Peter Jackson's hi-tech retro look
02 February 2005

Work is almost complete on a retro facade to Peter Jackson's NZ$55 million hi-tech, post-production facility Park Road Post in Miramar, Wellington.

The facade, which includes chimneys and Frank Lloyd Wright-style windows, is reminiscent of a Californian ranch. The style inside reminds some visitors of a boutique hotel.

Star Wars director George Lucas owns a hi-tech production facility in California on 1900 hectares. It also features a large historic-looking home. Jackson's, on a much smaller area next to the California Garden Centre, will soon be landscaped with trees and a garden around the driveway.

Hidden from view is a courtyard with pohutukawa trees.

Visitors, who in the past month have included director Roger Donaldson, walk down a 30-metre corridor to a lounge, filled with over-stuffed modern sofas. The walls are covered in dark mahogany-style wood panels, with some stained glass windows. Off the lounge and corridor are small, private meeting rooms.

The facility has two large sound-mixing studios, including a sound-mixing desk with a bank of more than 200 rows of faders to tweak and mix music, dialogue and sound effects. Some work was done here for The Return of the King. It will be used extensively for King Kong, other Jackson films and films by other directors.

Park Road Post incorporates The Film Unit, which was based in Lower Hutt and was bought by Jackson. Unit boss Sue Thompson said last year that Park Road Post, once completed, would be "the most comprehensive post-production facility in Australasia".

[SOURCE]

Man, it's still taking me a while to get used to the new slim Jackson. Does anyone know when he chose to start losing weight and why? I know this old news, and I've seen picture sof him thin a long time ago, but I never knew before seeing pictures that he had planned to lose weight. Good for him, I'm happy for him!

I love how The One Ring fansite runners (and Kong is King site) are so close to Peter Jackson and his work, that he gives out diaries and answers questions through the site. Neato.

PEACE, Mike

Jackson creates his own little empire - i'm happy that LOTR's success has given him this opportunity.....

.....though don't you get the feeling that King Kong will more likely be panned by the critics (one reason or another) than liked....

Oh, it's gonna get panned alright and mark this thread or post of mine when I tell you that critics will tear into this movie and start labeling it a Jurassic Park Copy with all these overabundance of Dinosaurs Jackson's putting in the movie, plus, it'll be compared heavily to the 1933 KING KONG and that's sort of understandable.. Hell, even the 1976 version was panned and compared heavily to the 1933 classic .. And please folks: I'm not putting this movie down when I say this.. I to will be seeing this when it comes out, but I'm merely calling it as I see it.. :wink:

if its well made, critics will like it. why should they compare it to jurassic park, that movie wasnt really a critics darling. its not very hard to make a better monster flick than JP.

Must have been Fran: "Pete, hands off that chocolate or get ready to sleep on the couch!"


That's one of the very reasons i ADORE this man! His way of dealing with the fans, which is rarely seen if at all from other filmmakers. I'm not naive and know that as well as it is a special servis for us fans it is serving his purpose of building awareness and anticipation, but i gladly put up with it! :razz:

No. Why? I agree with Joseba B-Loki on this, if it's well done critics will give it their ok. Now it most likely won't be a critics darling like LOTR was, if it's that what you mean...

#-o

Talking to BKB is like talking to a brick. Didn't Raziel already enlighten you on this? Ok, again, just for you: If anything it's more the other way around, Jurassic Park was a copy of King Kong. GET IT?! [-o<

'Kong' Cast Says Don't Judge A Movie By Its Effects Budget
Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody praise director Peter Jackson.
02.01.2005 7:22 PM EST

Just as the film crew traveling to Skull Island in the original 1933 version of "King Kong" had no idea what was in store, Peter Jackson wants to keep moviegoers guessing about his upcoming remake.

"I'm not allowed to say too much," star Naomi Watts said recently when prodded for details.

"I can't say much, but it's going to be impressive," an equally well-trained Adrien Brody said a few days later.

One thing cast members would say is that people should expect more than just an onslaught of special effects.

"It's not going to be a superficial movie," said Brody, who's returning to Wellington, Australia [EDIT: Didn't know Wellington lies in Australia, did you? ], this week to wrap up production. "It's going to be very compelling and wonderful — incredible sequences and yet intense drama. ... I am getting the chance to be very heroic, much more the action hero than I [normally] get to play, and yet the character is very full of depth."

