Settled in
23 February 2005



Adrien Brody reckons the sets on King Kong are so realistic he feels right at home.

"What's wonderful about this set is the attention to detail," he said in a production video posted on the movie's website. Brody plays former World War I fighter pilot Jack Driscoll in the film.

Parts of the 1930s New York set reminded Brody of the Queens neighbourhood he grew up in, he said.

In the past two weeks, director Peter Jackson's crew has been working 24 hours a day preparing the Manhattan sets in Lower Hutt.

It is understood the "scream scene" – which features Ann Darrow, played by Naomi Watts, trying to escape from Kong – was filmed last week.

Cranes and heavy machinery were brought in to help transform the Times Square set into another iconic area, Herald Square, complete with a facade of Macy's department store.

Production designer Grant Major said much effort went into ensuring the process went smoothly.

The set also features steam coming up from street vents. To create the effect, plumbers spent three months laying out nearly 2km of underground piping.

Filming for the $200 million film will finish at the end of next month.

[SOURCE]

Summer Blockbusters Spur Big Toy Success
Tue February 22, 2005 7:24 AM GMT-05:00

Excerpt addressing Kong:

King Kong and dinosaur action figures depicting images from Peter Jackson's highly anticipated "King Kong" movie, due out in December, are on display for retailers, but press and photographers are barred from seeing them.

"We have one of the most famous movies of all time and one of the premiere directors of our generation," said Beth Goss, executive vp consumer products at Universal Studios. "It's important to see it as a movie first before you see it as a toy. We let the movie lead the licensing, not the other way around."

[FULL ARTICLE]

Production Diary: Day 97!



PD 97 shows us the work involved in stunt driving, how do you make sure that a vintage car (even if it is newly built) is safe? What about the camera angles and shots? What about the actors? Do you stick with stuntmen, CGI stuntmen...or stationary cars and a green screen? All these situations are discussed in great detail, with a few surprises! And I *think* we get some actual KONG rough-cut footage!

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EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD might not be part of the title

While the title "KONG" has been confirmed by Universal as the main title, the subtitle "EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD" was only announced in an article about Dark Horse acquiring the rights to distibute high end resin Kong statues.

I just went beck to read this article again and it has been edited. The section stating that "Eighth Wonder of the World" is the subtitle to Kong has been deleted.

So basically, the only confirmed title is "KONG"

Heres how the original article read -

Revealing news at Toy Fair was the announcement that Dark Horse had signed on as the exclusive distributor of upcoming product from WETA Collectibles. Collectibles will include high-end resin pieces and prints for two major 2005 motion pictures: "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World;" the official title for Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic "King Kong".

And here's how the recently edited article reads -

Revealing news at Toy Fair was the announcement that Dark Horse had signed on as the exclusive distributor of upcoming product from WETA Collectibles. Collectibles will include high-end resin pieces and prints for two major 2005 motion pictures: "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Kong", Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic "King Kong".

Here's the link to the article -

http://www.figures.com/databases/ac...show_article=43


.

Simply titling this movie "KONG" is an Excellent choice.. It's straight and to the point and not drawn out like "The 8th Wonder of the World" tacked on, even if people don't directly say that when buying a ticket....

i hope they leave out the 8th Wonder of the World. That's kinda pretentious. If Kong flops/disappoints, that "8th Wonder of the World" is going to be a punchline for jokes for the next 10 years.

Naomi Watts and Jack Black on King Kong

In channel4.com/film's final on-set exclusive, Jack Black hatches his monkey-spanking plan while Naomi Watts has a very bad day at the office:

Naomi Watts has had it easier. Smooching with Sean Penn in 21 Grams, strutting her stuff in I Heart Huckabees, sharing her bed with the lovely Laura Harring in Mulholland Drive - next to these sequences, tonight's King Kong shoot is not so much an ordeal as an abuse of her human rights. As the artificial rain falls on the coldest of Wellington evenings, Watts - somewhere between tiny and petite - is frog-marched through the spectacular Gates Of Kong set by two massive warriors before an audience comprising hundreds of shrieking Samoan and Maori natives.

