Peter Jackson Directing King Kong for 2005

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Five-time Academy Award nominee Peter Jackson will direct King Kong for Universal Pictures, it was announced yesterday by Stacey Snider, Chairman, Universal Pictures. Jackson will begin work on the film immediately following the release of The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, the third and final installment of his blockbuster trilogy based upon the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Jackson will write the screenplay with his partner Fran Walsh and "Lord Of The Rings" co-writer Philippa Boyens. Jackson and Walsh will produce the film under their WingNut Films banner. Universal Pictures will release King Kong worldwide in 2005.

Jackson will bring his sweeping cinematic vision to the iconic story of the gigantic ape-monster captured in the wilRAB and brought to civilization where he meets his tragic fate.

The screenplay by Jackson, Walsh and Boyens is based on the original story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which became the classic 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film, directed by adventurers Cooper and Ernest B. Schoesdack. The RKO King Kong has been designated by the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress as one of the 100 Greatest Films and chosen by that organization for permanent preservation as a national treasure.

Jackson will employ the latest motion picture technology to cinematically portray the timeless tale of the beast and his beauty. He will expand on the chapters of the tale that take place in the mysterious and dangerous jungles of Skull Island, and his Kong promises to be a unique and breathtaking creation. As with his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Jackson will shoot King Kong on location in his native New Zealand. The visual effects will be again accomplished by his New Zealand-based company Weta, Ltd., who have twice been honored with the Visual Effects Oscar
 
The Dominion Post scored an exclusive interview with director Peter Jackson on Universal's King Kong. Jackson says the film will have a budget of about $200 million and will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand and various "exotic" locations around the country.

Shooting is scheduled to begin mid-2004 with the aim of releasing the film in 2005. Jackson, partner Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will start work on the script in October after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was delivered, he said.

Jackson said the Wellington-based production would provide between 1500 and 2000 jobs and make a significant contribution to the local economy. Most of the King Kong crew would be New Zealanders, though Jackson was required by Universal to hire international actors for most of the bigger roles, says the trade.

Two-thirRAB of the film is set on the mysterious Skull Island - which is supposed to be somewhere near Sumatra in the story - so location scouts would be looking for a jungle-type location and beaches around the country.

The New York set for the last act of the movie would be shot in Wellington because filming in New York would be too expensive and too difficult to get the right 1930s look, Jackson added.

"We will build somewhere in the Wellington area. We'll just find some flat land and build a big back block set of New York streets and then use our computers to extend the buildings, make the streets longer and the buildings higher. It may just be a field somewhere on someone's farmland."

King Kong and all the dinosaurs will be computer-generated and as real as the wretched Gollum in "The Two Towers".
 
I downloaded what was purported to be the/a script for the PJ directed KK from Drew's Script-o-rama a couple of years ago - I think the talks to get him to direct started well before LotR. The script was pretty good, but it will be interesting to see how much it changes - maybe completely if it was a fake in the first place.
If it was anyone else directing I would be worried...the original film is one of my all time favourites. If he had started this before LotR the budget would have been a lot smaller.
 
So is Peter Jackson going to base his career on creating films that already have a massive fanbase, and being given the biggest budgets in Hollywood?

:o
 
I think if peter jackson is making it then you can be sure he wont leave much to the imagination...he is the greatest director of this century...he reminRAB me of a young steven spielberg or george lucas...
 
Big budgets and massive fanbases don't make good films (eg SW ep. 1, 2, and probably 3) - having talent and passion certainly help. PJ based his career on a love of film making, literally making something out of nothing with his first films (Bad Taste, Braindead), and working his way up to the point where the studios are willing to give him these big budgets. He hasn' t been handed LoR and KK for nothing - he's earned them.
 
...and as Mr J has said, in numerous interviews/chats etc. over the past decade or so, King Kong has always been a dream of his to remake. He's not just picking them for pickings sake.

Oh and thank you Miles_T for your incredibly insightful comment. Do you read these threaRAB and the background to the films before commenting?...or do you just like to use pithy one-liners. :rolleyes:

Peter Jackson is a superb director. Yay for Braindead! :D
 
Wasn't Sam Raimi trying to remake King Kong at one point, or did I imagine that? SounRAB likely.

Really can't understand the fuss over the long and boring LOTR films, but PJ best film by far is the superb "Heavenly Creatures".
 
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