This is exciting news. Peter Jackson - director of the LOTR trilogy - plans on filming a remake of 'King Kong' entirely in New Zealand, with a tentative release sometime in 2005. Click on THIS LINK for more information.

Magikman

I enjoyed LOTR ( I've only seen the first one) but some of Peter Jacksons older stuff is pretty unique . His old slasher movies are really gorry and Heavenly Creatures was just odd . Mind you if your into Steven King you'll probably enjoy Heavenly Creatures.
I just hope he does King Kong (the ultimate chic flik ) justice.

Godzilla was remade, it wasn't very good.

Planet of the Apes was remade, it wasn't very good.

King Kong will be remade, let's hope it strives to be better than those.

I agree with the Space Mouse! What, did I spell it bad?

Planet of the Apes wasn't good even with Tim Burton for realisator...

I hope they won't turn it into a dumb movie...

Hopefully Peter Jackson will make a good job of 'King Kong', I can see it being quite a success if Lord Of The Rings is anything to go by.

I always thought he might try a prequel to LOTR in the form of a movie adaption of 'The Hobbit'. But then, there's still plenty of time for that.

How Disapointing, I hate King Kong films.
The remake of "Planet of the Apes" was the worst film I'v ever seen!

QUOTE (Halo_Jones @ Apr 10 2003, 11:01 AM)

The remake of "Planet of the Apes" was the worst film I'v ever seen!

Aw, Halo, didn't seeing Marky Mark make up for it?

King kong? lets hope that it does not have "the hulk" style cgi!

I personally hate it when Hollywood remakes movies that do not need to be remade. Godzilla was a horrible, horrible movie. I just want to forget that Planet of the Apes was remade. I think Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake will most likely be horrible. Especially since Michael Bay produced it. He will probably add some huge explosions throughout the movie. However I do love Peter Jackson and I have a feeling that he will not screw up.

Its out today in the UK.... unfortunately going to work soon. But I'll be going to an early showing tommorrow

It's awesome. Probably the most fun film I've seen all year.

A thread from over two years ago? lol Talon you could have posted in one much more recent.

I wanna see this movie so bad. I tried to go yesterday, but I chose to stay with my parents (I go to social work today yanno?). Well, I'll watch it on January, along with Chronicles of Narnia

I just hate there being multiple threads on the same issue


One of the guys from work came straight from it, thats what I would have done if my shift had started 2 hours later.

I'm torn between seeing Narnia this weekend, or Kong.
It'll probably be Kong.

I'll probably watch King, then go watch Narnia right afterwards. I'm in no rush to go home so long as my Anime downloads keeps running.

Well I saw King King, and it was fantastic. The Kong/V-Rex fight scene far outlived my expectations.

Good! Glad someone else was as pleased as me. There is a bunch of negative commentary going on at IMDB that is getting on my nerves.

I'm seeing it on Sunday. Sweet.

I saw Jack Black on Conan last night, it was really funny. I'm going to be looking for his 'sexually aroused curiosity mingled with fear' face throughout the whole movie. I've seen alot of clips now. The Bronto stampede, the T-Rex fight, etc. It does really look amazing.

The Bronto stampede, while exciting, has the worst CGI effects of the whole movie. Too bad, but it's still overall good.

But the V-Rex battle... Holy *bleep*. It will, as Tenacious D would say, rock your f'n socks off. Kong is my hero.

Why is it called a V-Rex?

"First I get Sexualy aroused, then I get the fear look!" Conan was funny last night. Haven't watched it in months and when I finally do it's a episode worth watching.

Good question.

I think because they are farther evolved than T Rex? Maybe.

http://shop.newline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=35988

Maybe it's like a half raptor half rex.

How could anyone complain about this movie?




Oh yeah, he had that face all the time. I don't think he really knew what was happening for the most part.




Because its a Venatosaurus Rex (Ravager-Lizard-King) not a T-Rex. Its far bigger than a T-Rex, more the the size of a Giganotosaurus (which was the largest land carnovour, not T-rex, its just they only discovered Giganotosaurus in 1997 so it doesn't get much staring roles.... in fact I think Dino Crisis 2 was the only thing I've seen one in, where it ate the T-rex).
But anyway, T-rex was a dwarf compared to the V-Rex, so my guess is Jackson didn't think T-rex was evil looking enough and was too small to fight Kong, so he simply said 'you know, we've got 65 million years of evolution to deal with here, lets beef it up'. And he's right, after 65 million years, T-rex would have likely changed, especially when its on an island with a 25 foot talll gorilla.


