King Kong is a 2005
fantasyFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
adventure filmAdventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
directed by
Peter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
. It is a
remakeA remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the
1933 film of the same nameKing Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
and stars
Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
,
Jack BlackThomas Jacob "Jack" Black is an American comedian, actor and musician. He makes up one half of the comedy and satirical rock duo Tenacious D. The group has two albums as well as a television series and a film. His acting career is extensive, starring primarily as bumbling, cocky, but internally...
and
Adrien BrodyAdrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
.
Andy SerkisAndrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
, through performance capture, portrays
KongKing Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
.
The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million. The film was released on December 14, 2005 and made an opening of $50.1 million. While the film performed lower than expectations, King Kong made domestic and worldwide grosses that eventually added up to $550 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing movie in
Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
history. Strong DVD sales also added over $100 million to the grosses. It also received positive reviews, with some considering it one of the all-round best movies of 2005, though it has been criticised for its length at three hours and seven minutes. It won Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.
Plot summary
The film opens in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, 1933 at the height of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Having lost her job as a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
actress, Ann Darrow (
Naomi WattsNaomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
) is hired by troubled filmmaker
Carl DenhamCarl Denham is a fictional film director in the films King Kong and Son of Kong , as well as in the 2005 remake of King Kong, and a 2004 illustrated-novel titled Kong: King of Skull Island. The role was played by Robert Armstrong in the 1933 films and by Jack Black in the 2005 remake...
(
Jack BlackJack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
) to act in his new motion picture. Ann signs on when she learns her favourite playwright
Jack DriscollJack Driscoll is a fictional character in the King Kong franchise. In the original 1933 film he was the first mate of the ship The Venture, while in its 2005 remake he was a playwright . He was played by Bruce Cabot in the original and by Adrien Brody in the remake...
(
Adrien BrodyAdrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
) is the screenwriter. As the
tramp steamerA ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call. As opposed to freight liners, tramp ships trade on the spot market with no fixed schedule or itinerary/ports-of-call...
SS Venture sails to mysterious Skull Island, they slowly fall in love. As for Carl, a warrant is out for his arrest and Captain Englehorn (
Thomas KretschmannThomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
) begins to have second thoughts, following the fears of his crew about Skull Island. Despite his attempt to turn around, the ship is lost in fog and runs aground on the rocks encircling the island.
Carl and his crew explore the island to film and are attacked by the vicious natives. Mike (
Craig Hall-Film:* Siren as Soldier* Savage Honeymoon as Dean Savage* The World's Fastest Indian as Antarctic Angel* King Kong as Mike* Perfect Creature as Dominic* Knife Shift as Shane...
), the sound technician, is speared, one of the sailors has his head bashed in, and Jack is knocked out. Ann screams, and a roar beyond the wall responds. The matriarch vows to sacrifice her to "Kong", a 25 ft (8m) gorilla. Englehorn and his crew break up the attack and return to the stranded ship. They lighten their load to steer away, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped. On the island, Ann is hung from a balcony on the side of the wall. The crew comes armed, but is too late. Kong takes Ann into the jungle.
Captain Englehorn organizes a rescue party to find Ann and hunt down the beast. The rescue party is caught up in a Venatosaurus (modern day
VelociraptorVelociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
) pack's hunt of Brontosaurus, and Herb (John Sumner), the cameraman, is killed along with three sailors. Ann manages to entertain Kong with juggling and dancing. The rest of the rescue party come across a swamp where Bruce Baxter (
Kyle ChandlerKyle Martin Chandler is an American film and television actor best known for his roles in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead...
) and two others leave the group. The survivors stumble across a log, where Kong attacks, shaking them off the log into a ravine. He returns to rescue Ann from three Vastatosaurus Rex (modern day
TyrannosaurusTyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
), and takes her up to his mountain lair. Englehorn and the rest of the crew rescue what is left of the rescue party from the pit of giant insects, and as Jack decides to continue to search for Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack goes to Kong's lair, waking him. As Kong fights a swarm of flying Terapusmordax, Ann and Jack escape by grabbing the wing of one of the bats and then jumping into a river. They arrive at the village wall with the angry Kong following them, and Ann becomes distraught by what Carl plans to do. Kong bursts through the gate and struggles to get her back, but he is eventually knocked out by
chloroformChloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
.
