By Peter Mitchell
In the new action-adventure film Kong: Skull Island, stars Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Samuel L Jackson battle a 50m tall ape, a giant octopus and other weird beasts including the frightening skullcrawlers.
The creatures, thankfully for the actors, are computer generated.
The latest incarnation of King Kong.
What did freak out the Hollywood stars were the safety demonstrations and thick folders of information they received when they arrived in Queensland to shoot outdoor scenes in the scrub and forests of Tamborine Mountain, Tallebudgera Valley and the Paperbark Forest.
"The safety officer was incredibly detailed about the number of things in the jungle that could kill us - brown snakes, funnel web spiders, plants," London- born Hiddleston, who plays a former SAS black ops officer recruited to help an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island, said.
Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson in Kong: Skull Island. The film was filmed in parts of Queensland.Credit: Chuck Zlotnick
"There was one particular plant he showed us and said, 'We call it a wait-a while and we have given it that name because if you touch it with your bare skin it will make you wait-a while and you will be sent to hospital and emergency treatment."
Larson, who a year ago won the best actress Oscar for the drama Room, was petrified of encountering a snake or brushing up against the gympie gympie stinging tree.
"It ended up being OK, but when your initial introduction is: 'A large portion of the things here can kill you' I was like" 'I'm out!'," Larson, who plays a photo journalist in the movie, said.
"Pretty quickly we learned about the gympie gympie.
Samuel L. Jackson as Lieutenant Colonel Packard.Credit: Chuck Zlotnick
"We were doing a lot of running in scenes and there are these plants that have crazy thorns on them and snag you quite easily and if they get on your skin it causes a rash and the only way to stop the itching is to wax.
"So all of the hair and makeup people had waxing kits."
The cast were warned about brown snakes.
Kong: Skull Island is set in 1973 and while it is the latest Hollywood take on the giant ape King Kong, the film sets up future Warner Bros movies that will pit him against monsters in the Godzilla world.
If audiences want a sneak peek at future film storylines they should stay in their seats at the end of the movie for an extra scene after the credits.
Funnel web spiders also made the list.Credit: Jacky Ghossein
Kong's island is discovered when NASA's new ability to map the globe from space in 1973 identifies the mysterious island surrounded by a permanent violent storm system.
A military-led expedition, headed by Jackson as Vietnam War veteran Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard, lands on the island and Kong becomes just one major problem the group has to overcome.
Don't mess with King Kong.
The cast also shot the film in Vietnam and Hawaii.
Jackson, the 68-year-old veteran of more than 150 films, laughed about his co- stars' fears about Australia's dangerous fauna and flora, particularly the brown snakes.
"I grew up in the country so I know what to do," Jackson, raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, said.
"I create noise when I go places so I make sure anything that is around goes away by the time I get there."
Jason Mitchell, best known for playing NWA rapper Eazy-E in last year's biopic Straight Outta Compton, had a close call with a kangaroo on a Queensland koala reserve.
"They had a bunch of kangaroos - 60 of them laying out and chillin'," Mitchell said.
"I thought I'd see how close I could get to put something on Snapchat.
"So I get close to one that has a joey in its pouch and the kangaroo was looking at me like, '(Motherf***r) are you going to take another step?'
"I came a little close so the kangaroo pulled the joey behind it and looked at me like, '(Motherf***r) this is when you stop unless you want me to beat you up!'"
Some Queensland locals also proved to be pests.
Mitchell says he was shocked when he was in Brisbane with another Kong star, John C Reilly, and an excited but brash fan of Reilly's approached them.
"This guy walks up to us and says, 'I hate Step Brothers but Boogie Nights, that's my film'," Mitchell recalled.
"I was like, 'What do you mean? Step Brothers is a great movie.'
"John just handled it so well and shook the guy's hand."
Hiddleston also received some sobering advice from his Australian mate and longtime surfer Chris Hemsworth.
The actors became friends while starring in the Thor and Avengers films and Hiddleston, after learning how to surf when the Kong shoot was in Hawaii, drove down from the film's Gold Coast base to visit Hemsworth at his home in Byron Bay.
"I said I had been surfing and he said, 'You're not surfing here are you?'" Hiddleston laughed.
"At that particular time there had been some shark sightings so he was like: 'I wouldn't go in there right now, mate'."
Kong: Skull Island opens in Australia on Thursday, March 9.
AAP