But yeah, the advert doesn't even stratch the surface on what the V-rex fight scene turns out to be.

That's an excellent description, thanks.

Jurassic Park 3 kinda tried to scrape the surface of what Dino Crisis 2 portrayed as the evil T-Rex killing monster. That was dumb though. In all honesty, i feel sorry for the T-Rex and his fall from the hollywood throne. All he's done in the past while is be killed or just not turn up. Poor Tyrant King.

But yeah, there definately would be evolution. That's aweosme i'm happy Jackson did that. Still has the stumpy arms though.

Check out the IMDB message boards. It's full of negativity. I don't know what those people were expecting!

And thanks for the info on the dino!

Tried, but it wants me to register an account...... I can't be bothered.

But I can guess, they're probably moaning thats the effects are rubbish, the acting is rubbish, kong wasn't evil enough, the girl didn't scream enough, kong didn't bit enough heads off, etc etc Basically anything they can think of.

He's not supposed to be mean.

Man is the monster, not Kong.

Well I know that but it doesn't stop people complaining.

I think they did a far better job of the city scene than the original, especially when Kong finds the girl.
I also think they did a better job making Kong more human-like, in how he gets embarrassed, ignores you if you hurt him, laughs, and plays in the snow.

The biggest complaints are:

1.) it's too long

2.) it's too boring

3.) the effects are bad

4.) Jack Black and Adrien Brody are terrible

5.) the last line is stupid

The last line (which *duh* comes from the orginal) is one of my favorite lines in cinema history. These whiners are idiots.

Damn this sounds good.

Burns, Kong will make you cry.

King Kurng does not cry.
*thumps chest*

We'll see...

I hope more people chime in after they see it. After reading all of those awful comments on IMDB, I want to hear some positives.

Its only three hours, thtas becomming pretty common for movies



I'm sorry, did they see this movie?



I'll agree sometimes the ship and liferaft seemed a little too obviously CGI, but did these people not see the dinosaurs, giant bugs, and the 25 foot tall Gorilla? They looked fantastic

I know. I think some people complain just to complain.

king kong is awesome! and peter jackson is a new zealander! woo hoo!

Awww.... I wanna see it sooooo bad...., but I don't wanna see Kong die!!!!!

And that is not a spoiler, I'm just assuming because that is what happens in the first!

Well its a spoiler if you hadn't seen the first one
However, I'm pretty sure most people will know the rough story of the original.

King Kong takes $18m in first day
Peter Jackson's version of King Kong took $18m (£10.1m) worldwide in its first day on release but looks unlikely to set a US record haul.
The remake, one of the biggest launches in US film history, took $9.8m (£5.5m) in one day in the US and Canada.

Spider-Man took $114.8m in its opening weekend in 2002 while Revenge of the Sith, the final Star Wars film, took $158.5m in four days this year.

King Kong opened in the UK on Thursday, a day after its US launch.

US box office experts said some factors worked against the $200m film, including children still being in school and the fact that it is not a sequel to a blockbuster like the later Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies.

"It's a little too early to say what this means for King Kong," said Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com.

"Based on exit polls, fans who did come out are all loving it."

Record opening

Nikki Rocco, head of film-makers Universal Pictures' US distribution arm, said it was "a great way to start out".


"With $10m and 1.5 million people out there talking about how great it is, it all works to build what we think will be a holiday smash hit."

David Kosse, Universal's president of international marketing and distribution, added that the film had set records throughout southeast Asia.

It had also given the studio its biggest opening day in the United Arab Emirates, Denmark and Russia, he added.

Universal is screening the film in 3,568 US cinemas. Shrek 2 holds the record for a movie launch, opening in 4,163 cinemas last year.

King Kong took a further $8m when it opened in 36 other countries.

By the time it has opened in another 19 countries, including the UK, the film will be screened in a total of more than 6,000 cinemas.

The film has generally received rave reviews in the US and UK.

Annual drop

Some of the most popular Hollywood films ever released have had slow US openings.


When Titanic and Tomorrow Never Dies opened in the same week in December 1997 they had similiar success, with director James Cameron's film taking $28m, compared to $25m for the James Bond movie.

Titanic, which starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, went on to become the top-grossing film of all time with $1.8bn in worldwide ticket sales.

Meanwhile, US box office experts say the release of a flurry of blockbusters will not stop the largest drop in audience levels for 20 years.

This year's box office level is expected to be down by around 6% on 2004, the highest reduction since admissions fell 12% in 1985.

