Movie moguls plan Hollywood showcase for New Zealand capital

Two of New Zealand's silver screen moguls are to put their own memorabilia and cash into a combined Movie Museum and convention center in the heart of Wellington.

The maker of the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies, Peter Jackson, and his partner in the Weta Group of film industry companies, Richard Taylor, received the provisional go-ahead for the plan Tuesday from the Wellington City Council.

The two have formed The Movie Museum Limited (TMML) company to realize their dream of a movie museum in Wellington that brings together material from their film projects as well their own world-renowned movie collections.

"From small beginnings, Wellington is today a thriving centER of film-making creativity and excellence, creating thousands of jobs for New Zealanders and attracting major film and television productions and some of the best directors, producers, actors, artists and technicians from around the world," TMML project director George Hickton said in a statement.

The museum would include the award-winning, Hollywood-scale productions the Weta Group had helped make and encompass one of the most valuable collections of Hollywood memorabilia anywhere in the world.

It would house thousands of the priceless designs, props, models and set pieces from the numerous film productions, from whole worlds to single weapons, creatures to costumes, make-up to miniatures, vehicles and more, said Hickton.

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said the project would identify Wellington as the home of film where five of the world's 12 highest-grossing films of all time were produced.

"This will be a unique convention center for the Australasian market, transforming our offering from a service facility to an amazing experience for visitors, delegates and tourists alike," Wade-Brown said in a statement.

The council anticipated the museum would attract 310,000 people annually by its third year of operation and the convention center would provide about 62,000 "delegate days" a year.

The council would construct the three-level building, which would include convention center for up to 1,100 people on the top floor and The Movie Museum would lease the lower two floors.

The combined facility, including the land, will cost an estimated 134 million NZ dollars (89.11 million U.S. dollars).

The council was expected to make a final decision on the initiative in April 2016.

Over the past 25 years, the Weta companies have provided physical and digital effects for films including I Robot, Van Helsing, The Last Samurai, The Legend of Zorro, Avatar and The Adventures of Tintin. Endit