TNMC

Peter Jackson's follow up to Lord of the Rings, his remake of King Kong, will start filming next week.

Jackson has been enthralled with the character of Kong since his youth when he shot a version of the film with an 8mm camera and a cardboard cutout of the Empire State Building. "It's great to be able to finally get the film made," says Jackson. "It's a film which I've loved ever since I was a child. It really inspired me to want to become a film-maker."

While this version will be respectful of the original, it won't be the same.

"To put modern political beliefs onto something that was made in 1933 is obviously putting a spin on it that doesn't really exist. It was a product of its time," he said. "We're really just attempting to make a wonderful, mysterious adventure film ... it's about gorillas, it's about dinosaurs, and lost islands, and this relationship."

The casting of Jack Black as promoter Carl Denham was a bit controversial and no one was more surprised by it than Black himself. "I remember thinking while I was watching The Lord of The Rings: 'man, I've got to get an audition for whatever he does next'," Black said. "Then I thought that's just stupid. Everybody's going to want to be in his next film, better to just put it out of your mind. Then I got the call to come in and talk with them about King Kong -- you wait your whole life to get a call like that."

Andy Serkis was a huge factor in Lord of the Rings, providing the voice and movements for the digitally created Gollum. Jackson was apparently so taken with Serkis that he hired him to do the same thing for Kong. And just so he gets some face time, Serkis also plays a cook in the film. Serkis is very serious about the role, going so far as to spend serious time in Rwanda to get to know gorillas in person. "He's extraordinary, the amount of research he's done," says Naomi Watts, who will play the heroine in the new movie, was quoted by the Dominion Post newspaper in Monday's edition. "He brought back incredible tapes of all that (gorilla) behavior that we need to get very familiar with."

As far as Kong's appearance, that's still a mystery but Jackson did offer up some info. "Our King Kong is very battered, he's very ancient, he's the last of his particular race on this island. He did have a mother and father, but they're now dead and there are no more after him. He's the final survivor and he's a very old gorilla," Jackson told reporters yesterday. "He has never felt a single bit of empathy for a living creature in his long life."

Thanks to Reuters and Variety.

Tuesday, 15 June 2004
Work is well underway on Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong.

This report from The One Ring gives ome idea of what they are up to right now.

I sent a quick report a few weeks ago about the work going on around Wellington NZ for King Kong... here's a quick update, and a few pics... :

At the carpark behind the Stone Stree Studios in Miramar - The Mumak harness that I reported was being stored at the back of the carpark has now in fact, been taken away. The Three Foot Six truck marked "Genetics Departement" (???) that was parked there has also gone. A small shed that was located beside the back gate is also gone. What has been placed in the carpark will now prevent any more cool photos from that perspective - a two-high stack of ships containers, filled with large barrels filled with water (presumably for steadying the stack). I'm assuming it's there for giant outdoor blue-screens like they did for LOTR. One of the crew told me they're going to be building it four high. :(

Also at the back of the carpark, still "kinda" visible despite the container wall is a new structure, presumably a set of some sort. It's about 20 meters high, and appeared over the course of last week. I figured I'd have enough time to come back and photograph it, but the container wall took only two days and surpised me.

As for the boat I wrote about previously, Dan Hennah himself has been sighted there (not by me though), apparently doing a spot of welding the the front of the boat has been covered in some sort of thick metal plating. Not sure why, though.

Also in town, there was a film crew yesterday, busy filming a street scene on Mount Victoria, (in front of the old catholic church, St Gerards). I heard it was a New York scene for King Kong, but can't confirm that. I've also heard that filming won't begin until August, so at least one of my sources is wrong. :)

Click on the link to see the photos.

Monday, 05 April 2004

Peter Jackson's King Kong remake has received the final two major pieces in the cast puzzle.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tenacious D frontman Jack Black (High Fidelity, School of Rock) has been cast as the promoter Carl Denham. In the original film, Denham mounted the expedition that discovered Kong and then brought him back to New York. Black has previously done mostly broadly comedic roles so this one will require him to rein himself in a bit. He's definitely a talented and entertaining actor but his work to date makes him seem over the top even for the flamboyant Denham character. It does say that Jackson is unafraid to take chances with this project though. I doubt anyone in the industry would have predicted this particular bit of casting. Black can next be seen opposite Ben Stiller in the comedy Envy.