In New York around
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Carl presents Kong — the Eighth Wonder of the World on
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann has become an anonymous chorus girl and a double of her is no replacement in Kong's eyes. Camera flashes from photographers enrage the gorilla. Kong breaks free from his chrome-steel chains and chases Jack across town, where he encounters Ann again. They share a quiet moment on a frozen lake in Central Park, before the army attacks. Kong climbs with Ann onto the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
, where he fights off planes sent to attack him, downing three of them. Ultimately, Kong is hit by several bursts of gunfire from the surviving planes, and gazes at a distraught Ann for the last time before falling off the building to his death. Ann is greeted by Jack, and the reporters gather around Kong's corpse. Carl takes one last look and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."
Cast
- Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
as Ann Darrow: A struggling vaudville actress who desperate for work.Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple form a fruit stand. As the voyage goes on she falls in love with Jack and she forms a special relationship with Kong.
- Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
as KongKing Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
(motion captureMotion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
and voice): A 7.5-meter (25 ft) gorillaGorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
who is around 120–150 years old. He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong.
- Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
as Carl Denahm: A film director who obtained the map to skull island. Due to his situation involing debts Carl starts to lose his moral compass.
- Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody is an American actor and film producer. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's The Pianist . Winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2003 at age 29, he is the youngest actor to do so...
as Jack DriscollJack Driscoll is a fictional character in the King Kong franchise. In the original 1933 film he was the first mate of the ship The Venture, while in its 2005 remake he was a playwright . He was played by Bruce Cabot in the original and by Adrien Brody in the remake...
: A scripwriter who falls for Ann. He is on the voyage mistakenly, when he delivers 15 pages of script to Denham and delays him when the venture begins its voyage.
- Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
as Captain Englehorn: The German Captain of the Venture.
- Colin Hanks
Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor who is best known for his work as Shaun Brumder in the film Orange County and as Alex Whitman in Roswell. He also portrayed the role of Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and is currently on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter...
as Preston: Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant.
- Jamie Bell
Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Billy Elliot , King Kong , Hallam Foe , Jumper , Defiance , The Eagle and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn .- Early life :Bell was born in Billingham, in the Borough of...
as Jimmy: A boy, found on the Venture, wild and abandoned. He is a kleptomaniaKleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c and views Hayes as a father figure.
- Andy Serkis as Lumpy: The ship's cook, barber and surgeon. He warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong. He joins the search for Ann but is killed in the insect pit.
- Evan Parke
Evan Parke is a Jamaican actor perhaps best known for his role as Hayes in King Kong. Originally from Jamaica, Parke was raised in Brooklyn, New York and then on Long Island...
as Ben Hayes: Englehorn's first mate and a friend of Lumpy, who leads Ann's rescue mission due to his army training and combat experience gained during World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He is killed after Kong throws him against a rock wall.
- Kyle Chandler
Kyle Martin Chandler is an American film and television actor best known for his roles in the television shows Early Edition as Gary Hobson, Deputy Jackson Lamb in the film Super 8, and as Coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead...
as Bruce Baxter: An actor who specialises 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 camera man. He is eaten by a Venatosaurus.
- Lobo Chan
Lobo Chan is a British opera singer and actor perhaps best known for his role in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong.-External links:*...
as Choy: Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture, who falls to his death during the log scene.
- Craig Hall
-Film:* Siren as Soldier* Savage Honeymoon as Dean Savage* The World's Fastest Indian as Antarctic Angel* King Kong as Mike* Perfect Creature as Dominic* Knife Shift as Shane...
as Mike: Denham's soundman for the journey. He is the first person to be killed when the Skull Island natives spear him.
- William Johnson as Manny: an elderly vaudevillian actor who befriends Ann Darrow at the beginning of the picture.
- Mark Hadlow
Mark Hadlow is a New Zealand actor and comedian.Hadlow is perhaps best known internationally for the role of Harry in King Kong...
as Harry: a struggling vaudevillian actor.
- Jed Brophy
Jed Brophy is a film actor from New Zealand. He has appeared in several of Peter Jackson's films, including Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, King Kong, and will also appear as the dwarf Nori in The Hobbit films.-Filmography:-External links:...
and Todd RipponTodd Rippon is a film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Brandon Cardiff on the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street...
cameoed as crew members.
