King Kong (2005 film)

Article

Gallery

Transcript

King Kong
Directed by	Peter Jackson
Screenplay by	Fran Walsh Philippa Boyens Peter Jackson
Based on	King Kong by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace
Produced by	Peter Jackson Jan Blenkin Carolynne Cunningham Fran Walsh
Starring	Naomi Watts Jack Black Adrien Brody Thomas Kretschmann Colin Hanks Jamie Bell Evan Parke Andy Serkis
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Andrew Lesnie
Edited by	Jamie Selkirk
Production company	Universal Pictures WingNut Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 5, 2005 (New York City) December 13, 2005 (New Zealand) December 14, 2005 (United States)
Running time	187 minutes (Theatrical cut) 200 minutes (Extended cut)
Country	New Zealand United States
Language	English
Budget	$207 million
Box office	$556.9 million
Video

King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure monster film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Jackson. It is the ninth entry in the King Kong franchise and the second remake of the 1933 film of the same name, the first one being the 1976 remake. The film stars 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 the mysterious Skull Island. There, they encounter various prehistoric creatures and a legendary giant gorilla-like ape known as Kong, whom they capture and take to New York City.

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

King Kong premiered at New York City on December 5, 2005, and was theatrically released in New Zealand on December 13 and in the United States on December 14. The film received critical acclaim, and eventually appeared in several top 10 lists for 2005; it was praised for the special effects, performances, sense of spectacle and comparison to the 1933 original, though some criticisms were raised over its three-hour runtime. It was a commercial success, grossing over $556.9 million, and became the fourth-highest-grossing film in Universal Pictures history at that time and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2005. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release in March 2006. 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.

Plot

In 1933 New York City, at the height of the Great Depression, after a lively performance, vaudeville actress Ann Darrow returns to work in the morning to find the theater closed. Her stage partner Manny tells her to try out for a part in a play she was looking for, only for her to learn that the role was already cast. The producer sends her to a burlesque theater out of pity. At the same time, director Carl Denham sits with another group of bored producers before pitching the idea of following a map that he had received to an uncharted island to film there instead. However, they are less than thrilled at the prospect of wasting more money on him and agree to scrap the picture for stock footage.

Unwilling to see his art go to waste, Denham grabs his assistant Preston and makes preparations to leave immediately for Skull Island. Preston informs them that their lead actress has pulled out of the film, and Denham leaves to find a new girl. While examining posters outside a burlesque theater, he spies Ann reflected in the glass door and goes after her when she turns away. Ann then tries to steal an apple, only to be caught and have Denham buy her out of it before taking her to dinner to propose that she join him. She is interested but declines before learning that Jack Driscoll is writing the screenplay and accompanies Denham to the docks where the Venture is waiting. There, Preston informs him that the police are coming to arrest them. Denham then bribes Captain Englehorn to start getting the ship ready to cast off. The director then goes to see Driscoll, who handed in an incomplete script. Denham stalls to get him to stay on board as the ship pulls out of the harbor just as the police arrive.

As the ship makes its way out, Driscoll settles in and gets to know Ann throughout filming. However, when the crew learns that they are not heading for Singapore as Denham had led them to believe, Ben Hayes, Lumpy, and Jimmy warn him not to try to find Skull Island based on accounts from a mad castaway from seven years before. That night, Jack shows Ann a stage comedy that he had started writing, and the two share a passionate kiss before Englehorn receives a telegraph and begins to turn the ship around. Denham barges in to try to stop them, but Englehorn refuses and prepares to divert to Rangoon as the telegraph had ordered to turn Denham over to the authorities. However, with their navigational equipment malfunctioning, the entire crew begins to see that they are entering a thick fog.

The ship quickly gets scuttled on a hidden carving, and Denham spots the giant wall, knowing that he has reached his destination. The following day, Denham takes his crew to the coast, where they discover an abandoned city that is home to a civilization living in ruins. However, things quickly turn hostile upon meeting the natives, and they lose two men before Englehorn and the sailors arrive with guns to save them. Englehorn then orders the crew to lighten the ship and throw everything overboard, and Jack wakes up after being clubbed in the head on the island. He discovers the necklace of the man who had struck him and goes to locate Ann, only to find dead sailors and a ransacked cabin. He quickly informs Englehorn that the natives took her, and the captain sends the crew ashore to rescue her.

