King Kong (2005 film)


King Kong is a 2005 epic monster film directed, co-written, produced by Peter Jackson. It is the ninth entry in the King Kong franchise and the second remake of the 1933 film of the same title, the first being the 1976 remake. The film stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, Jamie Bell, and Andy Serkis as the motion capture of Kong. Set in 1933, it follows the story of an ambitious and unscrupulous filmmaker who tricks his cast and hired ship crew into travelling to mysterious Skull Island. There they encounter various prehistoric creatures and a legendary giant gorilla known as Kong, whom they capture and take to New York City.
Development began in early 1995, when Universal Pictures approached Jackson to direct the remake of the original 1933 film. The project stalled in early 1997, as several ape and giant monster-related films were under production at the time and Jackson planned to direct The Lord of the Rings film series instead. As the first two films in the Rings trilogy became commercially successful, Universal went back to Jackson in early 2003, expressing interest in restarting development on the project, to which Jackson eventually agreed. Filming for King Kong took place in New Zealand from September 2004 to March 2005. It was the most expensive film ever produced at the time of its release, as its budget climbed from an initial $150 million to a then record-breaking $207 million.
King Kong premiered at New York City on 5 December 2005, and was theatrically released in New Zealand on December 13 and in the United States on 14 December. The film received critical acclaim, and eventually appeared in several top ten lists for 2005; it was praised for the special effects, performances, sense of spectacle and comparison to the 1933 original, though some criticisms were raised over its 3-hour runtime. It was a commercial success, grossing over $557 million, and became the fourth-highest-grossing film in Universal Pictures history at that time and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2005. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release in March 2006. It won three Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. A tie-in video game was released alongside the film, which also became a commercial and critical success.

Plot

In 1933, during the Great Depression, struggling New York City vaudeville performer Ann Darrow is hired by financially troubled filmmaker Carl Denham to star in a film with actor Bruce Baxter. Ann is hesitant to join the picture until she learns her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll, is the screenwriter. Filming takes place on the SS Venture, a small cargo ship belonging to the Dutch East Indies colony, anchored in Surabaya under Captain Englehorn. Carl claims the Venture will sail to Singapore, but in truth, he intends to film the mysterious Skull Island. Captain Englehorn reconsiders the voyage, prompted by his crew's speculation of trouble ahead. During the voyage, Ann and Jack fall in love.
The Venture receives a radio message informing Englehorn there is a warrant for Carl's arrest due to his defiance of the studio's orders to cease production, and instructing Englehorn to divert to Rangoon, but the ship becomes lost in fog and runs aground on Skull Island. Carl and others, including his film crew consisting of cameraman Herb, assistant Preston and boom operator Mike, explore the island and are attacked by natives who kill Mike and a crewman. Englehorn rescues Carl's group, but as they all prepare to leave, the natives secretly abduct Ann to offer her as a sacrifice to Kong, a ape. Jack notices Ann's disappearance, and the crew returns to the island, but Kong flees with Ann into the jungle. Carl catches a glimpse of Kong and becomes determined to film him.
Englehorn organizes a rescue party, led by his first mate Hayes and Jack, and accompanied by Carl, Herb, Baxter and Preston. The party gets caught between a herd of grazing Brontosaurus baxteri and a pack of Utahraptor-like Venatosaurus saevidicus hunting them, with Herb and several other men killed in the resulting stampede. Baxter and some rescue party members return to the ship while the others decide to continue their search for Ann. Meanwhile, Ann wins Kong over with her vaudeville routine skills, and begins to grasp his intelligence and capacity for emotion.
The remaining party members continue through the jungle when Kong attacks, killing Hayes and making the others fall into a ravine where Carl loses his camera. Kong rescues Ann from three Tyrannosaurus-like Vastatosaurus rexes and brings her to his den in the mountains. The remaining members of the rescue party are attacked and killed by giant insects in the ravine, but Preston, Carl, Jack, and Hayes' apprentice Jimmy are rescued by Baxter and Englehorn. Jack searches for Ann alone, while Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack finds Kong's lair and accidentally awakens him, but escapes with Ann to where the crew is waiting to capture the pursuing Kong. As Ann begs the crew not to harm him, Kong kills several sailors, but is subdued when Carl knocks him out with chloroform.
In New York City, around the Christmas season, Carl presents "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World" on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann, who refused to take part in the performance, is played by an anonymous chorus girl. Agitated by the chorus girl not being Ann and flashes from cameras, Kong breaks free from the chains, wrecks the theater, and bursts out into the streets of New York in search of Ann, chasing Jack before encountering her again. The U.S. Army attacks, and Kong tries getting Ann and himself to safety by climbing to the top of the Empire State Building.
Six United States Navy biplanes arrive; Kong downs three of them, but is mortally wounded from the planes' gunfire and falls from the building after he dies. As Jack reaches the top of the building to comfort and embrace Ann, civilians, policemen, and soldiers gather around the beast's corpse in the street, one bystander commenting the airplanes got him. Carl makes his way through the crowd, takes one last look at the lifeless Kong and, before walking away, says sadly, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast".

