Despite my love of the original King Kong, my status as House puritan, and the fact that I have yet to see any of the Lord of the Rings movies, I am looking forward to watching Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. He seems reverent enough to touch upon the original in a positive manner. My only confusion was when I discovered that his version was going to be twice the length of the original, a fact that I can’t even begin comprehend.
Last night I came across a special on the King Kong remake. Within a montage of scenes from the movie was a tiny clip of Ann Darrow speaking the line “Is this the moving picture ship?” It reminded me of this passage from the book The Making of King Kong by Orville Goldner and George E. Turner, concerning the hiring of Ruth Rose as one of the writers on the feature.
The producers knew they had the writer they needed when they read the opening line of dialogue : “Hey! Is this the moving picture ship?” She had thrown out several pages of explanation and in only seven words succeeded in getting the story under way!
The reuse of this particular line in the remake illustrates just how different the approach for each film seems to be. In the original King Kong, the “moving picture ship” line was the very first spoken dialogue in the film. With the line being transposed to Ann Darrow, who appears further into the movie, the purpose of the line as a quick and dirty piece of exposition seems as if it’s been rendered meaningless. I think it’s interesting that the placement of this one line may in fact symbolize everything that’s different from one film to the next.
How can this be? Is there a new puritan in the house? Has the puritan lost his edge? Only time will tell ;)
I love peter jackson’s team, and of all the special effects houses, I think his is bar none the best out there. I have a HUGE problem with anything biological being done by CGI and not by Jim Henson’s team, i.e. Any of the new star wars. But this movie, as far as the looks go, looks fantastic. My problem however is not with the look, but with Jack Black. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s decently funny in the right movie. But in a remake of King Kong, there are just some people you don’t get. I wouldn’t get Martin Lawrence to play any part in a remake of Gone With the Wind. I just can’t take the movie in any serious light while I wait for Jack to do some air guitar solo and make a facetious comment on AC/DC.
i don’t know billy…martin lawrence as rhett in gone with the wind would be epic
‘frankly, scarlett, you’re a beotch’
martin lawrence is the new clark gable
Possibly. But i’ll not see it in this or any other karmic cycle :)