King Kong
The eighth wonder of the world.
King Kong (2005)
Production
Budget
$207 000 000
Revenue
$562 363 449
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Naomi Watts
Ann Darrow
Adrien Brody
Jack Driscoll
Jack Black
Carl Denham
Andy Serkis
Kong / Lumpy
Colin Hanks
Preston
Thomas Kretschmann
Captain Englehorn
Jamie Bell
Jimmy
Kyle Chandler
Bruce Baxter
Short description
King Kong is set in 1930s New York, where filmmaker Carl Denham is determined to make a spectacular adventure picture. He recruits Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville performer, and playwright Jack Driscoll, and sails with his cast and crew aboard the Venture toward a remote, uncharted island. Denham believes the legends of a mysterious creature worshiped there will bring him fame, but the expedition instead finds a giant ape, Kong, and a hidden world of prehistoric life. When Kong becomes drawn to Ann, the filmmakers' plans put everyone in danger. The film is a retelling of the classic 1933 story, set in the same Depression-era New York.
Peter Jackson directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the same writing team behind his earlier work. It was his tenth film as director, following The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and preceding The Lovely Bones. Naomi Watts plays Ann Darrow, Adrien Brody is Jack Driscoll, and Jack Black plays Carl Denham, with Andy Serkis appearing both as Kong and as the crew member Lumpy. The large production, made across Germany, New Zealand and the United States, cost about 207 million dollars and earned roughly 562 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.2 from over 472,000 votes, on TMDB 6.9 from more than 8,700 votes, and its 267 critics' reviews average 8 out of 10.
What's left behind the scenes
- A poster for the film “Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness” (1927) can be seen in the background in the scene where Denham is eavesdropping on the studio bosses' conversation. This film was produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, who also made the original “King Kong” (1933).
- Outside New York movie theaters, you can see posters for the films “East of Borneo” (1931) and “The Mummy” (1932).
- Frank Darabont (director of “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) and “The Green Mile” (1999)) played one of the machine gunners who shoot at Kong atop the Empire State Building.
- This film was the last picture whose production was personally approved by the former Chairperson of the Board of Directors of 'Universal' studio, Stacey Snider, shortly before her move to 'Dreamworks'. Initially, she demanded that the film's duration not exceed 160 minutes, but after viewing a rough cut of the film, she agreed to increase the screen time because she really liked the new version of 'King Kong'.
- Jackson had "King Kong" planned immediately after finishing "The Frighteners," but difficulties with copyright arose, and Jackson switched to filming "The Lord of the Rings".
- The first DVD edition of "King Kong" was released long before the film's premiere. This is the first such case in the history of cinema. The disc features video diaries about the progress of filming.
- The hand-held camera constantly carried by Carl Denham is a Bell & Howell 2709. The same type of camera was used during the filming of “King Kong” (1933).
- Michael Muenie auditioned for the role of Bruce Baxter.
- Alex Norton and Sylvester McCoy auditioned for various roles in the project, but they did not participate in the film.
- The scene shown in the trailer, where Carl Denham (Jack Black) says to Ann: “Scream Ann! Scream for your life!” is absent from both the theatrical and director's cut of the film.
- The scene in which Denham, Driscoll, and the ship's crew fall into a canyon teeming with giant insects is a reference to a scene in “King Kong” (1933), where the protagonists fell into a canyon inhabited by giant spiders. However, this scene was cut from the 1933 film.
- Jack Black limited himself to a 1930s-style wig and completely refused makeup when he learned that Clint Eastwood had never used it during filming. It was later revealed that he had been lied to about Eastwood.
- The role of Jimmy was specifically written for Jamie Bell.
- The music playing in the theater where Kong is being shown is the original music from “King Kong” (1933). The costumes worn by the actors on stage replicate the costumes of the inhabitants of the island in the 1933 film.
- King Kong's roar is a lion's roar, slowed down by half and played in reverse.
- Peter Jackson's children, Billy and Katie, can be spotted in the first two minutes of the film.
- Initially, Kate Winslet was supposed to play the role of Ann Darrow, but Naomi Watts eventually landed the part.
- Around 100 extras were used for filming the scenes in New York, and they wore different costumes for filming different scenes.
- In the holds of the 'Venture', you can notice an empty cage with a sign that reads 'Sumatran rat monkey'. The same monkey was the cause of the reanimation of the dead in Peter Jackson's film 'Braindead' (1992). In that film, the monkey was also caught on Skull Island.
- According to the creators, King Kong's height is approximately 25 feet (about 7.6 meters). In the 1933 film, his height was about 50 feet (15.2 meters). However, in proportion to people and objects, Kong's height was approximately the same as that of the new Kong.
- The insects that attack Jack Driscoll at the bottom of the canyon are giant versions of the weta, an insect native to New Zealand. The name also refers to Peter Jackson's special effects studio.
- The billboards of Coca-Cola, Pepsodent, and Chevrolet visible on Times Square are identical to the advertising posters in the 1933 film.
- The New York sets consisted of only four blocks, and all the buildings were single-story. The rest was special effects. The streets were “expanded” using computer technology. In some scenes, the number of pedestrians and cars was doubled, or even tripled, using the same technology as was used for the battle scenes in “The Lord of the Rings”.