Yes, tonight, Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts - or rather struggling actress Ann Darrow - is to be offered as a sacrifice to Skull Island's most famous resident - King Kong. And if the freezing temperatures, persistent precipitation and insane cacophony aren't bad enough, Watts accidentally slips her captors' grasp, her head bouncing off the rocky ground. It seems a sickening blow, but the actress gets back to her feet and finishes the take. "Cut!" Peter Jackson bellows into his bullhorn, bringing to a close the sort of epic scene that would elude most directors but has become his meat and drink. A smile then spreads across his bewhiskered face. "You're a trooper, Naomi," he shouts, a comment that provokes the sort of standing ovation more commonly seen at a sports stadium.

Exactly how much of a trooper Watts is becomes clear the following morning when the groggy actress submits herself to press interrogation. "It was tough," she says with regard to the evening's excesses, her eyes weary, her skin ashen. "What made it all the more trying was the fact that, once we'd wrapped, I was so switched on that I couldn't fall asleep until four in the morning. Of course, it's a great scene but I'm glad every day's not as gruelling as that."

Doing it tough is nothing new to the Sussex-born Watts. While her film work is now widely celebrated, few A-listers have so many dogs to their name. The combination of no cash and little in the way of industry clout once forced her to lend her talent to dreck such as The Shaft, Strange Planet and Children Of The Corn IV. Indeed, Watts' lengthy B-movie career makes her the perfect choice to play Kong's starving starlet. "I can certainly sympathise with Ann Darrow's situation," Watts says by way of agreement. "Not that I was ever in such dire straits as her - I've never had to skip meals to save money. However, I'm no stranger to the frustrations of endless auditions and constant unemployment. So, the big monkey aside, our plights aren't too dissimilar."

On meeting him, it's pretty clear that Jack Black also didn't miss many meals on the road to Hollywood stardom. Sat in a tight red T-shirt, his eyes shaded, his hair slicked back, the stout Tenacious D frontman appears to be having a very different shooting experience to Watts. "Filming's been great," he says, his air of kookiness so constant that it seems less an act than a natural quirk. "Working with Peter Jackson and Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts, and Andy Serkis in New Zealand - trust me it gets a lot tougher than this."

So what of Black's character, egotistical filmmaker Carl Denham? "He's a young guy, confident to the point of being arrogant, who's doing the American Dream thing. You know, he's going after the big..." Monkey? "Yes," Black replies, his deadpan giving way to a rare grin. "That's the very word I was looking for."

And is the School Of Rock star feeling the pressure of having to carry so massive a production? "Not really," he sighs. "As great as the cast is, I don't think any of the actors are the star of King Kong. Kong is always going to be the star of Kong. And, of course, Peter Jackson's got a big burden to shoulder. When you've just made the biggest trilogy of all time, you're going to have a tough time following yourself. But, no, I'm not experiencing the crushing weight of expectation."

And with that, Black's off to enjoy a night out in Wellington. Relaxed and wholly at ease with himself, he's clearly wearing the Kong shoot pretty lightly. Naomi Watts, it would appear, could do with a little more rest.

[SOURCE]

However if the movie is a HIT, it will be fitting title.



.

Kong's Brody Plays It New

Adrien Brody, who is currently filming his role as Jack Driscoll in Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake, told SCI FI Wire that his interpretation of Driscoll differs greatly from that of Bruce Cabot, who portrayed the character in the original 1933 classic. As Driscoll, Oscar winner Brody is a former World War I fighter pilot and love interest to Kong heroine Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts).

"The role actually hasn't been played before," Brody said in an interview while promoting his latest film, the March 4 SF release The Jacket. "The name has been used before, but [the character] is actually derived from a number of other sources that have interesting parallels to the character that I'm playing."

Brody added, "But the character I'm playing has never been done before. I think this will have a far more realistic and sensitive nature than the interpretation in the original movie."

Universal Pictures will release King Kong on Dec. 14. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

[SOURCE]

TF05 - Playmates' KONG: 8th Wonder of the World Line Up Revealed

Playmates' Head of Boy's Toys Talks KONG!

At Toy Fair 2005, Playmates' head of boy's toys - Michael Rinzler - spoke with Figures.com about their new and highly anticipated upcoming film series of toys: Kong: 8th Wonder of the World!

