Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Entertainment › Movies (Theatrical) › It's official -- Peter Jackson's next film: King Kong
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

It's official -- Peter Jackson's next film: King Kong - Page 16  

post #451 of 814
10/28/05 at 12:01pm
I'll confess as to not even remembering what happens in this film. Guess I'm a fraud for not having seen the original 1933 or whatever year it was? I did see the 1978? version with Jeff Bridges? See, I can't even remember who was in that one.

I'm going in with some low expectations and also not really knowing what takes place. :b
post #452 of 814
10/28/05 at 12:11pm
You've never seen King Kong? Really?
post #453 of 814
10/28/05 at 12:15pm
First time for everything, Tim. The upcoming DVD will be a great place to start.

Even as a young child, the original Kong always enthralled me in a way that no other film of its era did. Yes, it was black and white, and older than dirt, but I always loved it. It is perfect escapism, and still contains moments when I think, "Gee, how'd they do that?"

--Jefferson Morris
post #454 of 814
10/28/05 at 12:16pm
Well...no not really. And I call myself a film lover. :b I'm a fraud. :b

I've seen just bits on tv when growing up. I'm assuming this was the original black and white. I need to shut up...I'm losing whatever credibility I had.
post #455 of 814
10/28/05 at 12:23pm
Thanks Jefferson. I am looking forward to owning that.
post #456 of 814
10/28/05 at 2:03pm
after seeing the trailer again a few more times in the theater, i'm getting much more hyped to see this now. in fact, by the time mid December rolls around i'm going going to be near busting out of my skin to see it.
i agree with Ebert that no good film is too long, but i also recognize that many 'dream projects' falter and stumble because of lack of proper distance to the material.

but catching an article in some foreign film mag recently, i read that some things Jackson wants to incorporate are backstories to Ann and Kong- in the case of Kong, not so much back story as context.
i dunno if i should put these in spoilers, but i will just in case
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
one of the things that Jackson wants to show is that Kong is alone- he is the last of his race on the island and at one point in the script he has him picking up his fathers skull and stroking it


any serious reservations i had about the remake pretty much flittered away when i read that. if Jackson can get across that idea well, this film is going to be something really special. i had reservations about Black too earlier, but seeing the trailer again i'm not quite as off put as i was.
Robert Armstrong is one of my favorite character actors so there is some natural resistence to anyone else impersonating the character, but i'm hoping Black brings something special to his interp.

there is the danger that the final film will be too indulgent and lose focus- but i think the more likely outcome is that it will 'overwrite' the original to such an extent that it will render the original irrelevant to everyone but 30's film buffs and pop archeologists.
post #457 of 814
10/28/05 at 2:59pm
I love King Kong but I LOVE Mighty Joe Young. I'm looking forward to getting that on DVD more.
post #458 of 814
10/28/05 at 5:04pm
Word has it that the new trailer will be on Access Hollywood next Thursday (11/3). No doubt scrunched up in one side of the screen, with the beginning and end truncated, plus insipid fucking voice-over from the A.H. hosts. But still...

--Jefferson Morris
post #459 of 814
10/28/05 at 9:57pm
I don't know about three hours. I can go for it if it's entertaining, but three hours? Doesn't that sound excessive? Maybe I'm typecasting the movie based on the 1933 film, but I was thinking it'd be more of a light adventure movie rather than a three hour long epic.
post #460 of 814
10/28/05 at 10:42pm
i would like to get to know more of the Ventures crew so that when they meet their fates on the island, it has some meaning.
Jackson hinted in that article i referenced earlier that we will understand how Ann became emotionally equipped to live thru such an extreme experience- that notion has me intrigued.
post #461 of 814
10/29/05 at 7:57am
Quote:
I was thinking it'd be more of a light adventure movie rather than a three hour long epic.
If it's "not what was expected", that's fine with me as long as it's a well done three hour epic. Maybe some people don't like epics (too long in this MTV culture). Maybe some people don't think this story fits the epic style. What would really annoy me is if people started posting something like "character depth and development? Pathos? Ewwww! I just wanna see the good CGI stuff and stuff smashed up good!"

The more I'm hearing, the better I like the idea that Jackson is taking the story in a different, more developed direction. That's MUCH better to me than simply doing a technologically updated rehash of the old movie.
post #462 of 814
10/29/05 at 8:34am
You are completely mischaracterising the audience in this case. The biggest LOTR, Peter Jackson, and Peter Jackson's King Kong fans are exactly the same MTV culture you are deriding. I very much doubt that there has been a director with higher standing on high school and college campuses in the last 4 years.

These movies were 3+ hours long and were wholeheartedly embrassed by this short-attention-span generation, who asked for seconds (Extented Editions) and who has been clamoring for the Hobbit in the same vein since.

There is no reason to believe that that same crowd would expect any less of this movie than the excellence they experienced with LOTR.

Anecdotal evidence alert: the only people I have heard complaint about the lenght of these movie were people at work, well into the 40s and 50s. I am more inclined to believe that sitting in a movie theater for 3+ hours is more of an issue for the average adult with a job and a family than for those pesky youngsters.

--
H
post #463 of 814
10/29/05 at 8:34am
The length of the movie says to me that Jackson wanted to make more than just a "remake" of KK, he wanted it to be more.
post #464 of 814
10/29/05 at 11:41am
Quote:
There is no reason to believe that that same crowd would expect any less of this movie than the excellence they experienced with LOTR
Hey, if the film is embraced on its merits, then I'll be happy. It wasn't my intent to characterize everyone under 30 as rejecting a three hour epic.
post #465 of 814
11/1/05 at 9:00am
You fellows might want to see this little behind-the-scenes on Kong, released yesterday (PJ's birthday, incidentally). There are a bunch of new completed shots in this one - probably from the trailer upcoming on Thursday. Visual spoilers therein...

http://movies.apple.com/movies/unive...nside_h480.mov

And a HD-rez version:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/unive...side_h720p.mov

--Jefferson Morris
post #466 of 814
11/1/05 at 12:33pm
Thank you Jefferson for posting that. I enjoyed it.
post #467 of 814
11/1/05 at 1:54pm
You're welcome.