British actor Jamie Bell, best known for "Billy Elliott," said the casting of Brody, Watts and Jack Black, actors hardly known for action movies, is a sign of the kind of movie it will be.

"I think [Jackson] went for actors, people who can deliver performances, instead of people who can just bring in box office [numbers], which I think is a much better idea," Bell said. "I want to see good acting, a good story. I think they're all perfectly cast. Naomi, the idea that beauty killed the beast, she's perfect for that role."

As for the story line, "we're honoring the original, but Peter Jackson is a clever man and he's obviously introduced great new ideas and has made it incredibly modern," Watts said without elaborating.

The gist is Black's character, eccentric filmmaker Carl Denham, is on a mission to make a movie on a mysterious Indian Ocean island where a giant gorilla is said to be roaming. Among his crew are reluctant screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Brody) and actress Ann Darrow (Watts), all characters from the original. (The 1976 remake had different characters.)

One of the new additions is Bell's Jimmy, the lookout on the SS Venture, the ship on which the crew is traveling. "They wanted a kid in the film, so I play the kid," he said.

Bell, who has grown accustomed to low-budget indie films since debuting in "Billy Elliott" (two of his latest movies screened at Sundance last week), was shocked his first day on set at Jackson's Stone Street Studios, where the director built a rain forest. "You get showed around the digital departments, the miniature departments and all this crazy stuff and you get overwhelmed by it all," he said. "But it's been a lot of fun. ... You're going onto a production where the director and his production team just won every single Academy Award they were nominated for, 11 Academy Awards. These guys know exactly what they're doing."

For Jackson, "King Kong" is truly a labor of love. The original is what inspired him to make movies, and in 1997, before he started the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, he had already written a remake and was set to direct it. At the last minute, however, the studio pulled the plug because two similar movies were already in production. (Both of those — "Godzilla" and "Mighty Joe Young" — flopped.)

Now that he has a second chance, Jackson, along with his "Rings" collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, has penned a new script and put together a visuals team that is promising more special effects than in all three "Rings" movies combined.

Still, Jackson hasn't lost his ability to pull memorable performances from his cast.

"You expect him to be so concerned about the technicalities of the scene, what he's gonna do in post-production with the effects and blue screen," Bell said. "But he has an ability to store all of that inside of his head and still be able to approach an actor and tell him what's wrong with a scene or how he should do it differently."

In other words, "Peter Jackson is a genius," Brody said. "I am really thrilled to be a part of it."

"They're really wonderful people and incredibly creative, and I'm having the time of my life," Watts added.

Bell is also having a blast, but he's quick to point out that big-budget movies aren't simply fun and games. "It's not all glamour and glitz. There's a lot of running through jungles, getting trampled on by various things," he said. "It's not all easy."

"King Kong" is expected to wrap at the end of March and is due in theaters December 14.

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, interviews, trailers and more.

— Corey Moss

[SOURCE - WITH VIDEOS OF THE CAST COMMENTING ON KONG]

New York Set Changes Face



Gandalf writes: A glorious day in the capital today after a fog shrouded harbour yesterday. Not a lot of action visible on the New York set, but changes are noticeable on careful inspection. Notably, there is a lot more snow lying around now and some of the buildings appear to be sporting new names as the set is transformed into different parts of the city for more filming. Just a few photos today, but a quick game of "spot the difference" with earlier shots reveals the poles supporting the elevated tracks are now gone, and among other changes the Burlesque house appears to be a different theatre.

[PICS]

Kong at the Superbowl? Not Happening

Rumors are making the rounds about a possible King Kong teaser being aired during the Superbowl this Sunday on FOX. Sources at Universal tell us that there will be NOTHING of the kind, and that a decision on when and where we will see our first glimpse of the film has not yet been made. He won't be at the half-time show either.