Box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations said the success of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire reduced the deficit to 7.3% but overall ticket sales are set to finish at about 1.4bn, the lowest level since 1997.

The release of King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are expected to reduce the gap further but the total US box office could fall below $9bn for the first time since 2001.

Exhibitor Relations president Paul Dergarabedian added that the expected success of King Kong and Narnia would provide "a psychological boost" for the US film industry.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/ente...ent/4533918.stm

The enduring appeal of King Kong
By Stephen Dowling
BBC News


As Peter Jackson's new version of King Kong receives its world premiere on Monday, the BBC News website looks at the lasting legacy of the original film.
King Kong has become one of the most enduring monster films of all time - not bad for a picture made 72 years ago, starring an 18-inch model ape.

Co-directed by the maverick film-makers Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack, it was made decades before the computer-generated special effects seen in contemporary fantasy films.

The tale of a gigantic ape who falls for a beautiful woman was partly shot using the stop motion technique - where Kong and dinosaur miniatures were moved an infinitesimal amount, shot, moved again, re-shot, moved again...

'Absolutely staggering'

The revolutionary but painstaking technique thrilled 1933 cinemagoers.

And its effect - even in these days of computer-generated epics - has not lessened.

Documentary maker and film historian Kevin Brownlow, who has made a film about Cooper, says King Kong was an "absolutely staggering" film on its 1933 release.


"People hadn't seen anything like it," he says.

"A lot of people have called it the greatest picture they have ever seen, like Ray Harryhausen, who spent the rest of his life using the same techniques as King Kong's."

Nick Setchfield, features editor of SFX magazine, says that at its heart, King Kong is a "really primal tale of adventure".

"It's a tale of going after the unknown, and finding something very big and very scary and very, very hairy."

It's a tale with an enduring effect.

Decades after its release, King Kong, made a huge impact on a certain nine-year-old boy, watching it on TV in Pukerua Bay, a tiny coastal village near Wellington, New Zealand.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson - that nine-year-old boy in question - has long regarded the 1933 film as his biggest inspiration to be a film-maker.

'Labour of love'

As a teenager he tried to make his own low-budget version of it, and is said to have cut up his mother's fur coat to help make the miniature model. Making his own version of Kong became a pet project.


King Kong had already been remade, but the 1976 version, starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, is seen as a lacklustre effort.

After his Lord of the Rings success, Jackson persuaded film studio United International Pictures (UIP) that he could do justice to the great ape.

But Kong has been anything but a cheap shoot.

In the red

The original budget of $150m (£87.3m) proved too little; UIP raised it again to $175m (£101m) but that again proved to be optimistic.

Kong's final budget ended up as $207m (£120m) - and Jackson and his production company shared a fine for taking the ape's tale into the red.

But can it thrill modern audiences like the original did?

"It's difficult for the new film to have anything close to the initial reaction that the original Kong had just because audiences have higher expectations and are more savvy these days," says Empire magazine's features editor Ian Freer.


And both Mr Freer and Mr Setchfield dismiss critics who say the film is merely an indulgence by its director.

"Jackson wanted to remake Kong because it's a real labour of love," says Mr Freer.

"I don't think it is a vanity project," adds Mr Setchfield.

"It's probably Jackson working out an obsession, albeit on a scale grand enough to make the studio suits nervous."

"But King Kong is being done for love, and that's worth championing."

Peter Jackson's King Kong is released in the US on 14 December and in the UK the following day.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/ente...ent/4480878.stm

The men behind the monster ape
By Kevin Brownlow
Documentary maker and film historian



King Kong's co-creators Merian C Cooper and Ernst B Schoedsack were larger-than-life characters - just like the ape they brought to cinema screens.
Renowned film-maker and Kong aficionado Kevin Brownlow tells their stories.

It's ridiculous. The very idea is absurd. But so convincingly did Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack stage King Kong that you believe every frame.

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury considers it the greatest film ever made. His friend Ray Harryhausen was so stunned when he saw it in 1933 he's been animating dinosaurs ever since.

And Peter Jackson, who saw it at the age of nine and tried to remake it at 12, has finally achieved his ambition.

Cooper was a former pilot who had been shot down in flames in World War I, and went back in the air to fight the Bolsheviks who had invaded Poland in 1920.

He was shot down again, sentenced to death, but escaped from the gulag and walked 400 miles to the border.


Gorilla vs dragons

He joined Schoedsack, a World War I combat cameraman, and they began a series of remarkable documentaries - Grass, made in 1925, about the migration of a Persian tribe and Chang (1927) about man's struggle against the jungle.

