The Making of King Kong by Jenny Wake

When Jenny Wake from Napier got an email out of the blue from Universal Studios asking if she'd like to write a book on the The Making of King Kong, an official guide to Peter Jackson's motion picture, she blinked hard, and then read it again!

"It was just the most amazing thing. Universal Studios had just got the licence for the King Kong books, and here I was sitting in New Zealand right on Peter Jackson's doorstep! And I suppose it was really just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," she says, modestly, having never been published before.

"I was quite astounded. Looking back on it I suppose it's all about creating your own opportunities, in that you never really know what will come from doing your best in whatever you do and it's really worth doing things to the best of your possible ability because you never quite know what will come of it. Hidden doors may suddenly open."

And they did. Last year Jenny's agent in Los Angeles had put forward her proposal write a guide book to assist primary school teachers in the realm of producing children's theatre. While it was accepted, but later fell through, little did she realise then that an even greater proposal to write a different kind of guide book would spring from that disappointment.

By autumn this year, Jenny was off to Wellington to meet Peter Jackson.

"It was such a pleasure to meet him. He was tired but took time out to talk to me, lying down on the window seat in the kitchen of Wing Nuts (Peter's production company) and I felt like the psychiatrist asking about his early childhood!" she laughs.

"His inspiration to become a film-maker sprang from watching the original King Kong when he was nine years old. Flickering on television in black and grey, the classic movie really touched him, and led him on a colourful path to a brilliant career in film."

As the emotion welled in his heart and his eyes, Jenny says the young Peter was sobbing at the end.

"He told me he made this film for the Peter that was once nine years old, describing it as the perfect blend of mysterious adventure with a story that touches the heart."

Peter insisted from the start that the re-make be set in 1933 New York, so that he could use the iconic image of bi-planes in the fight on the Empire State Building.

"This meant all the sets had to made from scratch, including about six life-size blocks of New York - ground floor only! These were absolutely amazing, and so was the large-scale miniature creation of Skull Island. The design and computer graphic work, the huge miniatures and the plasticine creature models, were all intricately detailed. It was pure magic and I was able go everywhere. Watching Andy Serkis doing his Kong thing, was absolutely incredible. It was just wonderful to explore Peter Jackson's world, and I felt so privileged to be among all of these people who are at the top of their game. All of them were working to their absolute best, really stretching themselves, and yet you could feel the euphoric excitement as they were all living their dream."

Jenny had so much fun during her three-month project that, in terms of recalling a particular highlight, not one moment was eclipsed by another.

"Seeing the scope of Peter's vision, of a world that doesn't exist, was unbelievably overwhelming, and everyone involved had such an interesting and important role to play."

Now that The Making of King Kong has been launched, who knows what door will open next for Jenny? Meanwhile she goes back, with full passion, to her day job as a children's theatre director in the smaller, but nevertheless fascinating, world of make-believe.