Development
Peter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
was a nine-year-old in the New Zealand town of
Pukerua BayPukerua Bay is a small seaside community at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand. In local government terms it is the northernmost suburb of Porirua City...
when he first saw the 1933 version of
King KongKing Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
. He was in tears in front of the TV when Kong slipped off the
Empire State BuildingThe Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. At age 12 he tried to recreate the film using his parents' super-8 camera and a model of Kong made of wire and rubber with his mother's fur coat for the hair, but eventually gave up on the project. In 1996, he developed a version that was in pre-production for 6–7 months, but the studio cancelled it. This is most likely because of the release of
Mighty Joe YoungThe Music was composed and conduced by James Horner. The Soundtrack was released on December of the year 1998.- Tracklist :...
and
GodzillaGodzilla is a 1998 science fiction monster disaster film film co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich. It is a loose remake of the 1954 giant monster classic Godzilla. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The film relates a tale of a nuclear incident...
the same year. During this time Jackson had achieved the designs of the Brontosaurus and the Venatosaurus. No casting was ever done, but he had hoped to get
George ClooneyGeorge Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and
Robert De NiroRobert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
for the roles of Jack Driscoll and Carl Denham, respectively.
He then began work on
The Lord of the Rings trilogyThe Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
. With the overwhelming box office and critical success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Universal contacted him during production of the second film, and he was paid $20 million USD to direct this film, the highest salary Hollywood ever paid a director.
Screenplay development
Jackson has stated that the script significantly changed between the 1996 and 2005 drafts. He described his first rough draft as a "tongue-in-cheek comedic film with elements of
Raiders of the Lost ArkRaiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
and other films", and in retrospect he is glad that Universal pulled the plug on this version of the film, as he was able to rework the screenplay into something better.
In Jackson's original 1996 draft of the script, Ann was the daughter of famed English archaeologist Lord Linwood Darrow exploring ancient ruins in
SumatraSumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
. They would come into conflict with Denham during his filming, and they would uncover a hidden Kong statue and the map of
Skull IslandSkull Island is a fictional island first appearing in the 1933 film King Kong and later appearing in its sequels and in the two remakes. It is the home of the eponymous King Kong and several other species of creatures, mostly prehistoric and in some cases species that should have been extinct long...
. This would indicate that the island natives were the last remnants of a
cultThe word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
religion that had once thrived on the mainland of Asia. Instead of a playwright, Jack was the first mate and an ex-First World War fighter pilot still struggling with the loss of his best friend, who had been killed in battle during a
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
prologue. Herb the camera-man is the only supporting character in the original draft who made it to the final version. The fight between Kong and the three T. rex also changed from the original draft. In the draft, Ann is actually caught in the T. rex jaws, where she becomes wedged, and slashed by the teeth; after the fight, Kong gets her out but she is suffering from a fever, from which she then recovers.
The rewriting of the script between 1996 and 2005 involved basing the characters more closely on the 1933 ones, but adding more detail (the screenplay takes no material from the 1976 version). The process began with a nine minute animatic created by Jackson and shown to the writing team, causing Philippa Boyens to cry. Jackson, alongside
Christian RiversChristian Rivers is a New Zealand visual effects art director and filmmaker. He first met Peter Jackson as a 17 year old, and storyboarded all of Jackson's films since Braindead. He also cameos in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as a Gondorian soldier. He is set to make his...
and his team, created animatics for all the action sequences which wound up becoming the first stage in animation. The Empire State Building animatic in particular, was completely replicated in the final film.
Pre-production
Jackson decided early on that he did not want Kong to behave like a human, and so he and his team studied hours of gorilla footage.
Andy SerkisAndrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
, who modelled his movement, went to the
London ZooLondon Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
to watch the gorillas, but was unsatisfied. He ended up going to
RwandaRwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
to observe mountain gorillas in the wild with a company called Rainbow Tours. The resulting Kong is entirely a special effect, who acts and moves very much like a real gorilla.
Apart from Kong,
Skull IslandSkull Island is a fictional island first appearing in the 1933 film King Kong and later appearing in its sequels and in the two remakes. It is the home of the eponymous King Kong and several other species of creatures, mostly prehistoric and in some cases species that should have been extinct long...
is inhabited by
dinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s and other large
faunaFauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
. Inspired by the works of
Dougal Dixon-Biography:Dixon studied geology and palaeontology at the University of St. Andrews and is best known for his illustrated works of speculative fiction, which largely concern "zoologies of the future": his own visions of how human beings and animals might evolve in millions of years' time...
, the designers imagined what 65 million years or more of isolated
evolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
might have done to dinosaurs.
