Newsweek got the chance to visit the set of Peter Jackson‘s Lord of the Rings follow-up King Kong over in Wellington, New Zealand and what they brought back with them were lively tales from the dinner table to talk from the set. The article goes on to say that the 1933 original film starring Fay Wray is burned into Jackson’s brain and now with $20 million to start production on the film along with his LOTR co-creators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens there wasn’t much of a delay.
We have put together a few snippets from the article below, to get it all click here or the link at the bottom.
Peter Jackson’s remake takes place in the ’30s and is being shot in New Zealand—Weta Digital is building old New York on computer with a fanatical accuracy, using original blueprints and historical records. The movie stars Jack Black (as the obsessive movie director Carl Denham), Naomi Watts (as leading lady Ann Darrow) and Adrien Brody (as Jack Driscoll, in Jackson’s version a playwright in the Arthur Miller mode, who’s been cajoled into writing Denham’s screenplay). Andy Serkis, whose acting was the basis for the digital Gollum, will “play” Kong, whose prehistoric island is breached by Denham as he hunts for one of the planet’s dwindling mysteries. Serkis hasn’t begun working with Watts yet. Judging from the menacing grunts and body language he summoned up for a reporter with a moment’s notice, he is going to scare the crap out of her.
Jackson hopes to bring the Kong myth to a generation that’s allergic to black-and-white movies, confuses “King Kong” with “Godzilla” and never saw the original, just the campy ’70s remake. “I’m 26, and the only thing I knew about Kong was that he got on the Empire State Building and was shot down by planes,” says Colin Hanks, who plays Denham’s long-suffering assistant, a new character. “I watched some of the Jessica Lange version. It’s painfully obvious that it’s a guy in a monkey suit. I mean, he’s literally walking around, looking in windows and going, ‘Where’s Jessica Lange?'”
Whether or not the film will work is yet to be seen, and will not be seen until it is released next Christmas, until then click here to check out the rest of the Newsweek article and a larger look at the concept art you previewed above.