I knew both men, and was amused at how Cooper, who had lived the lives of a hundred men, would still boast, like a small boy.

It was very endearing - as he was. He had tremendous self-confidence and immense enthusiasm. Schoedsack was the strong, silent type, tall and handsome, rather like Gary Cooper, and he was always ribbing Merian Cooper.


Cooper was fascinated by primates - he once wrote a treatise on baboons - and he had had the idea for Kong since childhood. He thought one way of making the film would be to import a gorilla to the island of Komodo and have it fight giant dragon lizards.

But when he joined RKO studios, and watched what Willis O'Brien was doing with miniature animals in a film called Creation, he saw that this was the way to bring Kong to life.

Cooper hired British crime writer Edgar Wallace to write the story, but Wallace died before he'd produced what Cooper wanted.

Schoedsack's wife, Ruth Rose, wrote the script - and RKO head of production David O Selznick gave it the go-ahead. He had no idea what it was all about, but he trusted Cooper's instinct.

Cooper and Schoedsack's background was put to good use and King Kong depicts a motion picture expedition. The tough film-maker, Carl Denham, is based on Cooper and the ship's mate, Driscoll, is based on Schoedsack.

Genuine emotion

Fay Wray, an old friend of Cooper's, was offered the part of Ann Darrow. Cooper told her she would have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood, and she was delighted, assuming he meant Cary Grant. "However, that," she said, drily, "was not what Cooper had in mind."

The film took a year to make. It was incredibly violent for its time. Perhaps this was why Adolf Hitler liked it so much. When it was reissued in 1938, the most extreme scenes were cut. They have since been restored.

King Kong is perhaps the only film which makes the inanimate into something of flesh and blood. You overlook the defects, the riffling fur, and feel genuine emotion for Kong.

The picture was full of groundbreaking optical effects and it was a magnificent piece of story-telling - it hits the ground running and never lets up.

The sets of King Kong were destroyed by Selznick in 1939 for the Burning of Atlanta in Gone With the Wind. Cooper went on to work with John Ford - he produced the Cavalry Trilogy and The Searchers - and to serve in World War II as chief of staff for General Chennault in China.

When Cooper died, he had just begun an autobiography to be titled I'm King Kong.

That's the title we have used for our documentary about this extraordinary man, which you can see at the National Film Theatre in London on Wednesday at 1800 GMT.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/ente...ent/4488106.stm




What a sick nutter!

I don't remember this scene;


Also, they didn't have the scene in the trailer where their at the beach and he's telling Ann to scream, then she does and then Kong roars back from somewhere on the island.

Perhaps PJ is preparing for another Extended Edition DVD set. It will look nice next to my LOTR EE's.

I love the scene with Denham and the little producer dude in the taxi:

Denham: Wait, Faye's a size four, isn't she?

Little Producer Guy: She's already doing a picture for RKO.

Awesome nod to the original!

This nerd moment was brought to you by Donkey. Because Donkey loves to make you smile.

Okay, I loved the movie.. and there were a few parts where I got a little misty.

Oops, wrong topic.

^ wrong topic?

I saw King Kong and thought 'woah'.

Can anyone get a gif. of when King Kong swats that biplane out of the air. That would be awesome!

LoL I kept waiting for that scene the moment they landed on the island.

And yeah they never showed that water scene, probably will be on the extended version on DVD :]

I LOVED this movie, mostly cause I LOVE the classic (tragic) story of beauty and the beast. I use to watch all the King Kong and Godzilla movies when I was younger... but I thought Peter Jackson did a fantastic job.. some scenes it was easy to see the CGI (bronto stampede) but Kong looked amazingly real throughout the entire movie. Naomi Watts did an amazing job as Ann Darrow.

Of course people will find something to complain about. Every movie, every story has it's critics. But again I loved the 05 King Kong. Like was mentioned peopled argue the length of the movie (I was 100% into the story the entire time so I didn't even notice) another interesting thing to note is in the original, you pitied Kong even more because he was all by himself. In the 76 remake as well as this one, his blonde captive 'falls' for him. She finds in Kong an unmatched dedication and loyalty. In the original Ann was always screaming and repulsed by him, right to the very end, when he spent his last moment gazing at her before falling off the Empire State Building. It really is such a sad story. Like I told my friend, it's a good thing he doesn't really exist - cause it's highly probable something just like that would happen to him.

Anyways, I can't wait to see this again in the theaters. Easily one of my favorites if not my #1 favorite.

"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty.
And it stayed its hand from killing.
And from that day, it was as one dead"