Peter Jackson's $134 Million 'Disneyland' Plan For NZ Museum

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is putting millions of his own dollars into a plan to build a movie museum and convention centre which has been likened to Disneyland in Wellington.

The $134 million project is expected to get the green light from Wellington City Council this afternoon.

Jackson and fellow Weta founder Sir Richard Taylor are backing the project, and have promised to donate their own extensive collection of movie memorabilia to the museum if councillors vote in favour of the development.

Wellington deputy mayor Justin Lester said it would be like "the Weta Cave times 100".

The three-storey joint convention centre and combined movie museum will sit on the capital's waterfront, close to Te Papa.

The museum would "rival Te Papa", and would be similar in importance as Disneyland was for California when it first opened, deputy mayor Justin Lester told Radio New Zealand.

"Likewise I think this project will become synonymous with Wellington," he said. "For an international tourist coming to New Zealand I think this will be the most significant manmade attraction.

"I think it will be really large, it will put Wellington front and centre in the tourist map, so we'll see a lot more people coming to Wellington, no one will by pass the city."

Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor at work on the set of King Kong. Photo / Pierre Vinet, supplied

He added: "It's a bit like Hobbiton really, but much larger and much bigger, and they [Hobbiton] have 400,000 visitors [a year]."

The museum could be "from an international perspective, possibly a larger drawcard" than Te Papa, Mr Lester said. Te Papa draws more than a million visitors every year.

"All of the memorabilia Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Richard Taylor have acquired over the years from their films, but also other memorabilia that they've also acquired, will all be on display, [in] over 10,000sq m right in the heart of the CBD."

A budget of just over $130 million has already been budgeted for the joint project in the council's 10 year plan, Mr Lester said.

At work on the set of Brain Dead. Photo / Supplied

"We set aside a bunch of money for two projects in our long terms plan, we've already budgeted for it, so there will be no burden to ratepayers."

Sir Peter and Sir Richard would fund the internal fit-out, which was expected to run into the millions of dollars.

"This is huge for the city, I don't think it can be understated really. This is massive," Mr Lester said.

"We've been talking about the movie museum ever since The Lord of the Rings took off in the early 2000s, and finally we're getting some traction."

The council is expected to approve the convention centre today, and vote to confirm it can buy the land for the movie museum.

"It will still go out for public consultation on the movie museum and we'll confirm that early in 2016, but we'll definitely confirm the convention centre this afternoon," Mr Lester told Radio New Zealand.

The council will hold a closed meeting at 2.30pm today to vote on the proposal, and a media conference is planned for afterwards.More details are expected to be released then.

Mark McGuinness of property developer Willis Bond who is involved in the project, said it was "premature" to discuss the details of the movie museum when the council had yet to formally decide whether it would go ahead with it.

"As a project we think it's very exciting, and fantastic for Wellington," he said.

"It's all about having a lot of different reasons for people to visit the city in a tourism sense, and [the movie museum] is another very strong string to the bow."

He added: "Ultimately it's for the councillors to decide whether they're in favour or not, but certainly all the indications I get is that people are enthusiastic about it."

- NZME.