The natives forcibly drag Ann to a sacrificial chamber on the island. By the time the crew arrives, the natives have already lowered Ann over the other side of the wall, where their chants and drums attract the beast god Kong, who grabs her and takes her into the jungle as the sailors arrive. They enter the wilderness, and after hearing Ann scream, they arrive at a boneyard, where they find a path of destruction left from the ape's journey and begin to follow the trail. After trekking through the swampy jungle, the group takes a five-minute rest in a narrow valley, where a pack of Venatosaurus spook a herd of grazing Brontosaurus, who begin to stampede toward the rescue party. Most of the party manages to escape being either trampled or eaten and climb a steep ledge before continuing the journey. Elsewhere, Ann attempts to escape Kong while he stops for rest, but he quickly finds her and is enraged until she begins to perform her vaudeville routine to his apparent amusement. However, when she refuses to continue, Kong becomes confused and angry before leaving her.

The remaining sailors come to a log bridging a deep crevice, and Hayes goes across before ordering them all back to the other side before Kong emerges from the tunnel at the other side and kills him. He then shakes the sailors off the log and into the pit below as Ann hears the gunshots and runs toward them, only to come face to face with a Foetodon that is quickly eaten by a Vastatosaurus rex. Upon seeing Ann, the saurian chases her, and just when she thinks she has escaped, Ann encounters its mother. She screams, and Kong comes to rescue her. He wrestles with the two beasts, only for a third to enter the fray. He smashes the youngest one's head with a rock before wrestling the parents over a cliff, where they become entangled in vines. He manages to kill one, but the last one falls to the valley floor with Ann. Then, after a tense standoff with Ann in the middle, Kong battles the reptile and kills it, emerging victorious, before noticing that Ann fell into a mud patch during his battle with the dinosaurs. Ann is very surprised to learn that Kong has just saved her life, and she no longer fears him. Kong takes Ann to a waterfall and washes her underneath it. She goes for a swim to cool off, and he becomes very impressed. He then blows on her with huge gusts of his breath to dry her before taking her to his lair.

Jack awakens at the bottom of the pit and barely has time to check for other survivors before the monstrous insects begin to move. Most of the sailors die, including Lumpy, who is eaten by a Carnictis while trying to defend Choy's body. However, when they find themselves cornered by encroaching Arachno-Claws, Englehorn and Baxter return and rescue them. While Denham convinces Englehorn to try and capture Kong, Jack ventures on alone in search of Ann. He arrives at the beast's lair under the cover of night and finds her asleep in Kong's hand. Ann is relieved when she wakes up and sees Jack. As he tries to rescue her, the beast god suddenly awakens and furiously tries to smash him, but is distracted by a horde of Terapusmordax long enough for the two to escape.

When they arrive at the gate, they discover that the drawbridge is up and that they cannot cross. With Kong quickly catching up to them, Preston lowers the drawbridge against Denham's orders, and the two escape to safety, with Kong pounding on the massive gates behind them. Englehorn commands the attack to commence when the ape breaks through. The sailors drag him down with grappling hooks and break a bottle of chloroform gas under his face. Ann protests against the attack, and Englehorn tells Jack to take her away, but when Kong sees her getting pulled away, he breaks free of the netting and gives chase. He reaches the rocky coast as the crew starts to row away. He smashes one of them when Jimmy shoots at him, causing Englehorn to shoot his leg with a harpoon, allowing Carl to break another chloroform gas bottle on his face, rendering him unconscious, before vowing to bring him to Broadway as "Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World".

After returning to New York, Jack and Ann lose contact, and Denham puts Kong up on Broadway. Jack goes to find her at the Alhambra Theater where Kong is being shown, but finds another actress playing her role. An overconfident Denham allows flash photography to further distress Kong, making him very angry. Upon discovering the phony Ann, he suddenly breaks free of his chrome steel bonds, escapes from the theater and wreaks havoc across the city while searching for the real Ann. At the same time, when Ann hears sirens, she sees military soldiers on the move and frantically runs off in search of Kong. On seeing Jack inside a taxi cab, Kong immediately begins to chase him down the street. He finally smashes the cab and roars in triumph before Ann walks up to him, and the two enjoy a moment of peace in Central Park before the military forces him out. He leaps over the rooftops before finding the Empire State Building and beginning to climb up it.

At the base of the mooring mast, the two admire the rising sun before six biplanes arrive, and Kong climbs to the very top, where he is shot at and swipes at the planes while Ann tries to climb up to get to him. Kong saves her life again by catching her when a ladder pulls away from the building. He sets her inside the observation deck, and she climbs up to him. The two share a short moment before Kong takes a row of bullets in the back. He touches her face one final time before succumbing to his wounds and falling from the top of the building. Jack soon arrives to console Ann. Down on the street, photographers swarm around Kong's body, with one proclaiming that the airplanes had killed him. Denham then breaks through the crowd to declare that "It was Beauty that killed the Beast".

