Close Up: Kiwi at helm of Narnia 

It would be fair to say that the New Zealand film industry is home to some of the most imaginative minds in the business. And this Christmas the international box office belongs to not one but two New Zealand directors.

Peter Jackson's lifelong dream comes to fruition next week when King Kong premieres in New York.

While Shrek director Andrew Adamson gives us that magical C.S. Lewis classic, The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

"It's always hard because you've seen it so many times by the time you finish...I am very proud of the film and I still find myself emotional at times...Particularly when I see it with an audience and see them responding to the emotional parts," Adamson says.

The film is a huge flight of fancy, "particularly with the battle scenes" he says.

"C.S. Lewis wrote them so briefly and spent more time describing the meals than the battle and in some ways it was great as a director because it meant I could delve into my imagination and go back to my childhood and remember what I was imagining when I read them.

"In other cases it was a curse because it meant that everyone who had read the book, over 100 million people, they all had their own impression."

Adamson says he was very lucky to be making the film now because the technology is available to create the film as he saw it.

"We started developing Aslan about two and a half years ago because particularly with him, we wanted him to be as believable as any other character in the film," he says.

"That was the goal, to not make people think about the technology."

But despite the technology Adamson says some of the simple, intimate moments of the film were the most pleasing for him as a director.

"I love the scene when Lucy and Mr Tumnus first meet...it's relatively simple and a very genuine moment," he says.

New Zealand's scenery also came in for special mention from Adamson, who says one of the interesting things for him was to try and find places where Lord of the Rings didn't shoot.

"I can't believe they didn't shoot at Flock Hill, that was a stunning piece of scenery and Elephant Rocks outside of Oamaru....some really, really beautiful landscapes and then some at Muriwai."

Adamson says he takes any criticism very seriously, and the screening he was most nervous at was for children.

"It was such a changing experience for them, I wanted it to be rewarding."

It all matters he says, but at some point finishing a film involves to some degree letting go.

"I've made it as good as I can make it, within all the normal constraints, and now it is really up to the audience whether they like it or not."

The Chronicles of Narnia open in New Zealand on December 9.