Rinzler mentioned the following figures would be made:

A 6" figure assortment will consist of 8 different characters/styles. Some characters/styles will have two different figures, meaning there will be at least 8 figures in the line, including:

* Kong vs. T-Rex - this set will simulate a major scene in the film

* Kong vs. Juvenile T-Rex - the T-Rex will feature a "spring-loaded" mouth and the Kong figure will feature an "arm spreading" action, which will simulate Kong ripping open the Juvenile T-Rex's mouth, saving the girl.

Though not all the figures in this series are known, at least one more T-Rex figure is known to be included. This T-Rex will include small, 1/2" long human bodies the T-Rex will eat and then digest. Yummy.

Multiple two packs will be a part of the line, including:

* Kong vs. an (unidentified) raptor - Kong figure in this two pack will feature a button-triggered "overhead smash" action. The raptor will, when hit in the "sweet spot," crumble to ground in defeat.

* Kong vs. unidentified flying creatures - this set will feature a Kong with "spring-loaded" waist, allowing Kong to "throw" the flying creatures.

A figure that will interest many fans is the unique and original creature made up entirely from scratch for this film. This dino-like creature will be featured extensively in the new Kong film and has never before been seen anywhere!

Other figures in this line will include at least one Three Creature Multipack (unidentified creatures).

The 11" figure series will include at least two figures:

* Chest Pounding Kong - Kong's roar activates when his chest is beaten

* 11" Giant T-Rex - opens his mouth and swallows his victims (other figures), digests them.

One possibility still being worked on is a Toy Show/ Convention Exclusive Accessory Pack which will interact with the 6" figures.

Playsets and games will include:

* Skull Island Playset, the setting for much of the film

* Kong Vs. T-Rex Battle Game, which is a joy stick controlled game between the two characters

* "Roll Play" Kong Arms covered in real hair

Sure to be the most popular item of the entire series is the 14" Kong, which pounds its fists trying to escape, even while trapped inside the packaging. When liberated from the package, the 14" Kong will rotate his arms forward and walk on his knuckles!

Rinzler also mentioned working with a major distributor on creating two different PVC dioramas aimed specifically at the collector's market as well as a line of more extreme figures from the film aimed specifically at a more mature audience.

Rinzler and sculptors from Playmates spent 10 days in New Zealand working directly with WETA Workshop and Richard Taylor, ensuring the accuracy of the Kong figures was perfect!

Though no pictures are available at this time, keep checking back to get the latest news and information on Kong: The 8th Wonder of the World!!

[SOURCE]

Kong Tattoo Too Much For Naomi

Naomi Watts has been the butt of a King Kong-sized joke during filming of the big ape classic remake. Jack Black, who co-stars with Watts, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis and Jamie Bell, masterminded the practical joke while filming in New Zealand under director Peter Jackson. A crew member explains: "The cast had been talking about the tattoos that cast members of Lord Of The Rings all had when filming wrapped. A few days later, Jack turned up with a fake tattoo of Kong's head - on his butt! He showed it to Naomi, and told her the rest of the crew had decided they would all have one. She looked horrified, but everyone else was in on the gag and said they would be getting them too, and Naomi was completely taken in. She only found out it was a joke days later, and was very relieved!"

[SOURCE]

Production Diary: Day 100!



Day 100 on the set, certainly something to celebrate. We know eager fans have been waiting for Production Diary Day 100, and here it is! We have been asking folks to send along what they'd like to see in these diaries, some mention more of Naomi Watts, some want to see some pre-vis Kong, still others want to see Andy Serkis or at least hear his voice...well you are ALL in luck today! Day 100 takes us into a day in the life of Peter Jackson...directing, editing, co-ordinating, napping...and more!

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Brody: Kong Was Real

Oscar winner Adrien Brody, star of Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake, told SCI FI Wire that he performed opposite an imaginary giant ape, but played it as if he were real. "You take it seriously, and it's not a joke," Brody said in an interview. "It's not like, 'Oh, my God, there's the monkey again!'"

Brody plays Jack Driscoll, a fighter pilot who squares off against King Kong several times while trying to rescue Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) in Jackson's remake of the classic 1933 SF movie. Brody said that he carefully considered the reality of each sequence, no matter how far-fetched the scenario might have been. "What do you do when there is a 25-foot creature that sees you and senses you and smells you and doesn't like you from before?" he said. "What do you do? You smile or you run, and that's the only choice. And you run for your life, and you run many times on many different-colored green and blue treadmills and do the best you can to believe."