Scenes included in the extended cut

• A short way into the jungle, the rescue party becomes spooked and fires wildly into the darkness, only to stop at Hayes's orders. The mate then lights a flare, and a Ferrucutus comes charging out of the brush. Wounded and wild, the beast flails about in an attempt to defend itself until Hayes kills it with a volley of shots to its head.
• After escaping the Brontosaurus stampede, Bruce Baxter and a few sailors return to the village, but those who remain tie logs together into makeshift rafts, which they paddle across a swamp. Midway across, they are attacked by several Scorpio-pedes, but they all quickly retreat. The crew sits in silence briefly before their rafts get rocked by a Piranhadon from under the water's surface; it destroys the first raft, sending sailors spilling into the swamp. They try to escape, and Denham shoots at the creature as it swims beneath them, breaking the raft. Many sailors make it to shore, but the Piranhadon eats the slowest sailor before returning to the depths.
• As the crew continues through the jungle after the Piranhadon attack, Jack pauses to listen to movement in the wilderness. Lumpy, however, becomes frightened and shoots toward the sound. Fearing that Lumpy had shot Ann, Jack rushes through the brush to find a fallen Brutornis. Lumpy then puts the creature out of its misery before they continue onward.
• Just before climbing out of the pit, Jimmy went to where Hayes was lying dead. He picked up Hayes's fallen cap and brushed it off before putting it on and moving to climb out of the chasm.
• After Kong breaks free of the net, he tips over an ancient native structure, descends into the chasm that separates the native village from the coastal cave while running after the characters, then makes a jump near the bridge over which Denham's team had crossed before their first meeting with the natives.
• Kong smashes a car, then picks it up and throws it aside while chasing Jack inside a taxi cab down the streets of New York City.
• Inside a truck, an Army sergeant gives a rousing speech to his military troops about finding Kong and killing him, just moments before the vehicle crashes into Kong and flips over without him even noticing it.

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.
• 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.
• 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 of the Venture in time. He is the only member of the crew who agrees with Ann that Kong should be left alone.
• 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.
• Andy Serkis as Kong (motion capture), a 25-foot (7.6 meters) tall prehistoric ape resembling a silverback male mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) who is around 100–150 years old. He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong, which is a possible descendant of both Chororapithecus and Gigantopithecus.
  • Serkis also plays Lumpy, the ship's cook, barber, and surgeon. A brave sailor, he warns Denham about the rumors that he has heard about both Skull Island and 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 a 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 (who had portrayed Kong in, and designed makeup for, the 1976 version) as the pilot and gunner, respectively, on the airplane that kills the title character, his children appear as New York children, The Lord of the Rings co-producer and second unit director Rick Porras and The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont appear as gunners in the other airplanes, and Bob Burns III 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. In preparation for her role, Watts met with the original Ann Darrow, Fay Wray. 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. Black was cast as Carl Denham based on his performance in the 2000 film High Fidelity, which had impressed Jackson. For inspiration, Black studied P. T. Barnum 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 butt." 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.

Production

Development

Earlier attempts and the 1990s

Peter Jackson was 9 years old when he first saw the 1933 film, and was in tears in front of the television when Kong was shot and fell off the Empire State Building. At age 12, he attempted to recreate the film using his parents' Super 8 mm film 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. King Kong eventually became his favorite film and was the primary inspiration for his decision to become a filmmaker as a teenager. He read books about the making of King Kong and collected memorabilia, as well as articles from Famous Monsters of Filmland. Jackson paid tribute to the 1933 film by including Skull Island as the origin of the zombie plague in his 1992 film Braindead.

During the filming of Jackson's 1996 film The Frighteners, Universal Pictures was impressed with Jackson's dailies and early visual effects footage. The studio was adamant to work with Jackson on his next project and, in late 1995, offered him the chance to direct a remake of the 1954 film Creature from the Black Lagoon. He turned down the offer, but Universal became aware of Jackson's obsession with King Kong and subsequently offered him the opportunity to direct that remake also. The studio did not have to worry about lawsuits concerning the film rights from RKO Pictures (the studio behind the 1933 film) because the King Kong character is held in the public domain. Jackson initially turned down the King Kong offer, but he "quickly became disturbed by the fact that someone else would take it over," Jackson continued, "and make it into a terrible film; that haunted me and I eventually said yes to Universal."