This thread seems a little anemic. I'm surprised to see so few posts in recent days, given the excitement that's building for this title in the world-at-large.

--Jefferson Morris
post #468 of 814
11/1/05 at 2:21pm
Jefferson, I haven't viewed that yet because of the visual spoilers you mention. Does it give away plot points that we might not know from the original?
post #469 of 814
11/1/05 at 3:08pm
I just picked up the prequel novel "The Island of the Skull." I haven't started it yet, but it's supposed to be some backstory on Denham and Darrow.
post #470 of 814
11/1/05 at 3:20pm
Johnny,

No major plot points are blown or anything, but you will get a few more of the action beats in the Kong vs. V-Rex scene.

If you plan on watching the new trailer, there's no reason not to watch the video -- all the money shots doubtless are from that. But some people consider trailers and promos themselves to be spoilers, hence my warning.

--Jefferson Morris
post #471 of 814
11/1/05 at 3:37pm
We're questioning the 3-hour running time because right now most of us can't conceive of how the King Kong story could justify such a length. The LOTR films were totally justified in being long, but I'm a skeptic about King Kong. Seems like it would work better as a tight and punchy 90-120 minute film. We're talking King Kong here, not Howards End
post #472 of 814
11/1/05 at 3:48pm
Perhaps this King Kong is Howard's End with a giant ape. Let's just wait and see. As Ebert says, some of the longest movies he's seen have been 90 minutes in length. If it's bloated, it'll hurt. The execs, who cringe at running length, seemed to think it was worth the limited daily showings. I would rarely trust them to make these decisions, but when they go against their nature...maybe it's for a good reason.

I don't have a lot of posts in this thread, but be certain I'll be at the midnight showing, Jefferson

Probably sitting next to you incognito,
Chuck
post #473 of 814
11/1/05 at 4:40pm
just expanding a timeline from the original film to three hours, this is probably where i would look for embellishment

45 minutes in New York and at sea in which we have to
- meet Denham and find out why he is so desperate (what is he coming out of in the trailer? a meeting with his financial backers? just how desperate is his situation?
- meet Driscoll
- meet Ann and learn of her desperate circumstances and what forces her into this situation
- meet the crew of the ship
- prepare to leave, set sail, the map is discussed, a relationshipp develops between Driscoll and Ann (and with this Driscoll being a writer/intellectual, there is the implication that it will be a more dialouge expressed relationship

easily 1 hour 30 minutes from the point they discover the island, make land fall, do their test shooting, discover the natives, go back to the ship, etc- thru Kong being gassed and ready to transport.

its possible that like the 76 version, we'll get material about the voyage home. in that case, i would reduce the time count from the first act and tack it on here.

and i would expect at least 45 minutes with Kong in New York, with maybe a good 10-15 minutes, maybe more, before we see Kong again since the island/ship (to build up the anticiaption/impact for his unveiling) i would also expect from the moment he arrives at the base of the ESB to the end of the credits that it will cover another 15-20 minutes. easy.

i see 3 hours easy to fill with substance.
post #474 of 814
11/1/05 at 7:13pm
Behind the scenes preview looks really good!
post #475 of 814
11/1/05 at 8:18pm
Does anyone happen to have the 8-Weeks-To-Go PPD - the one that was suddenly removed from KongIsKing. I had downloaded about 70 percent before it was removed. If anyone does, if they could put it up somewhere for temporary downloading, it would really be appreciated.

Thanks.
post #476 of 814
11/2/05 at 5:36am
What's in it?
post #477 of 814
11/2/05 at 2:01pm
8 weeks to go is up again:
http://img-nex.kongisking.net/kong/m...o_qt6_high.mov
post #478 of 814
11/2/05 at 2:09pm
Chuck wrote:
Quote:
I don't have a lot of posts in this thread, but be certain I'll be at the midnight showing, Jefferson
I don't think I'll manage a midnight show. My g/f also is a fan and if we did a three-hour movie that started at midnight, she'd end up getting about an hour of sleep before having to get up the next morning for work.

Instead, I imagine I'll be doing the same thing I did for LOTR three years in a row on release date Wednesday - go straight from work to the beloved Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., to stake out a place in line and wait for seating for a 10:30 p.m.-ish show. Friends will accrue later with hip flasks of hot chocolate spiced up with a bit of alkyhol. Still a late night, but not as late. I look forward to it.

Matthew, that PPD was just reposted on KIKN an hour or two ago. Guess they worked out whatever the problem was. (Mattias beat me to it.)

The most notable thing in it was a brief snippet in which the original 1933 King Kong armature (minus fur, of course) is actually stop-motion animated by the WETA crew. King Kong Lives, as it were. Did someone from RKO Pictures (still in existence) have a beef with this? Dunno. But thankfully, it's back up.

--Jefferson Morris
post #479 of 814
11/2/05 at 4:07pm
If the PPD was there, it is gone now.
post #480 of 814
11/2/05 at 7:34pm
The largest file isn't working try the next largest one.

http://img-nex.kongisking.net/kong/m...ksToGo_qt4.mov
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Movies (Theatrical)
This thread is locked  
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Entertainment › Movies (Theatrical) › It's official -- Peter Jackson's next film: King Kong