Difficulties
The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million, making it at one point the
most expensive film yet made. Universal Pictures only agreed to such an outlay after seeing a screening of the unfinished film, to which executives responded enthusiastically. Marketing and promotion costs were an estimated $60 million. The film's length also grew; originally set to be 135 minutes, it soon grew to 200, prompting Universal executives to fly to New Zealand to view a rough cut, but they liked it so their concerns were addressed.
Other difficulties included Peter Jackson's decision to change composers from
Howard ShoreHoward Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
to
James Newton HowardJames Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...
seven weeks before the film opened.
Release
The marketing campaign for King Kong started in full swing on June 27, 2005, when the
teaser trailerA teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
made its debut, first online at the official
VolkswagenVolkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
website at 8:45 p.m. EST, then 8:55 p.m. EST across media outlets owned by
NBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
(the parent of Universal Studios), including
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, Bravo!,
CNBCCNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
and
MSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
. That trailer appeared in theatres attached to
War of the WorldsWar of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum's version and...
, which opened on June 29.
Jackson also regularly published a series of 'Production Diaries', which chronicled the making of the film. The diaries started shortly after the
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of
The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
as a way to give Jackson's
The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
fans a glimpse of his next project. These diaries are edited into broadband-friendly installments of three or four minutes each. They consist of features that would normally be seen in a making-of documentary: a tour of the set, a roving camera introducing key players behind the scene, a peek inside the sound booth during last-minute dubbing, or
Andy SerkisAndrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
doing his ape movements in a motion capture studio.
A novelisation of the movie and a prequel entitled The Island of the Skull was also written. A multi-platform video game entitled
Peter Jackson's King KongPeter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie is a first person shooter action adventure game based on the 2005 film King Kong...
was released, which featured an alternate ending. There was a hardback book entitled The World of Kong, featuring artwork from
Weta WorkshopWeta Workshop is a special effects and prop company based in Miramar, New Zealand, producing effects for television and film.Founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger as RT Effects, Weta Workshop has produced creatures and makeup effects for the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...
to describe the fictional bestiary in the film.
Reception
With a take of $9.7 million on its Wednesday opening day, and with an opening weekend gross of $50.1 million, King Kongs opening numbers did not meet expectations of
Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
executives. Its opening weekend of $50.1 million, while good for most movies, fell short of the inflated expectations that preceded the film.
However, King Kong was able to hold its audience in the subsequent holiday weeks and ended up becoming a domestic hit, grossing $218.1 million at the North American box office (putting it in the top five grossing films of 2005 domestically). King Kong fared much better in the international market, as it grossed $332.4 million outside North America, leading to a worldwide total of $550.5 million, that not only put it in the top five grossing films of 2005 worldwide, but also helped the film bring back more than two and half times its production budget.
Other factors also affect a film's profitability besides box office sales, such as the DVD sales. King Kong, sold over $100 million worth of DVDs in the largest six-day performance in Universal Studios history. As of April 3, 2006, King Kong has sold more than 7.5 million DVDs, accumulating over $140 million worth of sales numbers, domestically alone. As of June 25, 2006 King Kong has generated almost $38 million from DVD rental gross. As well, in February 2006, Universal received $26.5 million from TNT/
TBSTBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...
and
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
for the television rights to the film.
Thus, despite the film's inauspicious start at the box office, King Kong turned out to be very profitable. Ticket and DVD sales combined, the film earned well over $700 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing movie in
Universal Pictures-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
history.
Critical reaction
King Kong received a favourable critical response, garnering an 84% "Certified Fresh" approval rating among 'T-Meter Critics', and a 79% rating among 'Top Critics' on Rotten Tomatoes. The most common criticisms of the film were due to excessive length, lack of pace, over-use of slow motion, and some obvious use of
CGIComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
effects. Positive critical reviews regarded it as one of the few good epics and all-round best movies of 2005.
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the movie four stars, and listed it as the 8th best film of 2005. Similarly, King Kong has been included in many critics' Top Ten of 2005 lists. The film received four Academy Award nominations for
Visual EffectsThe Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Academy Award given for the best achievement in visual effects.-History of the award:The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first recognized the technical contributions of special effects to movies at its inaugural dinner in 1928, presenting a...
, Sound Mixing (
Christopher BoyesChristopher Boyes is an American sound engineer. He has won four Academy Awards and has been nominated for another nine. He has worked on over 70 films since 1991.-Academy Awards:Boyes has won four Academy Awards and has been nominated for another nine:Won...
,
Michael SemanickMichael Semanick is an American sound engineer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and has been nominated for six more in the same category...
