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King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure monster film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. It is the eighth entry in the King Kong franchise and the second remake of the 1933 film of the same title, following the 1976 film. The film stars Andy Serkis, Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody. Set in 1933, it follows the story of an ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island. There, they encounter prehistoric creatures and a legendary giant gorilla known as Kong, whom they capture and take to New York City.

Development for the film began in early 1995, when Jackson was offered by Universal Pictures to direct the remake of the original 1933 film, but stalled the project in early 1997, as several ape and giant monster-related films were under production that time and Jackson planned to direct The Lord of the Rings film series. As the first two films in the trilogy became commercially successful, Universal approached Jackson in early 2003, expressing his interest to restart development on the project, which he eventually agreed. Filming for King Kong took place in New Zealand from September 2004 to March 2005. It is currently one of the most expensive films ever produced as its budget climbed from an initial $150 million to a then-record-breaking $207 million.

King Kong was premiered at New York City on December 5, 2005,[3] and was theatrically released in Germany and United States on December 14. The film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics, and eventually appeared in several top ten lists for 2005; it received praise for the special effects, performances, sense of spectacle and comparison to the 1933 original, though some criticisms were focused on its 3-hour long run time. It was a commercial success, grossing over $562 million and became the fourth-highest-grossing film in Universal Pictures history at that time and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2005.[2] It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release in March 2006.[4] It won three Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. A tie-in video game was released alongside the film, which also became a commercial and critical success.

A sequel, Skull Island, entered development in 2013, with Jackson producing the film and Adam Wingard set to direct. However, the project was abandoned after Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the rights and ultimately rebooted the franchise with the 2017 film Kong: Skull Island as a part of Legendary's MonsterVerse. Wingard would later direct the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong.[5]

Plot[]

In 1933, during the Great Depression, New York City actress Ann Darrow is hired by financially troubled filmmaker Carl Denham to star in a film with actor Bruce Baxter. Ann learns her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll, is the screenwriter. Filming takes place on the SS Venture, under Captain Englehorn, and under Carl's pretense it will be sailing to Singapore. In truth, Carl intends to film the mysterious Skull Island. Captain Englehorn reconsiders the voyage, prompted by his crew's speculation of trouble ahead. During the voyage, Ann and Jack fall in love.

The Venture receives a radio message informing Englehorn there is a warrant for Carl's arrest due to his defiance of the studio's orders to cease production, and instructing Englehorn to divert to Rangoon, but the ship becomes lost in fog and runs aground on Skull Island. Carl and his film crew, including cameraman Herb, assistant Preston, actor Bruce Baxter, and boom operator Mike, explore the island and are attacked by natives who kill Mike and a crewman. Englehorn rescues the film crew, but as they prepare to leave, a native sneaks onto the ship and abducts Ann. The natives offer Ann as a sacrifice to Kong, a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) gorilla. Jack notices Ann's disappearance, and the crew returns to the island, but Kong flees with Ann into the jungle. Carl catches a glimpse of Kong and becomes determined to film him.

Ann wins Kong over with her juggling and dancing skills and begins to grasp his intelligence and capacity for emotion. Englehorn organizes a rescue party, led by his first mate Hayes and Jack, and accompanied by Carl, Herb, Baxter and Preston. The party gets caught between a herd of Apatosaurus-like Brontosaurus baxteri and a pack of Utahraptor-like Venatosaurus saevidicus hunting them, with Herb and several other men killed in the resulting stampede. Baxter and others return to the ship.

The remaining party members continue through the jungle when Kong attacks, making them fall into a ravine resulting in Hayes' death and Carl losing his camera. Kong rescues Ann from three Tyrannosaurus-like Vastatosaurus rex, bringing her to his den in the mountains. The remaining rescue party are attacked by giant insects in the ravine, resulting in the death of three more crew members, but Preston, Carl, Jack, and Hayes' apprentice Jimmy are rescued by Baxter and Englehorn. Jack searches for Ann alone, while Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack finds Kong's lair and accidentally awakens him, but escapes with Ann. They arrive at the wall with Kong pursuing them. Kong kills several sailors, but is subdued when Carl knocks him out with chloroform.

In New York City that winter, Carl presents "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World" on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann, who refused to take part in the performance, is played by an anonymous chorus girl. Agitated by the chorus girl not being Ann and flashes from cameras, Kong breaks free from the chains and wrecks the theater. Kong searches the city for Ann and chases Jack before encountering her again. The U.S. Army attacks, and Kong tries getting Ann and himself to safety by climbing to the top of the Empire State Building.

Six Navy planes arrive, which Kong fights. After downing three of them, Kong is mortally wounded from the planes' gunfire and falls. As Jack reaches the top of the building to comfort and embrace Ann, civilians, policemen, and soldiers gather around the beast's corpse in the street, one bystander commenting the airplanes got him. Carl makes his way through the crowd, takes one last look at Kong and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."