[SOURCE]

New York Night Shoot



Gandalf writes: After a late night adventure I can report that night filming is well under way! As with other locations before Christmas, the lights for the New York set are clearly visible from the other side of town and I couldn't help but be attracted to them. It would seem I'm not the only interested fan as several others were also viewing (and listening to) the action. Only part of the set was being used, namely the street with what was the Burlesque house but is now the Princess Theatre. We watched extras take place in the street ready for action which followed the sounding of a loud horn. The scene was probably one when Kong is loose, as a truck with a huge spotlight pointing to the sky was being driven down a neighboring street after which people could be seen running followed by very loud machine guns (did I mention LOUD?!). Not only did the machine guns sound awesome, but bright muzzle flashes were clearly visible. This scene was repeated several times, and listening carefully I could actually hear (most likely PJ) yell "CUT" before the loud horn was blasted again. Interestingly, the street they were shooting in (both cameras and guns) appeared to have snow lying around... Much of the remainder of the set lay in subdued darkness, with the name "Exchange Buffet" visible on one building next to the "Strand" on the street the tram runs along. Check out these photos of the set by night, then download a small video with the machine guns and listen carefully for "CUT" before the horn...

[PICS]
[VIDEO]

Production Diary: Day 85



As Peter uses as much caffeine to stay awake during those late night shoots as he can, we get to see everything we wanted to know about those amazing vintage cars on the New York set. Take a look at the work that goes into repairing these old classics for use today (including the big switch from right hand to left hand steering wheels!). Sounds like fun!

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Im still trying to find the logic in this post... How exactly can King Kong be panned as a "Jurassic Park" ripoff when in fact the original King Kong , (along with its trademark dinosaur infested island) came out nearly 60 years earlier???

If anything, it would be common sense to call Jurassic Park a Kong ripoff (although Im not calling it that, but it would at least have logic behind it).



The over abundance of dinosaurs in the original Kong didnt hurt the film any...as a matter a fact even MORE dinosaurs were supposed to be in the original but there wasnt enough time .



You do realize this is a remake, don't you? It's not "sort of" understandable, it's COMPLETELY understandable.




Once again....IT'S A REMAKE and that's why it was associated with the original.

And yes it was panned due to a rights agreement and they changed enough of the story and characters in the 76 version to turn it into a piece of crap.



And where exaclty do you "see it"??? Meaning where exactly did you get this oinfo about the critics panning it as a JP ripoff???

Might I remind you that you have the worst track record for predicting films....


.


.

Christ, between you and Baba, you guys take this shit too seriously.. Raziel, KING KONG will be a Huge Success.. Is that better for you???

BKB, Im not talking about the success of the film... Im talking about your logic or reasoning behind your negative views. I could understand if you had a logical reason for thinking the movie will be panned , but your theories dont make sense .

If a film critic were to pan the film for being a JP ripoff they would probably be ridiculed by their crtitc piers for assuming that the whole "dinosaur island concept originated with JP.


Jackson is just going by the original storyline written some 70 years ago.


.

My favorite ape
John Horn
Weekend: February 5-6, 2005


Naomi Watts, Adrien Brody, Peter Jackson and Jack Black


Compared with his work as an Oscar-winning director and the filmmaker behind the most popular trilogy in movie history, Peter Jackson's first attempt to remake King Kong was by any measure amateurish.

Jackson painted the Manhattan skyline on an old bedsheet, constructed the Empire State Building out of cardboard and pinched his mother's shawl to craft the giant gorilla's fur. It didn't look like much, Jackson admits, but then again he was 13 years old.

If filming The Lord of the Rings was Jackson's cinematic passion, remaking King Kong has been a lifelong obsession. For as much resolve as the 43-year-old Jackson exhibited in adapting JRR Tolkien's books about hobbits and elves, the Kiwi director has shown even more perseverance in retelling the legendary beauty-and-the-beast story.

Jackson essentially owes his career to the original 1933 King Kong: Had he not seen it, he says, he might not have become a filmmaker.

``In a sense, this is more important to him than The Lord of the Rings,'' says Andy Serkis, who played Smeagol and Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films. In King Kong he will play Lumpy the Cook and, with some digital assistance, the titular giant gorilla. Besides his adolescent effort - ``I still have some of that footage, somewhere,'' the director says - Jackson came within weeks of filming King Kong for Universal Pictures in 1997. But the production was derailed by the studio's cold feet, an about-face that left Jackson devastated and uncertain about his future and his production team in tears.

A global blockbuster helps heal all wounds, though, and soon Universal (with a new management team) went to New Zealand on bended knee, asking Jackson to please, please reconsider revisiting Skull Island.