Variety reports the other major piece of casting is that Adrien Brody is in negotiations to play Jack Driscoll. The character is a former fighter pilot who finds himself caught up in the search for Kong. He is the movie's male lead and will star opposite Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, who is the love interest to both Driscoll and Kong.

Brody hasn't been the traditional leading man but that doesn't mean he can't handle it. He's a very flexible actor who should make for a more interesting lead than usual.

Brody won the Best Actor Oscar two years ago for his performance in The Pianist. He recently finished working on M. Night Shyamalan's The Village and is now working on The Jacket, opposite Keira Knightley.

Thursday, 04 December 2003
Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson plans a month's vacation after finishing up with his work on the trilogy. Following that he will begin work on his next project, a remake of King Kong.

His last task on Rings will be editing an extended version of Return of the King for release on DVD late next year.

He expects to have a brand new version of the script completed by February with partner Fran Walsh and writer Philippa Boyens . It will be written from scratch so you can pretty much throw out everything I said about the copy I reviewed a few months back. Shooting should start in August, mostly around Wellington, New Zealand. The majority of the film will be shot at Miramar studios rather than on location.

"I'm interested in [King] Kong being quite stylised and the jungles of Skull Island I want to be very over-the-top, like a jungle from hell. I imagine we are going to be more successful pulling that off in the studio or in a back lot than we are trying to find a beech forest in the South Island," he said.

There would be some location shooting for scenes on beaches or in boats, "but I'm not imagining a huge amount".

"Once we get started on Kong we get a few months of what I call gentle work because I am writing, having meetings at Weta and looking at designs," Jackson said.

"It's actually going to be easier. . . [than The Lord of the Rings] the logistics involved don't seem as daunting."

Naomi Watts will likely be playing Ann Darrow, the Fay Wray role from the original film. Negotiations are still ongoing "but it's looking okay" according to Jackson. He met Watts in London a couple months back and showed her production designs for the film. "She got really excited and it was great. Naomi's the only person that we've really approached because she's becoming so eagerly sought after by everybody," said Jackson. No other casting is imminent because of the major rewrite on the script.

Thanks to The Dominion Post.

What follows is a review of an early draft of the King Kong script. The review originally appeared in an edition of the Untitled Deadpool Column.

"The original King Kong is a highly respected and highly misunderstood film. Some think of it as adventure, some think of it as a monster movie and some think of it as a love story. All are correct. Add on what at the time were groundbreaking special effects and you have an enduring classic. The movie was actually a loose remake of The Lost World, with a more cohesive plot and bigger budget to soup up the previous film's amazing effects. King Kong was later remade in 1976, again with improved special effects. Despite that you don't find many people who remember it better than the original. And don't forget such classics as King Kong Lives and King Kong vs. Godzilla or the thinly veiled remake(s) Mighty Joe Young. So a classic film with a history of remakes. You don't suppose that Universal might be considering pulling Kong out of mothballs do you? Recent reports would indicate yes.

Why not? Certainly the studio has had great success recently in dusting off and repackaging its classic monster movies with its remake of The Mummy. It did well at the box office, spawning a sequel and prequel, both of which did fairly well for themselves money-wise. But still, we're talking about King Kong here. This is an iconic figure that won't be re-used lightly. Universal is going to need something special to make it worth it. What if I told you they had a script for a remake of King Kong that was penned by gore master turned epic Hollywood filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh? Do you think that would be enough to make Universal stand up and take notice? Me too.

Jackson made a sudden move into an elite class of directors with Lord of the Rings. He talked New Line Cinema into a $300 million gamble on making Tolkien's trilogy into three movies filmed simultaneously. The gamble payed off handsomely as the first of the three movies, Fellowship of the Ring has pulled in north of $800 million worldwide since its release and that doesn't even count its impending video release. By the time all three are released, New Line should be looking at an impressive return on their investment and Jackson should be able to get virtually any movie made that he wants.