Brody added that director Jackson's character-driven approach helped him find the feelings he needed to bring King Kong's world to life. "The beauty of it is that it's character-driven, including the depth that's going into the creation of Kong," Brody said. "It is going to be, in my opinion, the best combination of elements, because it's going to have Peter's unbelievable team for effects, but also his own creative vision for something that he's been so passionate about since he was 10, [with co-writers] Fran [Walsh] and Philippa [Boyens]. It's very much similar to an independent movie, even though it's probably costing Universal a fortune." King Kong opens in December and is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

[SOURCE]

Brody's thoughts on Kong

Oscar winner Adrien Brody will next be seen in The Jacket starring with Keira Knightley.

Adrien and the rest of the cast where on hand at the Special Screening that took place at the Archlight Theater in Hollywood last night. He shared his thoughts on his current release and also on the upcoming Peter Jackson film King Kong.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

Jackson King Kong team 'stingiest' ever
02.03.05
by Angela Gregory

If there was a best penny-pinching film category in Oscar awards King Kong writer, director and producer Peter Jackson's team would be likely winners, according to the New Yorker.

The 80-year-old magazine has said the King Kong producers could be named as some of the "stingiest" ever.

A recent issue carried a report on the New York Historical Society that looked at some of the odder requests from the public, including an approach by researchers of King Kong seeking plans of the facades for every building on the stretch of Fifth Avenue featured in the movie.

According to the report, the library's interim director Nina Nazionale suggested the request might best be fulfilled at the municipal archive where copies of photographs could be ordered for US$40 ($55.20) each.

"The researcher said, 'Forty dollars is expensive'," Nazionale told the New Yorker.

Nevertheless, Jackson has come a long way since first directing the classic - his favourite movie - when he was 13 years old with a Super 8 camera, a set made of cardboard and bed sheets, and his friends as characters.

Thirty years on, he has replaced the cardboard diorama with a stylish movie set in Lower Hutt which replicates parts of New York in the 1930s, has top-shelf actors and a total film budget of around $200 million.

Previous reports have said Jackson was using several photographs of the period from the US Library of Congress to recreate New York, along with blueprints and historical records.

[SOURCE]

New York Set Closed for Business



Gandalf writes: After watching the latest PD and seeing PJ working in the studio again, I expect the New York set is ready for dismantling with filming there apparently finished. When I visited today all the cast/crew caravans were gone and the marquees are coming down - compare the first photo in this update with this one from late January. Much of the "snow" has now been cleaned up and a few rubbish skips are visible in what probably marks the beginning of the end for this incredible movie set.

[PICS]

Son of Quint's KONG reports part 1: The Live Version! KONG! Ann! Skull Island!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here typing on my very nice and pretty Powerbook in Wellington, New Zealand. Specifically, I'm sitting in the big A Stage of Stone Street Studios as the crew of KING KONG slowly returns from lunch. I've been here since the 5th of February and I'm leaving tomorrow, a full 4 days earlier than planned at the insistence of Paramount to catch the last day of shooting on WAR OF THE WORLDS. I know you hate me. Hell, I hate me.

I got the OK from Peter Jackson last Friday to write up my experiences from the past 3 weeks on the set of KING KONG, so I am starting with the only real "live" report I can file. I have been taking detailed notes every day I've been on set, so I'll arrange those into something coherent, hopefully, very soon. Just a warning, though... I've got SXSW coming up, so the reports may be a little longer in coming than the previous series I did. I'll try my best to keep them coming, though.

If you didn't catch my last series of Kong reports, you can read them by clicking the below links:

TO READ KONG REPORT #1 CLICK HERE!

TO READ KONG REPORT #2 CLICK HERE!

TO READ KONG REPORT #3 CLICK HERE!

On my last full day on KONG last year I was saying my good-byes to the crew and cast and eventually got to Peter. He started apologizing for not putting me in the film, something I never expected or asked for, but something really cool nonetheless. They had been shooting only Venture stuff when I was there last time, he said, so there was no place to put my friends and I in the film.

When we were out for the pick-ups for RETURN OF THE KING Barry Osborne put us in Orc outfits and had us run around behind Orlando Bloom right before he took down the Oliphaunt, so I guess that set a precedent... Anyway, the point of the story is that when talking to Peter he said, "Well, when you come back in February we'll put you in the movie." Not "Well, IF you come back in February..." but "WHEN you come back in February..."