What else could a director who owns the original film's brontosaur and pteranodon say? This was the movie he believed he was born to rework, and with the third and final Lord of the Rings film nearly behind him, he was more equipped than ever to tackle it.

So in early 2003 it was agreed. Before he would film Alice Sebold's ghostly novel The Lovely Bones, before he would film Ian Mackersey's aviatrix biography Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies, before he completed The Return of the King, Jackson promised Universal that King Kong would be his next movie. To clinch the deal, Universal said it would pay Jackson, his partner Fran Walsh and screenwriter Philippa Boyens a combined US$20 million (HK$156 million) to direct, produce and write the remake, with Jackson and Walsh receiving a share of the film's gross revenues.

``Obviously, there's a lot of criticism and apprehension about remaking any film, and it has the potential for pitfalls that are greater than The Lord of the Rings,'' Jackson says during a short break on the set of King Kong, whose filming is more than halfway completed. ``But it's a dream come true.''

Written with Walsh and Lord of the Rings collaborator Boyens, King Kong is both a reverent tribute to the initial film and an energetic reworking of its main themes.

Rather than filming on location in jungles, Jackson is shooting almost all of King Kong inside, as his predecessors did 72 years ago. So in place of traveling to a real rainforest, Jackson and his crew manufactured a highly stylized one indoors. ``That's about wanting the look of the original Kong,'' Jackson says.

Even as it pays tribute to specific scenes in the original, Jackson's version nevertheless will make numerous departures, adding spectacular chase sequences involving rampaging dinosaurs and emphasizing more of the love story between the big primate and the movie-within-the-movie's desperate actress Ann Darrow, played by Naomi Watts.

``What Peter and Fran and Philippa have been able to do is create all of these nuances that never existed,'' says Adrien Brody, who plays reluctant playwright Jack Driscoll. ``It's not just a giant gorilla and a damsel in distress.''

Cast as hustling filmmaker Carl Denham, Jack Black can't help but remind one of Jackson without a beard. The director discounts the resemblance, but when the production was announced in a New Zealand news conference, Jackson and Black were not seated beside each other because of their physical likeness.

And then there's Black's character. In Jackson's telling, Denham is a driven filmmaker who will stop at nothing to get his movie made. Defeat is only momentary, and Denham must capture Kong on film above all else. Sound like any other director?

Sure, Denham has a lot less talent than Jackson, and yes, the character is based more on a young Orson Welles. ``But he's got vision, and he's got tremendous ambition. He wants to make the greatest film ever made,'' Black says.

``You can't really ignore that I am playing the director of the film and I'm watching Peter all day on the set, watching the way he directs,'' Black continues. ``It's not the same guy at all, but there are parallels you can't ignore.''

If a dinosaur falls in the forest and it's not really there, does it still make a sound? It's a real-life issue Jackson's actors are facing inside Wellington's Stone Street Studios as the director guides his cast through a dense jungle set.

``Remember, it's 1933 and a lot of you don't know what dinosaurs are, unless you've seen The Lost World several years earlier,'' Jackson says to the assembled actors, in reference to a 1925 movie whose creatures were crafted by King Kong technician Willis O'Brien.

He then instructs the cast how to react to the thundering steps of dinosaurs, all of whom will be created in post-production. ``Everybody who has a gun just starts blasting,'' Jackson says. ``It's one of those mob things, so it's important that everybody fire in a different direction.''

Jackson picks up a megaphone and starts counting down, his amplified voice representing the impending plant-eaters. Once one of the dinosaurs is fatally shot in a panicky barrage of bullets, Jackson describes its collapse. He urges his actors to express shock as the beast finally, yet invisibly for now, falls at their feet, its crash to the earth supplied by Jackson.

John Sumner, who plays one of Denham's camera assistants, pantomimes stepping over the dinosaur, but ends up forgetting where the digital creature will be positioned in postproduction. ``Let's try that again, John,'' Jackson says in good cheer. ``You've walked through his legs, I'm afraid.''

