King Kong 2005 Peter Jackson

[Guest FilmmakerJack]

Anyone know where I can get ahold of the King Kong 1933 version on dvd? I can't find it anywhere. I heard they were holding a release for it until the 2005 came out.

[David Mullen ASC]

A friend of mine worked on a Warner Home Video version that will be coming out soon, probably by the time of the newest movie version.

 

There's an R1 NTSC Korean-German (?) import version here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/store...4#more-pictures

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Sorry, I know this hasn't got anything to do with this subject, but damn.... what has my luck been like these last few weeks??!! Get fired, and today I almost get blown up! And I'm not joking, I was in Victoria just before it was closed off, where I think they found 3 bombs.

 

Anyway, sorry, feeling flustered right now.

 

Aaaanyway. Back to King Kong.

[Phil Rhodes]

Today is the only day this week I won't be going through Liverpool Street at exactly the right time to have my head taken off by a bit of bus.

 

Yikes.

 

Phil

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

That was a bit of luck Phil.

 

It's just not like anything I've ever seen before, I mean, my friends and I were heading down to the Astoria and I've never seen so many police cars and ambulences racing past in my life! Aswell as seeing armed police with MP5's outside all the banks.. (Let's see the al qaeda take them on... And even if they did manage to take them on they'd be met by the worlds elite force, the SAS, and the SAS would kick the s**t out of them)

 

I HATE the al qaeda, worthless scum bags. And to top it off the gig I was going to got cancelled because of it. Although, to be respectfull, I hardly see that as important as of what happened to those people today.

 

Perhaps it was because of the olympic thing last night or something...

Edited July 7, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

[Filip Plesha]

I'm sorry for everyones loss and frear that they experience, I myself experienced war In my country, but hate will only get you going in circles.

 

Hate is the thing that keeps the history repeating itself (one war after another)

[Robert Hughes]

Just another day in Baghdad...

[David Mullen ASC]

Let's see if this incident is used to confuse the public once again that the War in Iraq is the same thing as the War on Terrorism...

 

I'm glad to hear that our forum members in the U.K. are well.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> Just another day in Baghdad...

 

My thoughts precisely, for what it's worth. As far as Iraq goes, we invaded their country, deposed and imprisoned their leader, killed many of their civilians and decimated their infrastructure. We then installed a puppet government and farmed out lucrative rebuilding contracts to our own companies to support our oil-fed lifestyles. I find it difficult to ignore their legitimate greivances; equally, though, there's not a lot of point in blowing me up, as I can't not-vote for the guy any more than I've already not voted for him.

 

Phil

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

I think this is Britain?s "taster" of America's September 11th. We all *thought* we had an idea of how tragic that incident was, but we didn?t actually have any idea. And I still don?t think we do to the full extent.

 

I'm glad to hear that our forum members in the U.K. are well.

I just find it amazing how I don't go to London for months and the one time I do bombs start going off all over the place. I?m bad luck?

 

To be honest I don't think I was in any real danger anyway, by the time I had got there the bombs had gone off and I only "heard" there was 3 bombs left in Victoria station where I was. Mind you, if I had of left half an hour earlier to get to London things might have been different, because we *were* planning to travel on the underground. Kinda scary, getting off the train and heading over to the underground entrance only to find it swarming with police, the shutters pulled across and some alarm going mad, along with some emergency light flashing outside, looking at the security monitor of the station watching the dormant train.

 

Damn though.... the whole thing was a huge shock. It was like something you'd see out the films, it was just un-real, hundreds of people out on the streets peering in through shop windows watching the news, nearly all the shops were closing down. I think it was Dixon?s that had to close because they got an overflow of people in the shop watching the TV's. Police car after police car, ambulance after ambulance racing down the streets. Uhh.. ok, I think this is starting to sounds a little like a poem, so I'll stop here.

