the WETA stand at Comic Con. Attached are are few highlights from the Weta crew. The Rayguns statue gathered alot of attention, and creator of Dr Grordbort's world, Greg Broadmore, was on hand to answer media and fan enquiries. The show exclusive, the Miniature ManMelter, completely sold out, and a little birdy tells me they are going for three times the original price on Ebay! [More]