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]

Richard Taylor, visual-effects supervisor of the upcoming fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, told SCI FI Wire that the weapons and miniatures built by his New Zealand-based Weta Workshop for the film were more detailed and elaborate than any they've ever done before.

"We had two and a half months to deliver two and a half thousand weapons," Taylor said in an interview on the set in Prague last May.

Although the weapons for the first Narnia film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, were created by hand, the sheer scale of the project this time called for a more automated approach.

"We've pushed ourselves further than we ever have before with our weaponry," Taylor said. "For Miraz's weapons, we actually used 3-D modeling technology, then printed them in wax and used [a few different] casting processes to actually manufacture the ornateness of the weapon. We just didn't have the skills to do that incredibly delicate filigree in any other way." [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]

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]

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]

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]