Cast

  • Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work. Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple from a fruit stand. Further into the voyage, she falls in love with Jack and forms a special relationship with Kong.
  • Jack Black as Carl Denham, a film director who obtained the map to Skull Island. Due to his debts, Carl starts to lose his moral compass and obsesses over his film to the point that he disregards safety.
  • Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter who falls in love with Ann. He unwittingly becomes part of the voyage when, while delivering a script to Denham, he is deliberately delayed by the latter before he can get off the Venture. He is the only member of the crew who agrees with Ann that Kong should be left alone.
  • Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn, the German captain of the Venture. Englehorn shows a dislike for Denham, presumably because of his obsessive nature.
  • Colin Hanks as Preston, Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant.
  • Jamie Bell as Jimmy, a naive teenager who was found on the Venture, wild and abandoned.
  • Evan Parke as Benjamin "Ben" Hayes, Englehorn's first mate and a mentor to Jimmy, who leads Ann's rescue mission because of his army training and combat experience gained during World War I.
  • Lobo Chan as Choy, Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture.
  • Kyle Chandler as Bruce Baxter, an actor who specializes in adventure films. He abandons Ann's rescue mission but brings Englehorn to rescue the search party from the insect pit, and is given credit for rescuing Ann during the Broadway display of Kong.
  • Andy Serkis as Kong, a tall prehistoric ape resembling that of a silverback mountain gorilla who is around 100–150 years old. He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong, and the possible descendant of both the Chororapithecus and the Gigantopithecus.
  • * Serkis also plays Lumpy, the ship's cook, barber, and surgeon. A brave sailor, he warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong.
  • John Sumner as Herb, Denham's loyal cameraman.
  • Craig Hall as Mike, Denham's soundman for the journey.
  • William Johnson as Manny, an elderly vaudevillian actor and colleague of Ann.
  • Mark Hadlow as Harry, a struggling vaudevillian actor.
  • Jed Brophy and Todd Rippon appeared in the film as crew members.
In addition, director Jackson appears with makeup artist Rick Baker as the pilot and gunner on the airplane that kills the title character, his children appear as New York children, The Lord of the Rings co-producer and second unit director Rick Porras and The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont appear as a gunners in the other airplanes, and Bob Burns and his wife appear as New York bystanders. Frequent Jackson collaborator Howard Shore makes a cameo appearance as the conductor of the New York theater from where Kong escapes. Shore was initially set to compose for the film before his exit.
Watts, Black, and Brody were the first choices for their respective roles with no other actors considered. In preparation for her role, Watts met with the original Ann Darrow, Fay Wray. Jackson wanted Wray to make a cameo appearance and say the final line of dialogue, but she died during pre-production at 96 years old. Black was cast as Carl Denham based on his performance in the 2000 film High Fidelity, which had impressed Jackson. For inspiration, Black studied P. T. Barnum and Orson Welles. "I didn't study move for move. It was just to capture the spirit. Very reckless guy. I had tapes of him drunk off his ass." The native extras on Skull Island were portrayed by a mix of Asian, African, Maori and Polynesian actors sprayed with dark makeup to achieve a consistent pigmentation.