Who could turn that down?

So it was that I scrounged and scrimped and saved and stole to afford the amazingly expensive Summer season airfare to get back to one of my favorite places in the world and watch a Giant Monkey wreck havoc all around me.

[CLICK HERE TO READ ON]

Brody Conquers Kong

Adrien Brody, who stars in Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake, told SCI FI Wire that he sees his character as a departure from the emotionally charged roles he's played in the past in such films as The Pianist. "King Kong is really wonderful, because it's a chance to not subject myself to the emotional torment," Brody said in an interview. "Now I am physically abused. I'm spending 11 hours on a harness shooting stunts and doing these things that you can't put somebody else in there.”

Brody plays Jack Driscoll, a fighter pilot who attempts to rescue damsel in distress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) from the clutches of the title giant ape. He said that working with director Jackson taught him a lot about filmmaking. "I'm learning another aspect of filmmaking, which is very exciting," he said. "Like, physical pain is easier to deal with" than emotional pain.

Brody drew parallels with his recent experience shooting the psychological SF thriller The Jacket. "The challenge is having to experience things that don't exist, but that's also similar to what I'm doing [in The Jacket, in which I'm] having an out-of-body reaction in there in a drawer," Brody said. "You can do more to prepare for [the drawer], but at the same time, I do have a very vivid imagination. That's part of what drew me to being an actor." King Kong is slated for release in December and is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

[SOURCE]

200 flown in for sneak preview of King Kong
04 March 2005
By ANNA CHALMERS and REBECCA PALMER

Two hundred movie distributors have been flown to Wellington to view footage from Peter Jackson's King Kong.

The film's maker, Universal Studios, funded the flights this week to showcase the "flavour and tone" of the $200 million remake of the 1933 classic.

"We're going to present them with the first footage of King Kong," Jackson said in his online production diary. "Some of the visual effects shots are finished, but a lot of them are unfinished."

It is understood the first group arrived on Sunday and have left. The second group is here till the weekend.

In an introductory statement filmed for the executives, Jackson stressed the film was still in its early stages. "We are still filming it, the film's coming out in December and believe me, there's a huge amount of work still to be done."

Paul Rosenfeld, head film buyer for US cinema chain Wallace Theaters, which runs 50 cinemas, told The Dominion Post last night that the group had been taken around some of the Weta sound stages.

"Wellington has been great. We're hoping to see some of (King Kong) tonight or tomorrow."

Other film executives in the group, which included representatives from Universal Studios and Century Theatres, were tight-lipped, saying they had signed confidentiality clauses.

"We can't even talk about it," said Rich Boynton, of Loews Cineplex Entertainment, which is the third biggest movie theatre chain in the world with 2176 screens.

The biggest hint that the group was on the way to see sneak previews of the film came as they filed into Camperdown Studios and each person was asked to hand over any cameras or photographic equipment before entering.

Meanwhile, King Kong publicist Melissa Booth said filming of the New York street scenes at the Lower Hutt set had finished and the production had moved back to Jackson's studios in Miramar.

[SOURCE]

Production Diary: Day 103!



Day 103 brings us back to Alex Funke and his 'miniature' team. The term 'miniature' being a joke simply because his team is quite big..and so are the props! These BIGatures have been shooting for 200 days now, they began before the live action shoots and will continue well after them. The details that go into these shots are amazing! And who says CGI is the only way to go for special effects these days? Take a look!

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A little bit about Adrien Brody (Kong is also mentioned)...

Yo! Adrien raps
By Glenn Whipp, Staff writer

Adrien Brody watched the Oscars last Sunday — by himself, eating a hamburger.

It was a far cry from the night three years ago when Brody planted a big fat kiss on presenter Halle Berry after becoming the youngest man to win the Oscar for best actor.

In the 36 months since Brody took the prize for his work in Roman Polanski's Holocaust drama, "The Pianist," the 31-year-old New York native has finished three movies — two of them being small, independent features — and is about to wrap a fourth, "King Kong," which is neither small nor independent. His mug has been seen in magazine ads for an upscale clothes designer and his phone number has been splayed across the Internet after hackers swiped Paris Hilton's Sidekick.

