King Kong (2005)

King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure monster film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. It is the eighth entry in...

King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure monster film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. It is the eighth entry in the King Kong franchise and the second remake of the 1933 film of the same title, following the 1976 film. The film stars Andy Serkis, Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody. Set in 1933, it follows the story of an ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island. There they encounter prehistoric creatures and a legendary giant gorilla known as Kong, whom they capture and take to New York City. {full_page}

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. 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 is currently one of the most expensive films ever produced as its budget climbed from an initial $150 million to a then-record-breaking $207 million.

King Kong premiered at New York City on December 5, 2005, and was theatrically released in Germany and United States on December 14. The film garnered 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 run time. It was a commercial success, grossing over $562.9 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.

A sequel, Skull Island, entered development in 2013, with Jackson producing and Adam Wingard set to direct. The project was abandoned after Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the rights and ultimately rebooted the franchise with the 2017 film Kong: Skull Island as part of Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse. Wingard later directed the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong.

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, under Captain Englehorn, and under Carl's pretense it will be sailing to Singapore. In truth, Carl 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 his film crew, including cameraman Herb, assistant Preston, actor Bruce Baxter, and boom operator Mike, explore the island and are attacked by natives who kill Mike and a crewman. Englehorn rescues the film crew, but as they prepare to leave, a native sneaks onto the ship and abducts Ann. The natives offer Ann as a sacrifice to Kong, a 25-foot-tall (7.6 m) 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.

Ann wins Kong over with her juggling and dancing skills and begins to grasp his intelligence and capacity for emotion. 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 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 others return to the ship.

The remaining party members continue through the jungle when Kong attacks, making them fall into a ravine resulting in the deaths of Hayes and most of the rescue party, as well as Carl losing his camera. Kong rescues Ann from three Tyrannosaurus-like Vastatosaurus rex, bringing her to his den in the mountains. The remaining rescue party are attacked by giant insects in the ravine, resulting in the death of two more crew members, 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. They arrive at the wall with Kong pursuing them. 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 that winter, 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 and wrecks the theater, bursting out and through it and rampages through the streets of New York in search of Ann, and chases 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 Navy biplanes arrive, which Kong fights, downing three of them, but is mortally wounded from the planes' gunfire and falls. 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 Kong and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.", before he walks away.

Cast

Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work.

Andy Serkis as Kong (motion capture), a 25-foot (7.6 m) tall prehistoric ape who resembles a mountain gorilla and is around 100–150 years old. Serkis also plays Lumpy, the ship's cook, barber, and surgeon.

Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter who falls in love with Ann.

Jack Black as Carl Denham, a film director who obtained the map to Skull Island.

Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn, the German captain of the Venture.

Jamie Bell as Jimmy, a naive teenager who was found on the Venture, wild and abandoned.

Evan Parke as Benjamin "Ben" Hayes.

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.

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 Darrow.

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 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 [Welles] 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.

Peter Jackson was nine years old when he first saw the 1933 film, and was in tears in front of the TV when Kong was shot and fell off the Empire State Building. At age 12, he attempted to recreate the film using his parents' Super 8 mm film camera and a model of Kong made of wire and rubber with his mother's fur coat for the hair, but eventually gave up on the project.

King Kong eventually became his favorite film and was the primary inspiration for his decision to become a filmmaker as a teenager. He read books about the making of King Kong and collected memorabilia, as well as articles from Famous Monsters of Filmland Jackson paid tribute to the 1933 film by including Skull Island as the origin of the zombie plague in his 1992 film Braindead.

During the filming of Jackson's 1996 film The Frighteners, Universal Pictures was impressed with Jackson's dailies and early visual effects footage. The studio was adamant to work with Jackson on his next project and, in late 1995, offered him the chance to direct a remake of the 1954 film Creature from the Black Lagoon. He turned down the offer, but Universal became aware of Jackson's obsession with King Kong and subsequently offered him the opportunity to direct that remake.

The studio did not have to worry about lawsuits concerning the film rights from RKO Pictures (the studio behind the 1933 film) because the King Kong character is held in the public domain. Jackson initially turned down the King Kong offer, but he "quickly became disturbed by the fact that someone else would take it over," Jackson continued, "and make it into a terrible film; that haunted me and I eventually said yes to Universal."