At the same time, Jackson was working with Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Films to purchase the film rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while 20th Century Fox was trying to hire him for the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. Jackson turned down Planet of the Apes and because Weinstein was taking longer than expected to buy The Lord of the Rings' rights, Jackson decided to move forward on King Kong. Weinstein was furious, and, as a result, Jackson proposed a deal between Universal and Miramax Films that the two studios would equally finance King Kong with Jackson's production company WingNut Films. Universal would receive distribution rights in the United States, while Miramax Films would cover foreign territories. Jackson was also warranted the right of final cut privilege, a percentage of the gross profits, as well as artistic control; Universal allowed all filming and visual effects to be handled entirely in New Zealand. The deal was settled in April 1996, and Jackson, along with his wife Fran Walsh, began working on the King Kong script. In the original draft, Ann was the daughter of famed English archaeologist Lord Linwood Darrow exploring ancient ruins in Sumatra. They would come into conflict with Denham during his filming, and they would uncover a hidden Kong statue and the map of Skull Island. This would indicate that the island natives were the last remnants of a cult religion that had once thrived on Asia's mainland. Instead of a playwright, Jack was the first mate and an ex-World War I fighter pilot still struggling with the loss of his best friend, who had been killed in battle during a World War I prologue. The cameraman Herb is the only supporting character in the original draft who made it to the final version. The fight between Kong and the three V-rexes also changed from the original draft. In the draft, Ann is actually caught in the V-rex's 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.

Universal approved of the script with Robert Zemeckis as executive producer, and pre-production for King Kong commenced. The plan was to begin filming sometime in 1997 for a summer 1998 release date. Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, under the supervision of Richard Taylor and Christian Rivers, began work on early visual effects tests, specifically the complex task of building a CGI version of New York City circa 1933. Jackson and Walsh progressed with a second draft script, sets were being designed and location scouting commenced in Sumatra and New Zealand. In late 1996, Jackson flew to production of the 1997 film Titanic in Mexico to discuss the part of Ann Darrow with Kate Winslet, with whom he previously worked with on his 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. Minnie Driver was also being reportedly considered. Jackson's choices for Jack Driscoll and Carl Denham included George Clooney and Robert De Niro, while the studio wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dennis Quaid, Johnny Depp or Bruce Willis for Jack. However, development for King Kong was stalled in January 1997 when Universal became concerned over the upcoming release of the 1998 film Godzilla, as well as other ape-related remakes with another 1998 film, Mighty Joe Young and the 2001 film Planet of the Apes. Universal abandoned King Kong in February 1997 after Weta Workshop and Weta Digital had already designed six months' worth of pre-production. Jackson then decided to start work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Revival of the project

With the financial and critical success of the 2001 film The Fellowship of the Ring and the 2002 film The Two Towers, Universal approached Jackson in early 2003, during the post-production of The Return of the King, concerning his interest in restarting development on King Kong. In March 2003, Universal set a target December 2005 release date and Jackson and Walsh brought The Lord of the Rings co-writer Philippa Boyens on to help rewrite their 1996 script. Jackson offered New Line Cinema the opportunity to co-finance with Universal, but they declined. Universal and Jackson originally projected a $150 million budget, which eventually rose to $175 million. Jackson made a deal with Universal whereby he would be paid a $20 million salary against 20% of the box office gross for directing, producing and co-writing. He shared that fee with co-writers Walsh (which also covered her producing credit) and Boyens. However, if King Kong were to go over its $175 million budget, the penalties would be covered by Jackson.

Immediately after the completion of The Return of the King, Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, supervised by Taylor, Rivers, and Joe Letteri, started pre-production on King Kong. Jackson brought back most of the crew he had on The Lord of the Rings series, including cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, production designer Grant Major, art directors Simon Bright and Dan Hennah, conceptual designer Alan Lee, and editor Jamie Selkirk. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens began to write a new script in late October 2003. Jackson acknowledged that he was highly unsatisfied with the original 1996 script. "That was actually just Fran and Peter very hurriedly getting something down on paper", Boyens explained. "It was more one of many possible ways the story could go." The writers chose to base the new screenplay on the 1933 film rather than the 1996 script. They also included scenes from James Ashmore Creelman's screenplay that were either abandoned or omitted during production of the original film. In the scene where Kong shakes the surviving sailors pursuing Ann and himself from a log into the ravine, for example, directors Merian Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack originally intended to depict giant spiders, lizards, and insects emerging from the rocks to devour their bodies. This was cut from the original release print, and remains known to Kong fans only via a rare still that appeared in an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Jackson included this scene and elaborated upon it. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens also cited Delos W. Lovelace's 1932 novelization of King Kong as inspiration, which included the character Lumpy (Andy Serkis). To make the relationship between Ann Darrow and Kong plausible, the writers studied hours of gorilla footage. Jackson also optioned Early Havoc, a memoir written by vaudeville performer June Havoc to help Walsh and Boyens flesh out Ann Darrow's characterization. Carl Denham was intentionally modeled after, and inspired by, Orson Welles. Their new draft was finished in February 2004.

