King Kong Extended Edition: Nov. 14th (1 Viewer)

[Doug Schiller]

Yep, I think he gave Jackson some advice:
Have Kong have a kid running around.
Have him stalk Anne outside her apartment!

 

[Ray H]

Frank Darabont was also there. But they were meant to be humorous. I don't know about the Superman Returns diary, but I just assumed that Singer and Darabont stopped by to visit the set, and they staged it for laughs.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I have nothing to add or detract from this, since it states my feelings exactly.

BTW, is it correct to assume the contents of the DVDs are the same on either set?

 

[BarryS]

I agree completely. I absolutely adore Peter Jackson's King Kong. This film is dripping passion and excitement from beginning to end. The passion of the filmmaker is what makes the difference between this and just another big-budget Hollywood movie. I told one person that I saw King Kong twice in the theater and he said "Oh you poor thing, I'm sorry to hear that". I said "Don't be. Seeing King Kong twice theatrically was among the best six hours of my life".

King Kong was my favorite film of '05 and I will certainly be picking up the EE on Tuesday.

 

[Patrick H.]

I got lucky and found a copy of this on sale early Friday night. It's a terrific set...cool, simple packaging and substantial extras. I've just finished watching the film through with the commentary by Jackson and Boyens, which was warm and insightful.

As for the film itself, not a lot has changed. Unlike the 'Lord of the Rings' extended cuts, no major restructuring has been done, just a few extra moments dropped in. The majority of this is in the center act on the island, and I think is actually an overall improvement. I found that section to be rather jerky in the theatrical cut, and even though the added bits are action scenes, they still have the overall effect of calming the pacing down and giving that area of the story the same relative scope as it had in the 1933 version. The only other big addition is a bit in NYC which Jackson himself admits is just a flat-out gag, but hey...I laughed.

In the end, I think if you like this film, you'll really like this set.

 

[BrandonJF]

I'm sure that's exactly what happened.

I thought the Singer production diary was very much meant to be a joke. I don't think you can take a director of a huge event movie needing to fly in a director of another event movie to direct a scene while he takes a nap on set as anything serious.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Joke or not, it is not the first time a director has called for assistance from outside sources. Er, Star Wars Ep. 3 for instance. Lucas did the same for Spielberg on Jurassic Park when Spielberg went off to do location shooting on Schindler's List. Whether it helped these films or not, you be the judge!

Dan

 

[Jay Pennington]

Lucas oversaw post-production for Spielberg on Jurassic Park. He didn't do any principal photography for him.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Has any work been done to the infamous Brontosaurus chase? I'm one of the people that was so turned off by the bad effects in that chase that it literally ruins the rest of the movie for me. (That and the overly long spider-pit sequence). It was take some relatively major reconstruction to these two scenes to get me on board.

If anyone has any thoughts on these scenes, I'd be appreciative.

 

[Paul Prischman]

Darabont was there to film his cameo as one of the gunners at the end, along with Rick Baker. Peter is an incredible practical joker. Remember the April Fool's announcement of a sequel with a heavily armed Son of Kong? That's in the Production Diaries.

 

[Joe*A]

I too waited for Peter Jackson's extended edition of King Kong to buy. Has only 13 minutes of footage been included in the film or all 40 minutes of deleted scenes. If they are deleted, why only 13 minutes were included? I'm confused on the content of the additions. Lord of the Rings was much simpler in the marketing of the extended edition.

Joe

 

[TravisR]

They're only adding the footage that they feel works with the movie. The rest of the scenes are available as deleted scenes. Fortunately, they aren't just putting everything back in just for the sake of saying the movie is now 4 hours long.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I think it was stated earlier in the thread that the deleted scenes could be watched as part of the movie via seamless branching. Has this been confirmed?

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, someone said that back on page 2 but I haven't seen that listed anywhere else so I assume it's incorrect.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I just popped disc 1 in my PC and I don't see any indication of playing the deleted scenes with seamless branching. They all have the option of watching them with the PJ intro, but they are separate.

 

[Steve Christou]

I got Kong yesterday. Loved it. My imagination or was the picture quality better than previous edition? Looked sharper and brighter, sound was very impressive too.

The extra scenes were good value, more monster mayhem including a triceratops attack and some sort of swamp monster. There's 700mins of video footage covering all three discs, the film itself taking up about 200mins leaving 500mins worth of never before seen extra features. I'd say that's good value for all you Kongophiles out there.

 

[Ruz-El]

^^^ More Monsters?? I have to buy this now!

 

[Thommy...M]

Very good additional scenes.

I watched it yesterday and the new minutes are actually quite good. If you like JAWS, you'll love the swamp scene. How that scene was completely cut and ten minutes of bronto stampede was left in is beyond me.

The film is actually better than it was in the theaters. This is the one I will lend out for anyone who wants to see the new KONG. It's thirteen minutes longer, but those minutes are some of the best in the movie.

 

[Dave H]

I would like to hear some actual A/B comparisons with video. I would imagine the bit rate is better on the new version.

 

[Partyslammer]

I watched it last night as well and the transfer is simply breathtaking. I thought the original theatrical version dvd had a very good transfer but this Extended Cut is significantly better and I'd go as far as to say it's one of the top 5 best looking dvds I've ever seen. Some of the jungle scenes, especially those around the village gate bookending the jungle sequence have an almost 3D look to them. It's that good.

T.B.