King
Kong
(2005)
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Colin Hanks,
Thomas Kretschmann, Kyle Chandler
Director: Peter Jackson
U.S.
Opening Date: December 14, 2005
After having probably made enough money with the three
Lord of the Rings movies to save the Third World
from disease and hunger, director Peter Jackson could have asked to make a
remake of Ishtar or a Battlefield Earth
sequel and the studio suits would have let him.
Instead he chose to do a remake of the 1933 Black &
White classic King Kong for some reason.
Of course, this would be the second remake of the
movie: Dino De Laurentiis produced a cheesy remake
in 1976 (which incidentally marked the film debut of Jessica Lange –
fortunately she went on to star in classier projects).
The original heralded a breakthrough in stop-motion
effects: the method of using a scale model and moving and filming it at
one frame at a time. The 1976 remake heralded a breakthrough in, uhm,
stuntmen in monkey suits (it featured the legendary Rick Baker as the
titular Kong).
Jackson’s Kong probably won’t be a step
backwards: instead it will employ state-of-the-art CGI effects to bring
the huge monkey to life.
The question remains: why remake King Kong?
After all, is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t know how the story
ends? Will people pay money to see something which they know how it will
end? Studio bosses are betting they will (they paid Jackson a whopping
record $20 million salary!) – after all, enough audiences flocked to see
The Passion of the Christ to make it one of 2004’s biggest hit
movies, and everyone knew how that one would end . . .
(One other question also remains: why the hell is Jack
Black in this movie?)
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Plot Summary for King Kong (2005):
Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a group of explorers and
documentary filmmakers who travel to the mysterious Skull Island (near
Sumatra) to investigate legends of a giant gorilla named Kong. Once there,
they discover that King Kong is a real creature, living in a massive
jungle where creatures from prehistoric times have been protected and
hidden for millions of years. As the explorers search for the great ape,
their quest puts them up against both Kong and his dinosaur enemies.
Ultimately, it is the attention of a beautiful human woman that soothes
Kong long enough for him to be subdued by the explorers and shipped back
to New York, where his bleak future involves being put on display in front
of humans ... but how long can even the mightiest shackles of man hold
back an ape 25 feet tall?