“And the beast looked upon the face of beauty, and it stayed its hand from killing, and from that day it was as one dead.” KongisKing has the long-awaited new trailer for King Kong, albeit a lousy version. It looks good, but unless you’re a major fan, I might content myself with the behind the scenes sampler for a few hours until a nice large Quicktime version is released. Update: Now, that‘s more like it…large and in charge.
Category: Peter Jackson
Beauty & the Beast.
Step right up…In the footsteps of the US one-sheet, a “behind-the-scenes” trailer for King Kong is up with lots of new and splendid footage, including Kong atop the Empire State. I wasn’t much for the teaser, but this looks grand.
A long Kong came along.
“Ms. Snider said she did not think the three-hour length would be an obstacle for moviegoers. Three-hour epics, she said, are Mr. Jackson’s ‘brand.'” The NYT checks in on PJ’s Eighth Wonder of the World, and unveils the running time: 3 hours.
Shore Shipped?
In a strange turn of events this late in the game (particularly given this production diary), Howard Shore is off King Kong, to be replaced by James Newton Howard, late of the Batman Begins score. Says PJ: “During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realize that we had differing creative aspirations…Rather than waste time arguing with a friend and trying to unify our points of view, we decided amicably to let another composer score the film.” Well, he was right about Stu Townsend, I suppose.
Skull Island Standoff.
While I prefer the teaser image below, the recently released international poster for PJ’s King Kong is definitely worth a look-see as well, if you’re in any way Kong-inclined.
We’ll always have New York.
Beauty and the Beast share a private moment in this magnificent teaser image for PJ’s King Kong.
Covenant of the Ring.
LotR masterminds Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh announce they’ll be executive producing the film version of Halo, with WETA in charge of the FX. “‘As a gaming fan, I’m excited to bring Halo’s premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today’s technology can provide,’ said Jackson.” Halo? I dunno…even as just a production credit, I think it’s a bizarre choice for Wingnut Films, particularly as a follow-up to the Rings trilogy and Kong.
A Long-Expected Party.
“Have you ever been called home by the clear ringing of silver trumpets?” Alas, for the first time in three years, we don’t have a new extended LotR DVD in the works this Christmas. But to ease the pain of its passing, the full, three-disc, 180-minute Fellowship of the Ring score will be released November 22, which will include a DVD-version in 5.1 surround sound. Presumably, the other two films will follow in due course. In the meantime, this site has assembled mp3s of some of the missing musical moments from the trilogy. (Unfortunately, they haven’t yet included the culmination of the Rohan theme, as heard during the Ride of the Rohirrim.) I will go there, I will go there…and back again.
Mudholes and Apes.
AICN posts screen caps of the Episode III DVD’s deleted scenes, which seem to include an extended (and more grisly) opening and Yoda’s touch-down on Dagobah. Also on the fanboy front, Wired‘s cover story this month is a discussion with a svelte Peter Jackson on King Kong and KongisKing.Net, with accompanying photo gallery. Is Naomi Watts trying to make a run at Tilda’s Nico?
Pirates of Skull Island.
“‘I don’t believe piracy can be easily beaten; fighting fire with fire by releasing movies on DVD at the same time as cinemas is probably where the industry is heading in the next few years,’ said Mr. Jackson”. The NY Times discusses King Kong and the current industry effort against movie piracy.