Even with Jackson's Lord of the Rings know-how, making a movie of this scale at times resembles chainsaw juggling, especially since Jackson has relatively little time to finish all the film's complicated effects before its debut. As the cast prepares for another take, Jackson settles into the upholstered chair from which he directs and in rapid order examines computer tests of Kong's digital fur, offers notes on that day's production diary for Kong's Internet site (http://www.kongisking.net), and reviews a video feed from another stage, where Brody is running as fast as he can on a treadmill, to simulate Driscoll's escape from dinosaurs. ``In many ways, King Kong is a more ambitious film than The Lord of the Rings was,'' Jackson says.

While the 1933 filmmakers, Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, employed then-novel techniques such as stop-motion animation and rear projection, Jackson has an array of high-tech procedures to bring his eight-meter gorilla to life. Visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri is creating as many computer effects for King Kong as he and others did for all three Lord of the Rings films.

Cooper and Schoedsack may have longed for Kong to leap from New York rooftop to rooftop. In Jackson's production, it can happen.

``The story is so compelling that rendering it with the new technology opens it up to a whole new interpretation,'' Jackson says. The first film, Jackson says, is a classic. But it is nonetheless ``a product of its time.''

LOS ANGELES TIMES

[SOURCE]

Glamour Talks Watts & Kong

The latest issue of Glamour magazine has this article and cover image of Naomi Watts, there is a brief mention of King Kong.

[SOURCE]

Even Online, Kong is King

Kong Spy Richard sends along the latest issue of Amazing Stories Magazine featuring an article on KongisKing.net!

[SOURCE]

Ray Harryhausen Speaks about Kong

'Now Playing' magazine has recently spoke with effects legend Ray Harryhausen - who reveals his confidence in Peter Jackson to bring King Kong again to the big screen.

[NEWS SOURCE]


The Golden Voyage of Ray Harryhausen
Written by Scott Collura
Wednesday, 09 February 2005



To fans of fantasy cinema, special effects master Ray Harryhausen needs no introduction. 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 20 Million Miles to Earth, and Clash of the Titans are just a few of the films where Harryhausen employed his mastery of f/x, and stop-motion animation in particular, to thrill audiences everywhere.

Now the master is being celebrated in a new two-disc DVD called Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years, available from Sparkhill. The filmmaker recently chatted with Now Playing about the current state of moviemaking, including the pros and cons of CGI.

“CGI is a marvelous tool, but it’s been touted as the only means of expression, which I think is a load of hogwash,” says Harryhausen. “After all, the end [goal] is to entertain and you have to choose the right technique for the kind of story you’re telling, but if you forget that there is a story, all that you end up with is a series of special effects. It’s got to be comprehensible. They baffle [viewers] with special effects and loud noises, eight-frame cuts, zoom in and zoom out… that’s an old-fashioned technique, when you don’t have any quality or concept of the story, you have to doctor it up with all of these tricks that have been used since the Silent Age!”

Harryhausen often cites the original King Kong as his inspiration for getting into moviemaking in the first place. He therefore has a very personal interest in Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s upcoming remake of the 1933 film.

“I know Peter Jackson and I think he’ll do a good job,” he says. “There will always only be one King Kong, it was such a unique production. Dino De Laurentiis’s [1976] interpretation, he left all the fantasy out. He thought the only thing that made King Kong popular was the girl and the ape, and that’s not true. The original had so much fantasy and the whole thing hinges on fantasy. [But Jackson’s] in love with the subject as much as I am. He’ll do a good job.”

[ARTICLE SOURCE]

Production Diary: Day 87!



I never thought I'd see more details on a set than what I heard and read about on the Edoras set, but I've got to say this; New York blows me away!! Grant Major, Dan Hennah and others show us the very very VERY minute details that go into the massive set. From the fake cow carcass molds (from real cows) to the set dressings in a shop that may not even make it into the film. There is one thing I want the entire production to know...I want one of those fake chickens behind Grant! Someone send me one!!

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King Kong is starting to look brilliant. I adore the original (8/10 or B+) and I thought this would be a bad idea, but I think I was wrong. I love Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrian Brody. I'll definetely be seeing this the day it opens. As for Peter Jackson, I'm not the hugest fan of Lord of the Rings but they're alright, the best would be Return of the King (8/10 or B+), the other two were average. I hope he doesn't fuck with the story [-o<

It's nice to know that at least some people are bothering to read this! :razz:


That pretty much sums it up.