So now that we've gotten the money talk and name dropping out of the way, is the script any good and is it material worthy of such a remake? The answer is yes and maybe. Jackson takes the King Kong story and gives it a healthy dose of what he knows best, action and gore. Do you recall the scene in the original movie where Kong does battle with a dinosaur? Magnify that scene by a hundred and you get an idea of what Jackson has in mind. This makes for an action packed script that should translate into a movie that will have people flocking to theaters. Will critics treat it as warmly as the original? Probably not if there are no rewrites but the potential is there.

Let me back up and give you an idea of how the story unwinds this time around. The script opens over France in World War I. A squadron of Sopwith Camel fighters are on the hunt for German planes to attack. They find them and more so, causing an aerial battle of epic proportions. In the midst of it is a young hotshot American pilot called Jack. He's clearly talented but doesn't take any of this seriously. That changes quickly in the aftermath of the battle. We then fastforward about fifteen years. Jack is now running a logging company in Sumatra. Also in the area is a British archeological expedition lead by Lord Darrow and his daughter Ann. Both are suddenly interupted in their work by the rude intrusion of Hollywood filmmaker Carl Denham. His approach to wildlife filmmaking is to make a camera crew follow him around and bait animals into doing something interesting, making Denham look like some big adventurer.

The intersection of these three groups leads to an accidental discovery of an ancient pagan tribe that worshiped the ape god Kong. Even more interesting is the discovery of a map that points to a hidden island where that tribe might still exist. Pretty soon the whole bunch are on their way to this island in an uneasy alliance. The island does exist, does have that pagan tribe and does contain a giant 25 foot tall silverback gorilla that rules the island with an iron fist. The island also contains dinosaurs long thought extinct, plus a variety of other nasty creatures previously unknown to man.

The sequences on the island are pretty similar to the Jurassic Park movies. Deposit a few main characters and a larger number of nameless characters on an island with hostile creatures and watch them get rapidly picked off. The difference is that Kong captures and falls for Ann, leaving him to battle monsters bent on eating her and playing keep away with her would be rescuers. Plus there are angry natives looking to take out as many invaders as possible. Needless to say this will be violent. But not too violent according to the script. One amusing passage reads:

The SURVIVING NATIVES scatter! KONG rampages after them, STOMPING ON THEM and BITING THEIR HEADS OFF ... in a scene that not only gets a PG 13, but is PRAISED by the MPAA for it's sensitivity!

While the script leans heavily on action and special effects to find its thrills, it also laces it with some great characters. Not the main characters Jack or Ann mind you, but the supporting cast. Denham and his camera crew are hysterical. The cameraman Herb takes his job so seriously that he'll let Denham put him into any number of bad situations just to get the job done well. The sound man Peek is a sniveling little worm that will have audiences practically begging to see him die in a horrible fashion. Denham himself is a charicature Hollywood producer, so enthralled with his own self-importance that he rarely clues into the reality of a situation.

Jack is the hero and gets the bulk of the screen time but I never really found any connection with him. That hampers the inevitable romantic element with Ann impotent as we know they are supposed to be attracted to one another but never really believe it. Ann herself is a bit more developed as a character but doesn't exactly leap off the page either. Oddly enough, the attraction and quasi-romance between Ann and Kong is far more believable and effective. This pays off in a surprisingly touching climax to the film.

The story doesn't deviate excessively from the original Kong which should please purists. Of course at the same time it will probably bother critics who want to see a fresher approach to the material to justify the remake. You can see that the man who made Dead Alive is at work behind this potential film. It carries that same sense of humor and over the top violence. In general I enjoyed the script but feel that it needs a bit more work before it can be a truly worthy blueprint for a remake of a classic. Even if that doesn't happen, this film would likely be a monstrous hit at the box office."

(Review submitted by John Shea)