,
Michael HedgesMichael Hedges is an American sound engineer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and has been nominated for another in the same category...
,
Hammond PeekHammond Peek is an American sound engineer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and has been nominated for another two in the same category.-Selected filmography:Peek has won two Academy Awards and has been nominated for another two:Won...
),
Sound EditingThe Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design...
, and
Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
, winning all but the last.
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called the depiction of Kong the most convincing computer generated character in film in 2005. Some criticised the film for retaining racist stereotypes present in the original film, though it was not suggested that Jackson had done this intentionally.
King Kong ranks 450th on
EmpireEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Possible 3-D release
Peter Jackson has expressed his desire to remaster the film in 3-D at some point in the future. Jackson was also seen shooting with a 3-D camera at times during the shoot of King Kong.
Cinematic and literary allusions
- Jamie Bell's character is repeatedly shown reading Joseph Conrad's
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
Heart of DarknessHeart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...
, a novel about a journey into a primitive land and mankind's exploitation of fellow man.
- Jack Black and critics have noted Carl Denham's similarity to Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
.
- When Jack Driscoll is searching for a place to sleep in the animal storage hold, a box behind him reads Sumatran Rat Monkey — Beware the bite! – a reference to the creature that causes mayhem in Peter Jackson's film Braindead
Braindead , released as Dead Alive in North America, is a cult zombie comedy splatstick horror film directed by Peter Jackson. The film is universally regarded as being one of the goriest films of all time...
(1992) (in that film, the rat monkey is described as only being found on Skull IslandSkull Island is a fictional island first appearing in the 1933 film King Kong and later appearing in its sequels and in the two remakes. It is the home of the eponymous King Kong and several other species of creatures, mostly prehistoric and in some cases species that should have been extinct long...
).
Soundtrack
King Kong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by
James Newton HowardJames Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...
. Originally
Howard ShoreHoward Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
, who worked for Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings, was to compose the score for the film and recorded several completed cues before he was removed from the project by Jackson. Shore makes a cameo appearance as the conductor in the theatre from which Kong escapes. The film's record album was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreThe Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is one of several categories presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association , an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947...
.
Track listing
- "King Kong" – 1:09
- "A Fateful Meeting" – 4:16
- "Defeat Is Always Momentary" – 2:48
- "It's In the Subtext" – 3:19
- "Two Grand" – 2:34
- "The Venture Departs" – 4:03
- "Last Blank Space On the Map" – 4:43
- "It's Deserted" – 7:08
- "Something Monstrous… Neither Beast Nor Man" – 2:38
- "Head Towards the Animals" – 2:48
- "Beautiful" – 4:08
- "Tooth and Claw" – 6:17
- "That's All There Is…" – 3:26
- "Captured" – 2:25
- "Central Park" – 4:36
- "The Empire State Building" – 2:36
- "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part I)" – 1:59
- "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part II)" – 2:22
- "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part III)" – 2:14
- "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part IV)" – 4:45
- "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part V)" – 4:13
The music played during the vaudeville sequence at the beginning of the movie is the classic song "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" by
Al JolsonAl Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
. However, it has not been included in the original soundtrack album.
Home media
King Kong was released on DVD on March 28, 2006 in the United States. The three versions that came out were single disc fullscreen, single disc
widescreenWidescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
and a 2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition. The second disc of the Special Edition contains the remainder of almost all the KongisKing.net production diaries not contained on the Peter Jackson's Production Diaries DVD set. The only missing episode is "13 Weeks To Go" which contained footage of Howard Shore recording the original score. It is still available on the website. King Kong was not released on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in the United States, but it was exclusively released on VHS in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The 3 disc Deluxe Extended Edition was released on November 14, 2006 in the U.S.A., and on November 1 in Australia. Thirteen minutes were put back into the film, and a further 40 minutes presented alongside the rest of the special features. The film was spread onto the first two discs with commentary by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, and some featurettes on Discs 1 and 2, whilst the main Special Features are on Disc 3. Another set was released, including a WETA figurine of a bullet-ridden Kong scaling the Empire State Building, roaring at the army with Ann in hand. The extended film amounts to 201 minutes in total.
A special
HD DVDHD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
version of King Kong was part of a promotional pack for the release of the external HD DVD Drive for the
Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. The pack contained the HD DVD drive, the Universal Media Remote and King Kong on HD DVD. It was also available separately as a standard HD DVD. The film's theatrical and extended cuts were released together on
Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on January 20, 2009.
External links