Naomi Watts has had it easier: smooching with Sean Penn in 21 Grams, strutting her stuff in I Heart Huckabees, sharing her bed with the lovely Laura Harring in Mulholland Drive... Next to these sequences, tonight's King Kong shoot is not so much an ordeal as an abuse of her human rights. As the artificial rain falls on the coldest of Wellington evenings, Watts - somewhere between tiny and petite - is frog-marched through the spectacular Gates Of Kong set by two massive warriors before an audience comprising hundreds of shrieking Samoan and Maori natives.

Yes, tonight, Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts - or rather struggling actress Ann Darrow - is to be offered as a sacrifice to Skull Island's most famous resident, King Kong. And if the freezing temperatures, persistent precipitation and insane cacophony aren't bad enough, Watts accidentally slips her captors' grasp, her head bouncing off the rocky ground. It seems a sickening blow, but the actress gets back to her feet and finishes the take. "Cut!" Peter Jackson bellows into his bullhorn, bringing to a close the sort of epic scene that would elude most directors but has become his meat and drink. A smile then spreads across his bewhiskered face. "You're a trooper, Naomi," he shouts, a comment that provokes the sort of standing ovation more commonly seen at a sports stadium.

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