Peter Jackson's $3 Million Dollar 'Venture' ship sinks off the coast of Wellington; rust blamed.

The ship used in Peter Jackson's "King Kong" remake sank offshore near Wellington early this morning. Publicist Melissa Booth commented that the age of the ship and recent remodeling for filming contributed to its sinking. "It was a very old ship when we purchased it," she said, adding, "We managed to get the entire crew onto the life rafts before she started to seriously take on water.” She stated that no one was injured in the incident. 

The ship has been parked in Wellington's harbour for more than a year and had a recent mishap while filming scenes out in open water. Rust was blamed for causing a hole in the wall of the engine room that was later sealed with cement. 

Jackson has been filming "Kong" for a little over 118 days, as reported on the KongisKing website. The production is down to its last weeks of shooting, but Jackson's camp has not said what effect the sinking of the ship could have on their filming timetable.

"It slowly gets smaller and smaller and pretty soon feels almost like a home movie," Jackson stated in a recent Production Diary at the site.