"Lots of things changed," Brody says, and then repeats the words, adding a lusty laugh, which indicates that the changes have been for the good.

"Mainly people's perceptions of me," he continues. "I'm doing 'King Kong." I don't think anyone saw me as the heroic leading man before I won an Oscar. I'm not sure anyone does now, outside of Peter Jackson."

(Jackson, the creative force behind the "Lord of the Rings' movies, is directing "Kong.")

"I'm a bit more alluring now on a business level, and that's important. I'm an artist, but I'm part of a business. You're kidding yourself otherwise."

Business interests aside, Brody doesn't seem too inclined to go for the paychecks. (He passed on "Pearl Harbor," after all.) Take his current movie, a time-bending psychological thriller called "The Jacket," which began life a couple of years ago as a $60 million action movie at Paramount with Colin Farrell attached to star and Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") slated to direct.

When it fell out of production, Steven Soderbergh rescued the screenplay and sent it to artsy English director John Maybury, whose only previous feature was "Love Is the Devil," an experimental film about artist Francis Bacon. Soon, Brody came aboard, his price fitting comfortably within the film's scaled-down budget.

"I lucked out big time in getting Adrien," Maybury says. "He transcends the mediocre material in the screenplay and gives it a value and a resonance that's not on the page at all."

Brody worked with Soderbergh in 1993 on "King of the Hill." The Depression-era gangster film was Brody's big break after a long period of failed auditions. Winning the Oscar has translated into fewer rejections. He worked with M. Night Shyamalan on "The Village' after failing to land a part in the director's earlier movies.

For Brody, the challenge has never been finding directors willing to hire him. He has worked with some of the best: Spike Lee, Ken Loach, Terrence Malick, Polanski and Soderbergh. The trick has been convincing the studios bankrolling the films that he can be both an artistic and financial asset.

With "King Kong," there wasn't any question. Jackson had complete freedom to cast anyone he wanted. While Brody isn't a big fan of the original ("You don't identify much with the characters," he says), he liked Jackson's ideas for the remake.

"The first one, you're just interested in the spectacle of the monkey," Brody says. "And if that's what this one was about … well, I don't think they would have bothered to hire me. The characters have much more depth, including Kong, which I'm loving.

"That was my biggest note to Peter when I met him," Brody says. "Even if you don't hire me, I told him, I was saying how the connection between Kong and Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts, taking the Fay Wray part) should be emphasized. And is it ever. It's amazing."

"Kong' should finish next month. After that, Brody will star in "Truth, Justice and the American Way," playing a detective looking into the death of George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on television. Ben Affleck will play Reeves.

As for when Brody will do something with the music he has been producing at home and on the road (he travels with recording equipment) for the past 12 years is something even the actor doesn't know. Brody grew up on the Geto Boys and Run-DMC. Next to acting, hip-hop is his passion. And he's self-aware enough to know what you're thinking: Just what we need. Another actor foisting a bad set of songs upon us.

"It's not fair," Brody says. "Not that I'm complaining. But a good rapper can be a bad actor and it'll be fine. They can cross over and get paid lots of money to capitalize on their fame and not even be very good or contribute anything really other than their name and image to the film. Whereas if I, as a good actor, go make good music, it will be criticized immediately. 'Who are you to do this?"

"Music is very personal," Brody continues. "It's a way of describing emotions and things in a way that's not scripted. And it may not be your perception of who I am. It's like you don't want to see Robert De Niro get up on stage and do a country song. But if he loved country music and was like, 'Hey, I'm going to do a country jam in this little cafe in Tribeca," you'd go just to check it out."

Brody is optimistic about people's perceptions. "For me, music brings me a lot of joy. And I'd like to share it with people and have them enjoy it, too. I just have to find the right outlet. It's going to be a challenge."

Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp@dailynews.com

[SOURCE]

Another one...

Angst fits 'The Jacket' star Adrien Brody well
by Nancy Mills, New York Daily News
March 03, 2005

HOLLYWOOD - Adrien Brody was making the rounds after the Oscars and saw Tom Cruise arrive at the Vanity Fair party.

"He showed up on his motorcycle, and it was a really cool thing to see," Brody says. "I wish I'd ridden my motorcycle instead of being in a limo. That would have been more my style.