Filming

Principal photography started on September 6, 2004, at Camperdown Studios in Miramar, New Zealand. Camperdown housed the native village and the Great Wall, while the streets of New York City were constructed on its backlot and at Gracefield in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. The majority of the SS Venture scenes were shot aboard a full-scale deck constructed in the parking lot at Camperdown Studio and then were backed with a green screen, with the ocean digitally added in post. Scenes set in the Broadway theater from which King Kong makes his escape were filmed in Wellington's Opera House and at the Auckland Civic Theater. Filming also took place at Stone Street Studios, where a new sound stage was constructed to accommodate one of the sets. Over the course of filming the budget went from $175 million to $207 million over additional visual effects work needed, and Jackson extending the film's running time by 30 minutes. Jackson covered most of the $32 million surplus himself and finished filming in March 2005.

The film's budget climbed from an initial $150 million to a then-record-breaking $207 million and received a subsidy of $34 million from New Zealand, making it at one point the most expensive film yet made. Universal 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 Shore to James Newton Howard seven weeks before the film opened.

Visual effects

Jackson saw King Kong as opportunity for technical innovations in motion capture, commissioning Christian Rivers of Weta Digital to supervise all aspects of Kong's performance. 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. Serkis was cast in the title role in April 2003 and prepared himself by working with gorillas at the London Zoo. He then traveled to Rwanda, observing the actions and behaviors of gorillas in the wild. Rivers explained that the detailed facial performance capture with Serkis was accomplished because of the similarities between human and gorilla faces. "Gorillas have such a similar looking set of eyes and brows, you can look at those expressions and transpose your own interpretation onto them." Photos of silverback gorillas were also superimposed on Kong's image in the early stages of animation. Serkis had to go through two hours of motion capture makeup every day, having 135 small markers attached to different spots on his face. Following principal photography, Serkis had to spend an additional two months on a motion capture stage, miming Kong's movements for the film's digital animators.

Apart from Kong, Skull Island is inhabited by dinosaurs and other large fauna. Inspired by Dougal Dixon's works, the designers imagined what 65 million years or more of isolated evolution might have done to the dinosaurs and the other creatures.

Music

Main article: King Kong (Soundtrack)

The original score was initially set to be composed by Howard Shore, who had written several cues for the film. Due to creative differences with Jackson, Shore opted out of the project in October 2005 and subsequently James Newton Howard replaced him. With scoring beginning by late October 2005, Howard had only five weeks to work on the film; as a result, he found it "hardest to compose". Recording sessions took place at the Sony Scoring Stage, California and Todd-AO, Los Angeles, consisting of a 108-piece orchestra, a 40-member choir, and a varied range of instruments used.

The film's soundtrack includes Al Jolson's recording of "I'm Sitting on Top of the World", Peggy Lee's "Bye Bye Blackbird", and some themes from Max Steiner's soundtrack for the original 1933 film. The score was released on December 7, 2005, by Decca Records to positive response. Howard's score was later nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

Marketing

The marketing campaign started in full swing on June 27, 2005, when the teaser trailer made its debut, first online at the official Volkswagen website at 8:45 p.m. EDT, then 8:55 p.m. EDT across media outlets owned by NBCUniversal (the parent of Universal Studios), including NBC, Bravo!, CNBC, and MSNBC. That trailer appeared in theaters attached to War of the Worlds, which opened on June 29.

Jackson also regularly published a series of "Production Diaries", which chronicled the film's production. The diaries started shortly after the DVD release of The Return of the King as a way to give Jackson's The Lord of the Rings fans a glimpse of his next project. These diaries are edited into broadband-friendly installments of 3 or 4 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 scenes, a peek inside the sound booth during last-minute dubbing, or Andy Serkis doing his ape movements in a motion capture studio.

A movie tie-in novelization of the film and a prequel novel titled King Kong: The Island of the Skull were also written. A multi-platform video game, titled Peter Jackson's King Kong, was released, which featured an alternate ending to the story. There was also a hardback book entitled The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island, featuring artwork from Weta Workshop to describe the film's fictional wildlife.

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 filming of King Kong.