Cast[]

  • Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work. Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple from a fruit stand. Further into the voyage, she falls in love with Jack and forms a special relationship with Kong.
  • Andy Serkis as Kong (motion capture), a 25-foot (7.6 m) prehistoric silverback mountain gorilla who is around 100–150 years old.[6][7] He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong.[8] and the possible descendant of the Chororapithecus.
    • Serkis also plays Lumpy, the ship's cook, barber, and surgeon. A brave sailor, he warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong.
  • Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter who falls in love with Ann. He unwittingly becomes part of the voyage when, while delivering a script to Denham, he is deliberately delayed by the latter before he can get off the Venture. He is the only member of the crew who agrees with Ann that Kong should be left alone.
  • Jack Black as Carl Denham, a film director who obtained the map to Skull Island. Due to his debts, Carl starts to lose his moral compass and obsesses over his film to the point that he disregards safety.
  • Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn, the German captain of the Venture. Englehorn shows a dislike for Denham, presumably because of his obsessive nature.
  • Colin Hanks as Preston, Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant.
  • Jamie Bell as Jimmy, a naive teenager who was found on the Venture, wild and abandoned.
  • Evan Parke as Benjamin "Ben" Hayes, Englehorn's first mate and a mentor to Jimmy, who leads Ann's rescue mission because of his army training and combat experience gained during World War I.
  • Lobo Chan as Choy, Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture.
  • Kyle Chandler as Bruce Baxter, an actor who specializes in adventure films. He abandons Ann's rescue mission but brings Englehorn to rescue the search party from the insect pit, and is given credit for rescuing Ann during the Broadway display of Kong.
  • John Sumner as Herb, Denham's loyal cameraman.
  • Craig Hall as Mike, Denham's soundman for the journey.
  • William Johnson as Manny, an elderly vaudevillian actor and colleague of Darrow.
  • Mark Hadlow as Harry, a struggling vaudevillian actor.
  • Jed Brophy and Todd Rippon appeared in the film as crew members.

In addition, director Jackson appears with makeup artist Rick Baker as the pilot and gunner on the airplane that kills the title character, his children appear as New York children, The Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras and The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont appear as a gunners in the other airplanes, and Bob Burns and his wife appear as New York bystanders. Frequent Jackson collaborator Howard Shore makes a cameo appearance as the conductor of the New York theater from where Kong escapes. Shore was initially set to compose for the film before his exit.

Watts, Black, and Brody were the first choices for their respective roles with no other actors considered.[9] In preparation for her role, Watts met with the original Ann Darrow, Fay Wray.[10] Jackson wanted Wray to make a cameo appearance and say the final line of dialogue, but she died during pre-production at 96 years old.[11] Black was cast as Carl Denham based on his performance in the 2000 film High Fidelity, which had impressed Jackson.[12] For inspiration, Black studied P. T. Barnum[13] and Orson Welles. "I didn't study [Welles] move for move. It was just to capture the spirit. Very reckless guy. I had tapes of him drunk off his ass."[14] The native extras on Skull Island were portrayed by a mix of Asian, African, Maori and Polynesian actors sprayed with dark makeup to achieve a consistent pigmentation.[14]

Production[]

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Music[]

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Reception[]

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Cinematic and literary allusions[]

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Home media[]

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Cancelled sequel[]

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Theme park[]

Main article: Skull Island: Reign of Kong

The Universal Orlando Resort location Islands of Adventure features an attraction called "Skull Island: Reign of Kong" which is based on Peter Jackson's remake. While the King Kong part of the Universal Studios Hollywood resort was destroyed by a massive fire, a 3D short inspired by the film was eventually created in 2010, King Kong: 360 3-D, which is another attraction based on Peter Jackson's remake.[15]

See also[]

  • List of most expensive films
  • Mighty Joe Young (1998 film)

References[]

  1. [TBA KING KONG (12A)]. British Board of Film Classification.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 [TBA King Kong]. BoxOfficeMojo.com.
  3. [TBA 'King Kong' receives a giant-sized premiere] (en-US) (2005-12-07).
  4. [TBA King Kong – DVD sales]. BlogCritics.org.
  5. Davids, Brian (2021-03-30). [TBA Why 'Godzilla vs. Kong' Director Adam Wingard Treated Kong Like an '80s Action Hero] (en-US).
  6. Wloszczyna, Susan (June 26, 2005). [TBA King Kong goes digital]. USA Today.
  7. [TBA King Kong- Building a Shrewder Ape].
  8. Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters url and title must be specified.
  9. Sibley, pp. 526-542
  10. Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ian Spelling (December 2005). [TBA "Peter Jackson proves with King Kong that the director, not the beast, is the true eighth wonder of the world"] Check |url= value (help). Science Fiction Weekly. Retrieved 2009-06-01. Check |archive-url= value (help)
  11. Error on call to Template:cite web: Parameters url and title must be specified.
  12. Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gabriel Snyder (2004-03-29). [TBA "Black joins Watts for 'King Kong'"] Check |url= value (help). Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  13. Template:Cite magazine
  14. 14.0 14.1 Template:Cite magazine
  15. [TBA Universal Orlando].

External links[]

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