- Fay Wray, the actress who played Ann Darrow in the original 1933 film, was supposed to participate in the project, but unfortunately, she passed away shortly before filming began.
- Upon its release, 'King Kong' became the film with the largest number of special effects in the history of cinema – about 2400 shots. It surpassed the record previously set by 'Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith' (2005), which contained approximately 2200 shots with special effects. Notably, the number of special effects increases significantly in each new film by Peter Jackson: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001) – 560 shots, 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' (2002) – 800, 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003) – 1488.
- Peter Jackson received a fee of $20 million for his work on the film. This was a record for the directing profession. There have been instances where people earned more for a film (percentages of box office revenue), but such a fee, paid before the project even launched, was truly exceptional.
- At one stage of production, Andrew Lesnie (cinematographer) suggested making the film black and white.
- In one of the opening scenes, Jack Black's character lists the surnames of actresses he would like to cast in his future film – one of the names belonged to Fay Wray, who played Ann Darrow in the 1933 King Kong.
- On April 1, 2005, Peter Jackson spread a rumor in his web diary dedicated to the filming that he had already begun working on two sequels – "King Kong: Son of Kong" and "King Kong: Into the Wolf’s Lair." He also stated that both sequels would likely appear in 2006. The main characters of the film, with the help of Kong's son, were to fight mutants bred in Hitler's secret laboratories in the sequels.
- Rick Baker played one of the pilots who shoot at Kong atop the Empire State Building. Baker played Kong in “King Kong” (1976).
- The film is set in 1933.
- To 'get into' the role of King Kong, Andy Serkis spent a long time studying gorilla behavior in Africa.
- The digital model of New York in 1933 contained approximately 90,000 individual buildings.
- At the end of the closing credits, it states that the film is dedicated to “the first explorers of Skull Island…”, followed by a listing of the actors who played the main roles in the 1933 film.
- Adrien Brody refused the use of a stunt double during the filming of the scene in which his character tries to distract King Kong by driving away from him in a taxi.
- Peter Jackson originally wanted to cast Robert De Niro or George Clooney in the role of Carl Denham.
- An old friend of Jackson's, Howard Shore, was working on the soundtrack (Howard also played the role of the orchestra conductor during Carl Denham's show). However, two months before the film's release, Peter made an unexpected decision for many to replace the composer. James Newton Howard took over.
- During the filming of scenes involving King Kong, 132 sensors were attached to Andy Serkis's face.
- Tyrannosaurus Rexes have three fingers on their front paws (instead of the scientifically proven two). This detail was also borrowed from the original 1933 film. According to the creators, this fact was explained by the fact that, as a result of evolution, the animals developed an additional finger over 65 million years.
- The film studio where the filming took place is located quite close to the local airport, so planes often appeared in the frame during outdoor shooting.
- It took around six hours to apply Vicki Houghton's makeup for the role of the witch, but the scenes featuring her lasted no more than two minutes.
- The complete original director's cut has a runtime of 201 minutes. It includes additional scenes: Immediately after entering the jungle, the search party encounters a furious ceratopsian with a split horn on its nose. It stamps its feet, then collapses, exhausted. Denham films it. After fleeing the apatosaurs, the group stops on the shore of a swamp, and Lumpy begins building a raft. The longest cut scene (immediately after Ann’s escape from Kong): the group floats on rafts through the swamp, and is attacked by arthropods resembling scorpions, then by a monstrous fish (called a “piranhadon”). Three sailors die, and Preston miraculously saves Denham's camera. At this time, Ann stops at a cliff, drinks from a spring, then hears Driscoll’s voice. She runs, but in the wrong direction. The group encounters a strange, non-flying bird resembling an ostrich, which Lumpy accidentally shoots. After this, Hayes leads his squad to a tree that fell into the chasm. After the battle in the gorge, Bruce urges the survivors to climb up the rope, and Jimmy takes the cap of the deceased Hayes. Two short moments where Kong breaks through the ruins of the native city. The scene of the military attacking Kong in New York.
- Upon its release, “King Kong” became the most expensive film in history (without adjusting for inflation), surpassing the budgets of “Titanic” (1997) and “Spider-Man 2” (2004). Peter Jackson’s film had a budget of $207 million.
- The script pages that Jack gives Carl are genuine pages from the 1933 film's screenplay, one copy of which belongs to Peter Jackson.
- The scene in which Kong tears the jaw of the V-Rex is also present in the 1933 film.
- During the production of the film, Peter Jackson kept online video diaries, which were available for viewing on the kongisking.net website. New reports from the set were added every 2-3 days.
- The film contains approximately 800 shots of miniature work.
- During her escape from the Tyrannosaurus, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) falls and slides down. In this scene, it is clearly visible that her dress gets very dirty, but in the next frame it is already clean.
- In one scene of the film, Naomi Watts wears the exact same hat as Fay Wray in “King Kong” (1933).
- In an early version of the script, Ann Darrow was the daughter of a famous archaeologist, and Jack Driscoll was his assistant. In one of the first scenes, Ann's father was killed by Indonesian soldiers who were trying to hide his discoveries on Skull Island.
- Two Brontosaurus models from the 1933 version of "King Kong" were used as a starting point for creating dinosaur models for the new film.
- Adrien Brody was the initial and only candidate for the role of Jack Driscoll. He signed a contract to star in the film before the script was even written.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