Reception

Box office

In North America, King Kong grossed $9.8 million during its Wednesday opening and $50.1 million over its first weekend for a 5-day total of $66.2 million from around 7,500 screens at 3,568 theaters. Some analysts considered these initial numbers disappointing, saying that studio executives had been expecting more. The film went on to gross $218.1 million in the North American market and ended up in the top 5 highest-grossing films of the year there. The film grossed an additional $338.8 million at the box office in other regions for a worldwide total of $556.9 million, which not only ranked it in the top 5 highest-grossing films of 2005 worldwide, but also helped the film bring back more than two-and-a-half times its production budget.

During its home video release, King Kong sold over $100 million worth of DVDs in the largest 6-day performance in Universal Studios history. King Kong sold more than 7.6 million DVDs, accumulating nearly $194 million worth of sales numbers in the North American market alone. As of June 25, 2006, King Kong has generated almost $38 million from DVD rental gross. In February 2006, Turner Broadcasting System (TNT/TBS) and ABC paid Universal Pictures $26.5 million for the television rights to the film.

Critical response

King Kong received acclaim from critics. On aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 84% based on 266 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, terrific performances, and a majestic sense of spectacle, Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong is a potent epic that's faithful to the spirit of the 1933 original." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

It was placed on the "top 10" lists of several critics, with Roger Ebert giving it four stars, and listed it as 2005's eighth-best out of 10 films. The film received four Academy Award nominations, for Visual Effects, Sound Mixing (Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek), Sound Editing, and Production Design, winning all but the last one. Entertainment Weekly called the depiction of Kong the most convincing computer-generated character in film in 2005. Some criticized the film for retaining racist stereotypes that had been present in the 1933 film, though it was not suggested that Jackson had done this intentionally. King Kong ranks 450th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. The Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw said that it "certainly equals, and even exceeds, anything Jackson did in Lord of the Rings." However, Charlie Brooker, also of The Guardian, gave a negative review in which he describes the film as "sixteen times more overblown and histrionic than necessary".