"I really admire Tom. He's lived with fame for most of his adult life, and he handles himself like a true gentleman. I said to him, `I'm trying to learn from you.'"

Even when he's happy, Brody can't resist a little New York angst. Torment seems to be his strong suit.

In "The Jacket," opening Friday, he plays an injured Gulf War veteran with amnesia who is accused of murder and winds up in an insane asylum. Drugged and locked in a morgue body drawer, he finds he can see into the future.

"I do suffer well," says Brody, who won the Best Actor Oscar two years ago for "The Pianist." This is his first starring role since then, though it was originally written for Colin Farrell.

"Jacket" director John Maybury stepped in when the $60 million action movie became a $20 million character study. Mark Wahlberg was set to star, but he dropped out around the time Brody won his Oscar.

"Adrien is not the stereotypical hero," Maybury says. "He's not a cookie-cutter beauty like Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves. He has sensitivity, delicacy and finesse.

"His face is almost like a Modigliani. It couldn't be more expressive. In one scene where he's lying in bed with Keira (Knightley), he looks like Rudolph Valentino."

Brody grew up in the New York City borough of Queens, photographer Sylvia Plachy is his mother. "I wasn't surrounded by poverty," he says, "but I had an understanding of reality and the difficulties of life.

"Playing characters that suffer or are conflicted by something that torments them gives me the opportunity to step outside myself and appreciate my sanity and physical and emotional health."

In his next film, director Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic "King Kong," Brody barely suffers.

"I spent 11 hours in a harness the other day doing stunts, and I was hurting," he says. "But my character is not emotionally tormented, which is a relief."

Brody plays Jack Driscoll, Ann Darrow's (Naomi Watts) love interest. (Bruce Cabot and Fay Wray played the parts in the original.) "He's heroic," Brody says, "but he's an unlikely hero. He's a playwright, not a ship's first mate. He's not the overtly masculine epitome of a male you usually see."

He describes the film, which opens in December, as "one part homage and one part Peter's impression of how the original could have been done."

Brody knows about being on display, like the big ape.

"I can put on a hat and sunglasses, yet ..." the 31-year-old actor sighs, "it does make observing more difficult, but I'm adjusting to it."

Blame it on The Kiss.

When Brody went onstage to receive his Oscar from Halle Berry, he kissed her for about a minute.

"It was a really fun moment," he says. "It felt like all the love in the room culminated in that moment, and Halle was the representative."

As a result, Brody, who is in a relationship with Michelle Dupont, sometimes finds women throwing themselves at him. Such are the burdens of an actor's life.

"But I'm a good boy," he insists, "a pretty good boy."

[SOURCE]

"Fantastic. I haven't felt like that since I saw Jurassic Park"

That's what one attendee had to say about Kong footage he saw. The reactions were all very positive according to the article. Wohoo, could this be another winner for PJ?! :razz:

Here's the article:


200 People Get Sneek Peek At 'King Kong'

Peter Jackson invited 200 people to give them a sneak peek at footage of King Kong, according to Variety.

Just don't ask any of that privileged group about what they saw.

Jackson is "paranoid about anyone taking photos," says one attendee, whose gag slipped momentarily.

Jackson screened 18 minutes of footage of the $160 million remake, showing off his Weta digital workshop and lavish sound mixing facility.

Displaying some of the miniatures, he explained how he told his tech crew the miniature forest had to show the effect of wind rippling the branches and leaves as the big ape lumbers through it -- apparently a feat never pulled off before.

The director admitted to nerves as he introduced the footage, noting it hadn't been seen by anyone outside his team.

But reactions were uniformly bullish, from what Variety could glean.

"Fantastic. I haven't felt like that since I saw Jurassic Park, " one attendee said.

[SOURCE]

Kong is gonna be crazy ...

However I think Narnia is really going to hurt it like Shrek 2 hurt HP3.

I still think it will be an amazing film, and has a shot at 400 worldwide, so it will be profitable, but I really think Narnia being a kids movie and accessiable to the whole family, AND coming out first, has the best change at 250-300 domesticly. Narnia will have to have a rewatchability factor, and if it does, then kids will keep coming back.

I either see it going 275 Domestic to Narnia and about 180 for Kong or about 225 for both of them ... can't decide.