King Kong to return in King of Skull Island prequel picture

[Forkboy]

King Kong will be coming back in Kong: King of Skull Island, a prequel to the well-known tale of the big ape, Variety reported. Producers at Spirit Pictures have picked up the rights to a book by that name that was written at the same time Peter Jackson was producing his 2005 remake of King Kong.

Kong: King of Skull Island, written by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, focuses on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there. It introduces other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.

Rights to make the movie were brokered with the Merian C. Cooper family, who own the Kong property. Cooper co-directed the original King Kong, released in 1933.

"We're very concerned with honoring Merian C. Cooper's legacy in Hollywood," said Spirit's Steve Iles, who worked on video games for the Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises through his Pocket Studios game company. "We want to make sure that whatever we deliver will honor his memory."

The plan is to produce the film using motion-capture technology like that Robert Zemeckis used to make The Polar Express, Beowulf and the upcoming A Christmas Carol.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/07/king-kong-to-return-in-ki.php

This can't possibly be any worse than the middle hour of Jackson's version was.

[Eric J in MN]

1. Watching a bunch of imaginary animals fighting for two hours...

...with no people on-screen, probably won't be very entertaining.

[Orrex]

2. I'll bet it'll be even more exciting than Transformers Part Deux

:eyes:

[Auggie]

3. Motion-capture technology? That says it all. Yechh!

[IndianaGreen]

6. I don't care for it.

Okay on film version of graphic novels, but not on Kong.

[AllenVanAllen]

4. What like a nature documentary? Why?

Jackson's Kong was technically amazing but it suffered from major story-bloat. The original ran 104 min. and was such a superior movie. I gotta say PJ's remake had it's moments but man, did a lot of it suck!




"Leave me alone already!"

[Divine Discontent]

5. gotta be better than Peter Jackson's bungling of KK! I was SO excited to go see it in Dec 05, and

after watching it, all the way through somehow, I thought - how could this be the same person who made LOTR TRILOGY!!!!

lol...

It was utterly bad after about 30 min., or when Jack Black's overacting, combined with incredibly cheezy CGI scenes, ruined the whole shebang.

So, I'm excited to see this to get the bad taste of Peter Jackson's King Kong outta my mouth...

[miyazaki]

7. cheezy cgi? c'mon, it was amazing. n/t

[Orrex]

9. The CGI for Kong himself was amazing, but the dinosaur stampede... Not so much.

Not a great improvement over the original Land of the Lost IMO.


Regardless, I really liked the whole movie.

[Forkboy]

10. I laughed so hard during the stampede scene I thought I was going to puke.

Which would be great had that been the intention.

I like the first act and the third act, but that second act on Skull Island was laughably bad. I mean really, really bad. Like 1976 remake bad. The stampede wasn't the only idiocy in that act by far. The bugs in the chasm, the fight with Kong and the T-Rexes suspended on the vines. I'm laughing just thinking about it. :rofl:

The ending almost saved it, and I'll go so far as to say the ending in the remake packed far more of an emotional punch than the original did.

Still, I'm always glad to see big monster movies being made, either big budget or a man in the the big G's suit. Well, outside of the SyFy ones. I just can't find anything redeeming in them, big monsters or not. There's almost so bad I can't even MST3K them. :)

[Orrex]

11. I loved the T-Rex fight, but the part with the vines was a bit goofy

I also seem to recall reading somewhere that the giant bugs were supposed to be in the 1933 version but were cut do to budget and logistical concerns. Anyone?

I agree that the ending of Jackson's version was more emotionally powerful, in large part because we got to know Kong as a character rather than just as a big monster. If memory serves, Fay Wray wasn't nearly as saddened by Kong's death as Naomi Watts was. Heck, even Jessica Lange's portrayal showed us her grief at Kong's death--one of few good moments in an otherwise horrible film.

[AllenVanAllen]

12. The bug scene was cut from the 33' Kong because

the director thought it would slow the story's pace too much. Wouldn't ya' know it, that's exactly what happened it Jackson's Kong. It ground the story to a screeching halt! In 2005 WB released a 33' King Kong Two - Disk Special Edition DVD with a supplemental scene where Jackson and his FX team created the missing scene from excising materials and missing footage. It's pretty interesting. It's a great DVD to pick if you can find it:http://www.amazon.com/King-special-osleeve-s-1-33-eng-fr-sp/dp/B000B5XOQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250834243&sr=8-1

The stampede scene was terrible. I have so many problems with it I won't even go there. I really do believe if Jackson's Kong would had been edited down substantially it would be vastly better. There is a lot I dig about this film but there's a lot I hate about it too. I bought it on DVD anyway.

[lovecanada56035]

8. Hope it's better than the 2005 remake

Which was absolute dreck.

[ffellini7080]

13. the 2005 film was atrocious

I certainly won't bother with this one either.