Accolades

Award	Subject	Nominee	Result
Academy Awards	Best Art Direction	Grant Major, Dan Hennah, and Simon Bright	Nominated
	Best Sound Editing	Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn	Won
	Best Sound Mixing	Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, and Hammond Peek
	Best Visual Effects	Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor
American Film Institute	Top Ten Films	King Kong
American Society of Cinematographers Award	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases	Andrew Lesnie	Nominated
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards	Top Box Office Films	James Newton Howard	Won
Art Directors Guild	Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film	Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Joe Bleakley, Simon Bright, Simon Harper, David A. Cook, and Jacqui Allen	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	Best Special Visual Effects	Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor	Won
	Best Production Design	Grant Major	Nominated
	Best Sound	Hammond Peek, Christopher Boyes, Mike Hopkins, and Ethan Van der Ryn
Critics Choice Awards	Best Picture	King Kong
	Best Director	Peter Jackson
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Director
	Best Actress	Naomi Watts
	Best Cinematography	Andrew Lesnie
	Best Original Score	James Newton Howard
Cinema Audio Society	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture	Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association	Best Picture	King Kong
	Best Director	Peter Jackson
Empire Awards	Best Sci-Fi / Superhero	King Kong
	Best Director	Peter Jackson
	Best Actor	Andy Serkis
	Best Actress	Naomi Watts
	Best Film	King Kong	Won
Georges Award	Best Blockbuster Movie		Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Director	Peter Jackson
	Best Original Score	James Newton Howard
Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing in Feature Film - Foreign	Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Brent Burge, David Farmer, Dave Whitehead, John Simpson, Hayden Collow, Melanie Graham, Matthew Lambourn, Justin Webster, Katy Wood, Peter Mills, Craig Tomlinson, Ray Beentjes, Jason Canovas, Martin Kwok, Polly McKinnon, Chris Ward, Jenny T. Ward, Robyn McFarlane, and Carolyn McLaughlin
		Matt Stutter
	Best Sound Editing in Feature Film - Music	Jim Weidman and Peter Myles
Golden Schmoes Awards	Best DVD / Blu-Ray of the Year	Deluxe Extended Edition release
	Favorite Movie of the Year	King Kong
	Best Director of the Year	Peter Jackson
	Most Overrated Movie of the Year	King Kong
	Best Special Effects of the Year		Won
	Best Actress of the Year	Naomi Watts	Nominated
	Coolest Character of the Year	"Kong"
	Best Music in a Movie	King Kong
	Best Trailer of the Year
	Best Action Sequence of the Year	"Kong vs. T-rexes"	Won
	Most Memorable Scene in a Movie		Nominated
		"Kong on top of the Empire State Building"
Hollywood Professional Association	Outstanding Color Grading Feature Film in a DI Process	David Cole
	Outstanding Compositing - Feature Film	Erik Winquist, Charles Tait, Johan Åberg, and G.G. Heitmann Demers
International Cinephile Society	Best Actress	Naomi Watts
	Best Production Design	Grant Major	2nd place
International Film Music Critics Association	Film Score of the Year	James Newton Howard	Nominated
	Best Original Score for an Action / Adventure Film
Jupiter Awards	Best International Director	Peter Jackson	Won
	Best International Actress	Naomi Watts	Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Cinematography	Andrew Lesnie	Won
	Best Editing	Jamie Selkirk
	Best Costume Design	Terry Ryan
	Best Art Direction	Simon Bright and Dan Hennah
	Best Visual Effects	King Kong
	Best Picture		3rd place
London Critics Circle Film Awards	Film of the Year		Nominated
	Actress of the Year	Naomi Watts	Won
	Director of the Year	Peter Jackson
MTV Russia Movie Awards	Best Foreign Movie	King Kong	Nominated
MTV Movie & TV Awards	Best Movie
	Best Fight	"Kong vs. the planes"
National Board of Review	Special Achievement Award		Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Director	Peter Jackson	Nominated
	Best Actress	Naomi Watts
	Best Original Score	James Newton Howard
Online Film and Television Association	Best Actress	Naomi Watts
	Best Music, Original Score	James Newton Howard
	Best Cinematography	Andrew Lesnie
	Best Production Design	Grant Major, Joe Bleakley, Simon Bright, and Dan Hennah	Won
	Best Costume Design	Terry Ryan	Nominated
	Best Makeup and Hairstyling	Gino Acevedo, Rick Findlater, Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Dominie Till
	Best Sound Mixing	Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, and Hammond Peek	Won
	Best Sound Effects Editing	Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
	Best Visual Effects	Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor
	Best Titles Sequence	King Kong	Nominated
	Best Cinematic Moment	T-rex Fight
	Best Official Film Website	King Kong
Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Production Design	Grant Major	Won
	Best Visual Effects	King Kong
Huabiao Award	Outstanding Translated Foreign Film		Nominated
Rondo Award	Best Film		Won
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards	Best Picture
Saturn Award	Best DVD Special Edition Release	Deluxe Extended Edition release	Nominated
	Best Fantasy Film	King Kong
	Best Director	Peter Jackson	Won
	Best Writing	Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Peter Jackson	Nominated
	Best Actress	Naomi Watts	Won
	Best Costume	Terry Ryan	Nominated
	Best Make-Up	Richard Taylor, Gino Acevedo, Dominie Till, and Peter King
	Best Special Effects	Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor	Won
Scream Awards	Best Remake	King Kong
	Scream Queen	Naomi Watts	Nominated
	Best Fantasy Movie	King Kong
	Best F/X
Southeastern Film Critics Association	Best Picture		9th place
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards	Most Intrusive Musical Score	James Newton Howard	Nominated
	Most Overrated Film	King Kong
St. Louis Film Critics Association	Best Director	Peter Jackson
	Best Cinematography or Visual/Special Effects	Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor	Won
Teen Choice Awards	Choice Action Adventure	King Kong	Nominated
	Choice Rumble	King Kong vs. T-rex
	Choice Sleazebag	Jack Black
	Choice Hissy Fit	King Kong
Toronto Film Critics Association	Special Citation	Andy Serkis	Won
Visual Effects Society	Outstanding Visual Effects in an Effects Driven Motion Picture	Joe Letteri, Eileen Moran, Christian Rivers, and Eric Saindon
	Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture	Andy Serkis, Christian Rivers, Atsushi Sato, and Guy Williams
	Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture	Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Matt Aitken, and Charles Tait
	Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture	Erik Winquist, Michaell Pangrazio, Steve Cronin, and Suzanne Jandu	Nominated
World Soundtrack Awards	Soundtrack Composer of the Year	James Newton Howard
	Best Original Soundtrack of the Year
Vancouver Film Critics Circle	Best Actress	Naomi Watts

Cinematic and literary allusions

• Jack Black and critics have noted this film's version of Carl Denham's similarity to Orson Welles.
• When Driscoll is searching for a place to sleep in the animal storage hold, a box behind him reads Sumatran Rat Monkey – Beware the bite! This is a reference to the creature that causes mayhem in Jackson's 1992 film Braindead, itself a reference to the giant rat of Sumatra mentioned by Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". In that film, the rat monkey is described as being found only on Skull Island.
• Jimmy reads part of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness while en route to Skull Island, at one point comparing their journey to that of the novella.

