The chase will be filmed in segments, starting near Royal Hawaiian Avenue in the morning and finishing in the afternoon with a screeching U-turn near the intersection of Kalakaua and Monsarrat avenues, said Ginger Peterson, location manager for the pilot.

"We’re hoping it will look really fabulous," she said today.

The pilot, whose title was changed from "Pearl City" to "Hawai'i," began filming Wednesday at various O'ahu locations. The hope among local film industry officials is that it will become TV series shot in the Islands.

On Monday, preparation and filming will run from approximately 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

But despite being prime-time for one of the state’s top tourist destinations — Waikiki has a daily population approaching 100,000 tourists and workers — film organizers promise the car chase will have a minimal impact.

More than 30 special duty Honolulu police officers and 20 production assistants will be stationed along the route, Peterson said.

"It will be completely safe for pedestrians," Peterson said. "We won’t be holding up cars for any more than six minutes at a block."

Several weeks of planning have gone into preparations, much of it to ensure that gridlock will not occur in busy Waikiki, said Walea Constantinau, commissioner for the Honolulu Film Office.

"They are not going to be blocking off major portions of the road for the day," she said today. "They are going to use intermittent traffic control. It means they stop traffic for a few minutes to do their thing and let the traffic flow when they’re done."

Areas normally used for metered parking will be taken up by production crews, however, she said.

NBC initially wanted to shut down Kalakaua Avenue for an entire day, something local officials rejected, Constantinau said.

But showing off Waikiki was simply irresistible, even it came from the viewpoint of a speeding police car.

"The scene is they are supposed to be driving down Kalakaua and they get a call for someone to go after and they hit the gas," she said. "It is a matter of capturing him as he progresses down the street."

The stunt driver won’t "get up to real speed" during filming, Constaninau said.

Viewers will never know that.

"You know they do movie magic," she said, "and it makes cars look like they are going a lot faster."