Edited July 7, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

[David Cox]

Let's see if this incident is used to confuse the public once again that the War in Iraq is the same thing as the War on Terrorism...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

yes - absolutely!

 

Before we let the media run away with the story (either to confuse or just help ratings) lets keep a perspective on it. 40 people will probably have died in the attacks today. Needless to say, that's horrific for the families involved. But statistically it is likely that 60 people died today on Britain?s roads, 200 Americans were murdered by other Americans with guns, 6000 people died of malaria (a curable disease) and 50,000 people died as a result of abject poverty.

 

We must keep a perspective in our views and our work (damn - we are the media - sort of) so that, as atrocious as these attacks are, they don't allow us to take our eyes off the politicians who might use such actions to justify their own questionable policies.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

> questionable policies

 

Watch them blitz ID cards through now.

 

In other news, it does make you wonder what we're getting out of the US "special relationship" other than 38 corpses.

 

Phil

[Robert Hughes]

I seem to hear the voice of Gov. Ratcliff of Disney's "Pocahontas" coming thru:

 

RATCLIFF: (to crew)

You are the finest crew that England has to offer, and Nothing, not a Thousand Bloodthirsty Savages, will stand in our way! Carry on!

 

CREW:

Yeah!

 

RATCLIFF's SERVANT (aside to Ratcliff)

A stirring speech, sir.

 

Ratcliff: (aside to Servant)

I'll need those witless peasants to dig up my GOLD!

Edited July 8, 2005 by Robert Hughes

[Max Jacoby]

I saw the trailer to King Kong in the cinema and in general was appaled by the bad quality of the compositing. The digital backgrounds stood out like a sore thumb.

[Guest Kai.w]

I saw the trailer to King Kong in the cinema and in general was appaled by the bad quality of the compositing. The digital backgrounds stood out like a sore thumb.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I only saw it on a computer screen and would totally agree with you. General consensus in the "scene" is that it must be work in progress ;) considering they still got some time till the deadline this is quite possible. If however it stays like this....

In any case I just don't get the idea behind it. The story has been told, it apparently worked at its time. Why the remake...? Especially if the only thing they could improve (FX) do not look right up to now...

To put it with our foreign minister: "I'm not convinced!"

 

-k

[drew_town]

The trailer looks like Lord of the Rings except with a big CG monkey. Wow I bet it'll be G-R-E-A-T!...

[CoreyAndrews]

I'm personally looking forward to this. While I don't think I'll enjoy it as much as LOTR, simply because of the story itself I am a huge fan of Peter Jackson and I've really enjoyed his style. Even in his first film Bad Taste, I enjoyed the way he did things. It's one of my fav movies (being a big horror fan). I'll definitely be going to see King Kong, I think it looks terrific and being someone who hates cgi, Lord of The Rings really made me think twice about it. However it has to suit but I'm confident if anyone can make cgi work it's PJ's team.

[stephen lamb]

Hey Guys,

have to put my two cents in. First off, i think Jack Black could prove to be an excellent choice. I think he is brilliant as a comedian, and we are in a day and age where several brilliant comedians have turned in fantastic dramatic roles. Jimy Carrey anybody?? So i think it's great to give Jack a chance to do something that is not totally off the wall funny. Secondly, I think the remake is happening because PJ freaking loves King Kong, and from what i have seen on the LOTR special DVD's, the whole reason he started making movies was to make his version of king kong. After the success of LOTR, what studio is going say no to Peter Jackson? The CGI doesn't look spectacular in the trailors, and i hope that they fix it up some (especially in the jungle with Kong and the Trex) but i still think it looks cool. And also, to me, the CG will be acceptable to me because the WHOLE movie is going to have that look to it, and that CG is going to take me away to this fantasy island. so yeah. cool. Plus, i am getting into CGI myself, so i don't have a deep down dislike of it, i just hate it when it is either misused, or done poorly. Anyways, rambling now, can't wait to see the film.