References to the original 1933 film King Kong

• Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow, was asked by Jackson to appear in a brief cameo role in which she would utter the film's final line: "It was Beauty killed the Beast." At first, she flatly refused, but then seemed to consider the possibility. However, she died shortly after her meeting with Jackson at the age of 96. As in the original film, the line ultimately went to Carl Denham.
• An ad for Universal is visible while Kong is tearing up Times Square. In the 1933 film, an ad for Columbia Pictures appeared in the same spot, and the production designers replicated it, but Columbia asked for a large amount of money for its use, so the special effects artists replaced it.
• When Denham is considering who to play the part before meeting Ann, he suggests "Fay?", but his assistant Preston replies, "She's doing a picture with RKO." Music from the 1933 film is heard, and Denham mutters, "Cooper, huh? I might have known." Fay Wray starred in the 1933 film, which was directed by Merian C. Cooper and released by RKO. At the time, she was performing in another Cooper/Schoedsack production, The Most Dangerous Game, with Robert Armstrong.
• In the 1933 film, the opening credits made up an "Arabian proverb" about "Beauty and the Beast". The 2005 remake repeats the phony proverb.
• Early in this film, Denham shoots a scene for his film in which Ann, in-character, proclaims she has never been on a ship before, and Bruce Baxter improvises lines proclaiming annoyance. The dialogue they exchange is taken verbatim from early scenes between Ann and Jack Driscoll in the 1933 film. Ironically, in this film, Jack Driscoll expresses disapproval of such words toward Ann.
• Kong's New York stage appearance looks very much like a re-enactment of the 1933 film's human sacrifice scene, including the posts that "Beauty" is tied to and the nearly identical performance, costumes, and blackface makeup of the dancers. In addition, the music played by the orchestra during that scene is Max Steiner's original score for the 1933 film.
• The battle between Kong and the final V. rex is almost move-for-move like the last half of the fight between Kong and the T. rex in the 1933 film, right down to Kong playing with the dinosaur's broken jaw and then standing, beating his chest and roaring victoriously.
• After the crew captures Kong on the beach, Denham speaks a line from the 1933 film: "The whole world will pay to see this! We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you. In a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! KONG, THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD!"

Home media

King Kong was released on DVD on March 28, 2006, in the United States and Canada by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The three versions that came out are a single-disc fullscreen, a single-disc widescreen, and a two-disc Widescreen Special Edition.

A 3-disc Deluxe Extended Edition was released on November 14, 2006 in the United States, and on November 3 in Australia. Twelve minutes were reinserted into the film, and an additional 40 minutes were included with 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 one and two, while the main special features were on disc three. 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 200 total minutes.

A special HD DVD version of King Kong was part of a promotional pack for the release of the external HD DVD Drive for the Xbox 360. 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 Disc on January 20, 2009. A re-release of the Blu-Ray with a new bonus disc containing nearly all of the extras from the 2-disc Widescreen Special Edition DVD, the Deluxe Extended Edition 3-disc DVD, and the "Peter Jackson's Production Diaries" 2-disc DVD titled the Ultimate Edition was released on February 7, 2017. An Ultra HD Blu-ray followed in July 2017.

Canceled sequel and reboot

In March 2021, Adam Wingard said in an interview that back in 2013, Peter Jackson had been interested in producing a sequel to the film, titled Skull Island, with Wingard as director and Simon Barrett writing it. Jackson had been impressed with Wingard's work in You're Next, and investigated a potential sequel. However, the King Kong rights had already been transferred to Warner Bros. by 2013, which complicated a sequel to a Universal-produced film. Wingard says that Jackson was thinking of setting the proposed film during World War I, which would make it a prequel, but that the studio was uninterested in a World War I era film. Wingard pivoted to offering a modern-day sequel, but ultimately nothing came of the proposal.

Ultimately, Warner Bros. rebooted the franchise with Kong: Skull Island in 2017, which is part of the Monsterverse. Wingard would later direct 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong and its sequel, 2024's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, two other films set in the Monsterverse.

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 in 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.

Trivia

• The film includes a version of the waterfall shower scene from the 1976 remake. In addition, Ann Darrow begins to sympathize with Kong throughout her captivity; this element was also featured in the 1976 remake.

See also

• Mighty Joe Young
• List of films featuring dinosaurs
• List of most expensive films

External links

• King Kong at Wikipedia
• King Kong at the Internet Movie Database
• King Kong at TCM Movie Database
• King Kong at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• King Kong at Box Office Mojo
• King Kong at Rotten Tomatoes
• King Kong at Metacritic