KONG NEWS

FEBRUARY 2004

Peter Jackson on the King Kong Production

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

The Hollywood Reporter has published an excellent interview with "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson in which he talks in-depth about the King Kong adaptation he's working on now for Universal. Here's just a small snippet from the article where he mentions the casting and the crew.

It's too early to say about cast, apart from Naomi Watts, who's now confirmed. We need to write for a few more weeks to establish exactly what type of other characters we are looking for. I'm hoping there will be suitable roles for one or two "LOTR" actors. As far as crew go, "LOTR" veterans include Jan Blenkin and Caro Cunningham, both of whom are producing "Kong" with me; Andrew Lesnie is on board as (director of photography); Grant Major is production designer; Dan Hennah is supervising art director. Both Weta Workshop, led by Richard Taylor, and Weta Digital have been at work on "Kong" for some months now. Howard Shore is doing the music. We are talking to all other crew at the moment and imagine the majority will be "LOTR" veterans.

Check out the full, three-page, interview at the link above. There's lots there on the "Rings" trilogy as well.

Be prepared for another Kong extravaganza!
More to come as it is made available to us.

King Kong: Don't Mess With The Monkey

King Kong: Don't Mess With The Monkey is a campy look at the Kong myth. This is a prequel to the Jackson,Walsh 1996 version of the script.

Peter Jackson on Rings Trilogy & King Kong

Source: Sunday Morning Shootout

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Sunday Morning Shootout, hosted by Peter Bart and Peter Guber, talked with "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson and executive producer Bob Shaye. They chatted about King Kong and the "Rings" franchise on the last show. Jackson mentioned that "Kong" will carry a budget of $150 million and that he would like to cameo as "the guy in the airplane shooting at him."

You can view the interview in full by clicking the image below. The Jackson and Shaye segment starts around the 9-minute mark.

Peter Jackson Talks King Kong

Source: Variety

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Variety columnist Army Archerd talked to "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon about his next film, Universal's King Kong.

In August he starts filming back in New Zealand with Naomi Watts, of whom, he says, "I've been a fan for years." As for Kong himself, Jackson says, "We want him to be quite real." And the period of the film will be the same as the original - 1933 - with the Empire State Building and the biplane, "which is ingrained in memory. I want to be respectful."

After that, he admits, "I want to make smaller films."