Steve

[Boone Hudgins]

As far as Jack Black goes, he has played serious roles before. Not that big of deal.

 

The full trailer is out in HD at Apple, and it looks a lot better than the teaser. Although it was odd to look into people's eyes and see space lights reflected when they're supposed to be outside. Does this happen a lot and I just never noticed?

[Ignacio Aguilar]

it was odd to look into people's eyes and see space lights reflected when they're supposed to be outside. Does this happen a lot and I just never noticed?

 

It is quite common in films made before the arrival of high-speed film stocks, when it was necessary -in most cases- to use arcs outdoors. If you watch carefully, in those films you can see reflections from the fill light on glasses, cars, windows, etc. Not to talk about shadows against the sun... There's nothing bad about it in my opinion, it was just the way things were done at the time, though sometimes it might be distracting if the effect is very obvious.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Ignacio Aguilar

[Boone Hudgins]

Well, it's the fact that it's a grid of circles reflected in the eye that looks odd to me. Maybe when you're caught up in the action and not paying attention, you could mistake it for bright cloud cover reflected in the eye or something. Or just not care at all.

[Grainy]

Anyone know where I can get ahold of the King Kong 1933 version on dvd? I can't find it anywhere. I heard they were holding a release for it until the 2005 came out.

 

Jack - you've probably already seen this by now, but they're releasing a restored version of the 1933 film this month on DVD, check Amazon.com

 

Frankly, I think the 2005 version is going to be a glorified video game. Jurrasic Park with a monkey. What made the '33 version work so well is that it's:

1 - dated. The whole beauty and beast, ooga-booga natives thing is a bit sour these days, doncha think?

2 - b&w stop motion animation. The computer animation I've seen to date, including everything, still seems to be missing the human touch that stop motion has that makes the little creatures seem alive.

3 - seems mysterious and more real because it's old. The good aspects of the first point, I suppose. It was a different time back then. No lawsuits, no unions, no people saying "you can't use some homeless woman as bait for a giant gorilla". This gives it a crazy quality, like where Kong breaks out of the wall and starts whaling on the natives. It seems super-intense even by today's standards, and I think it's because of the feeling that these people are nuts and who know what the heck they're going to show you next. Jackson, with his all-revealing diaries, leaves nothing to mystery. Plus excellent sound design. (thankfully w/o the boring booming Dolby used in today's films)

4 - Camera on sticks. If anything screams "fakey computer effects" it's PJackson's love of the digitally-zooming camera. I hated the power zooms in LOTR as well. And lots of the FX in that film were Star Trek-surplus, in my opinion.

5 - I like that Naomi Watts, but I bet she can't scream like Fay Wray.

 

G

[Guest fstop]

It is quite common in films made before the arrival of high-speed film stocks, when it was necessary -in most cases- to use arcs outdoors. If you watch carefully, in those films you can see reflections from the fill light on glasses, cars, windows, etc. Not to talk about shadows against the sun... There's nothing bad about it in my opinion, it was just the way things were done at the time, though sometimes it might be distracting if the effect is very obvious.

 

My personal favourite is single, hard fill on a sunny, naturally backlit daytime exterior. It's just bizarre that it has such a nostalgiac attachment now, especially today we can finally shoot entirely with available light outdoors (and with the softest, most unnoticable artificial fill if need be). Still, it's a beautiful, ancient language with a very individual stylisation.

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

As far as Jack Black goes, he has played serious roles before. Not that big of deal.

 

The full trailer is out in HD at Apple, and it looks a lot better than the teaser. Although it was odd to look into people's eyes and see space lights reflected when they're supposed to be outside. Does this happen a lot and I just never noticed?

 

I thought the "full" trailer sucked actually. I much prefered the teaser, that had so much more excitement to it.

[Tom Bays]

1933 Kong was good in its full form because it was quite brutal. I'm very excited about this movie...i will miss Jessica Lang's chest i must admit.