'X-Men' film upsets local council

The production crew working on the new X-Men movie has been ordered to re-locate its explosives after upsetting the district council.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is shooting in New Zealand and Fox Studios had been granted approval by the Department of Labour to house explosives in the Queenstown Fun Centre.

However, it was found that this agreement clashed with the council's lease and so the explosives have been removed.

The council's chief executive Duncan Field explained: "We would not normally grant the right to use this building for storage but the fun centre, which has always struggled financially, came to us and said look we have this offer.

"A member of the public made us aware of it first," continued Field. "We've raised it with the film crew and they've immediately removed the explosives.

"I don't think anybody anticipated that explosives were going to be stored there. I think someone in the film crew had a bright idea and it turned out to be the wrong one."

The shooting of the action film has already caused inconvenience for the local ice hockey players. They now have to practise elsewhere while the Fun Centre's ice rink is dried out and used by the film's production team for storage.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is due for release in the US in May 2009.