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A bit of Hollywood once again comes to New Zealand shores as filming gets underway on the sequel movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series - Prince Caspian.
Filming in the North and South Island begins next Tuesday for six weeks. New Zealand director Andrew Adamson says it is sad they are in New Zealand for such a short time.
He says the lack of infrastructure and staging for film crews caused huge headaches while filming the first movie in the series, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Adamson says a lot of the film had to be shot in equestrian centres and tin sheds because of the lack of sound stages, and as a result a lot of time had to be spent "looping" - or re-recording - the actors' dialogue, which slows everything down.
He says this time they are now only filming New Zealand scenes for the start and the end of the film to avoid the same delays, because after scouting all over the world for locations the producers found New Zealand does offer some crucial scenery found nowhere else.
The director says there are no areas in Europe which have not been felled and re-grown at some point, so finding really old forests becomes very difficult - whereas the whole west coast of the South Island consists largely of ancient forest.
Sound stages at Pinewood Studios in England are now going to be Narnia's home, while other exterior scenes look set to be filmed in Europe. It is understood much of the post-production and special effects work will also be carried out in the UK, thus qualifying the film for new government tax breaks worth 20% of the producers' UK expenditure.
Adamson says he will not be directing the third Narnia film as part three, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, will start production before he has completed Prince Caspian.
