NEW YORK (AP) — The box-office performance of Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” wasn’t as chest-thumping as many expected. But to be fair, $217 million isn’t terrible, nor was the $520 million worldwide take. Moreover, the film was well received by critics, nominated for four Oscars and won three: visual effects, sound and sound editing. Those three aspects of filmmaking are represented on the new two-disc special edition DVD coming out Tuesday (a single disc version also is available). The features include post-production diaries that bookend the previously released production diaries of “Kong.” They are an unusual inside look on the minutiae that goes into even the biggest of movies. [More]
Category: Production
Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a young and beautiful actress Ann Darrow from the world of vaudeville who finds herself lost in depression-era New York and her luck changes when she meets an over-ambitious filmmaker Carl Denham who brings her on an exploratory expedition to a remote island where she finds compassion and the true meaning of humanity with an ape Kong. The beauty and the beast finally meet their fate back in the city of New York where the filmmaker takes and displays the ape in quest of his fame by commercial exploitation which ultimately leads to catastrophe for everyone including a playwright Jack Driscoll who falls in love with Ann and plays an unlikely hero by trying to save her from Kong and her destiny. [Order on Amazon]
Malcolm writes: There’s an interview with Peter Jackson over at Dark Horizons (darkhorizons.com) in which he discusses the King Kong DVD, a possible future edition to be released later this year, and plans for an LOTR box set on an HD format. [More]
Our good friend and staff member Balin will be laid to rest today – we will greatly miss him. We continue to get photos from friends all over the world! If you have any photos with Balin, please send them in (spymaster@theonering.net) and we’ll add them to the gallery. [Gallery]
From MSN: Have you seen every “Lord of the Rings” episode ten times? Were you in line at midnight to go see “King KongR21;? What would you do to win a phone call from Academy Award winning director, Peter Jackson? To celebrate the release of the King Kong DVD, one lucky fan will win a 15 minute phone call with Peter Jackson! [More]
Peter Jackson, taking a vacation? Hard to imagine, but the director — who bounced from one F/X-heavy project (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) to another (King Kong) — recently spent some time tooling down the West Coast with his family. Still, it’s no surprise the workhorse is already gearing up for two new projects: First, he’ll co-write and direct an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel The Lovely Bones, about a murdered girl who watches over her family from heaven; then he’ll exec-produce Halo, a film version of the addictive Xbox game. We called Jackson in New Zealand to chat about those films, plus the King Kong DVD (due March 28). [More]