We recently spoke with Gameloft's Philippe Laurens, Producer of the King Kong mobile game. Take a look! Could you briefly describe the King Kong game and tell us about its main features? King Kong is an action game with dual gameplay: you have the opportunity to play both as King Kong and a human character. There are two distinct modes of play: King Kong’s parts are action oriented; and as a human, you are Jack, the main character in the movie. [More]

Ubisoft's King Kong Screenshots Gandalf writes: Here's a collection of screenshots, starting with the main menu and giving a glimpse through both parts of the demo. [More]

Kelly writes: I'm delighted to announce that New Zealand Post's King Kong site has just gone live! Check out this great new range of collectables featuring images from the movie. Don’t forget to check out the Collector's Pack with its innovative new feature that's bound to impress! These products haven't even hit the shops yet so order now and be one of the first to own these great new products! [More]

Wellington, New Zealand – September 2005: With director Peter Jackson’s latest movie King Kong due to hit cinema screens on December 14th, the sound team working on the project are currently in New Zealand completing the music and effects for the film. Included in the extensive list of equipment being used on this project are six Prism Sound ADA-8XR multi-channel converters and processors – units that were recently awarded the coveted PAR Excellence Award 2005 by Pro Audio Review and nominated for the 2006 TEC Awards. Los Angeles-based equipment rental company Advanced Audio Rental, which recently began stocking the new ADA-8XRs, supplied the converters to the music scoring team. [More]

From fortune.com: Imagine being a famous director who gets to create elaborate fantasy worlds filled with elves, giant gorillas, and starlets. Now imagine getting a blank check to do so. After Lord of the Rings' 17 Oscars and $3 billion box-office performance, Jackson has more creative control than most directors can even imagine. His remake of King Kong—a project he's been wanting to do since age 13—hits theaters in December, and the trailer already has fans salivating. As if that's not enough: While working on Kong, he had an extreme makeover, losing 70 pounds. He also ditched the oversized specs thanks to laser eye surgery. [2005 Envy List]

Ash writes: With the release of Kong just around the corner, 3 Musketeers, Crunch, and Baby Ruth have released their KONG-sized bars. These bars are being marketed in boxes with a brand new pic of Kong on the cover. [More]

It is set to be the fiercest clash in cinema box office history: Aslan, King of Narnia, versus King Kong. Walt Disney's eagerly awaited The Chronicles Of Narnia, an adaptation of C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Universal's remake of King Kong are to open in British cinemas within days of each other. Industry experts had expected the two Hollywood studios, both of which are mounting Ł10 million publicity campaigns for their films, to avoid each other's release dates. However, the two blockbusters, which each have to recoup production costs in excess of Ł60 million, will now both open during the same week in December. [More]

Weta Digital has bought 250 more blade servers with a total list price of between $2 million and $3 million to complete post-production work on Peter Jackson's King Kong, due out in January. The IBM Xeon blade servers, each with two 3.4 gigahertz processors and 8 gigabytes of memory, are housed at the New Zealand Supercomputing Centre in central Wellington. They have been added to the centre's existing bank of 1144 Intel 2.8GHz processors, boosting its power by 50 per cent to create a supercomputer with the equivalent power of nearly 15,000 PCs. [More]

United International Pictures has a (very) small teaser 'Quad' (A British Quad is their movie poster. 30X40 horizontal poster. A US one-sheet is our movie poster. 27X40 (used to be 27X41) vertical poster. So a Teaser Quad is the British teaser poster. - Thanks Quint!) I hpe a nice high-rez version will be made available online soon!

Tom sends along these scans from the latest 'Action Figure Digest', they feature a look at all the Kong goodies available very soon (if not already at your local toy store). Take a look! [More]

When the original King Kong hit theaters in 1933, it was preceded by a special issue of The Hollywood Reporter and accompanied by the nervous prayers of RKO Radio executives, fearful the movie might be the last their nearly bankrupt studio would ever release. With a box-office take of more than $1.2 million, the movie saved RKO, and Kong himself went on to became a cinematic icon. When producer Dino De Laurentiis remade King Kong in 1976, advance word suggested the film was another masterpiece. Kong's paw, with actress Jessica Lange (in her film debut) firmly clutched in it, made the cover of Time magazine weeks before the film was released. But the finished film proved a major disappointment, especially when it became common knowledge that this Kong was no more than a guy in a gorilla suit. [More]

It is time to come together and talk Kong! The chatroom has been a great success, however some people have been popping in at odd hours when there is no one to chat with. To that end we've devised 2 KONG Chat times, a set time and day of the week for all Kong chatters to meet and have fun! Tonight's chat will be at 5:30PM Eastern Standard Time (click here for more info). World times are below, if you need more help click here.

5:30PM (Saturday) EST in New York, Montreal
2:30PM (Saturday) PST in Los Angeles, Seattle
11:30PM (Saturday) (Central European Time)
7:30AM (Sunday) in Sydney
9:30AM (Sunday) in Auckland, Wellington

Here is part 2 of 'Bringing Kong to Life', the animation department shows us how they use their creative imagination to animate creatures such as the T-Rex and Kong. Some of these silly characters (the animators) act out performances to get the feel right, while others have mirrors next to their monitors to look at themselves (and people say I'm vain). This all leads me to the conclusion that the animation department is probably a very surreal place...sounds like fun![QT6 240x132px 6Mb] [QT4 320x176px 12Mb] [QT6 480x264px 15Mb] [Bit Torrents!]

Email us your questions and PJ may answer them in a future Post Production Diary!

Like what you see? Discuss it in our Chat Room! [Click Here] Or the Message Boards? [Click Here]

Yes folks, that's right, the King Kong PC game demo will be making its way online today! Click on over to Area51 & Fileplanet to download it! More mirrors will be made available soon! Know of a good mirror? Let us know! [Area51] [Fileplanet] [Fileshack] [Gameshadow] [pcgameworld] [gamershell] [onspiele]

PROMINENT WEBSITE SHOWCASES WORLD PREMIER OF CHANCE THOMAS' STUNNING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR UBISOFT ACTION/ADVENTURE TITLE
For Immediate Release 10/07/05 - Just in time for the weekend, popular website www.KONGisKing.net has unveiled its worldwide premier of original music from Ubisoft's upcoming game, Peter Jackson's King Kong. Fans eager to experience the score can freely download up to sixteen minutes of themes and action music, including four full-length tracks from this link: KongisKing.net. [Press Release] [Listen]

The KiKn staff has been working late - and we are happy to announce a new addition to the KongisKing.net website: The KongisKing.net Gaming Area! We are featuring the Peter Jackson's KING KONG game in the area and have some great exclusive content for all you Kong fans out there! [Click Here]

Ubisoft was kind enough to send along a demo copy of their new King Kong PC game. The demo offers 2 full scenes to play, an FPS (you play as Jack Driscol) scene featuring a nasty T-Rex and a third person action scene where YOU get to be Kong and save Ann Darrow from all sorts of nasty dinos! !!!Spoilers!!! [More]

Folks from the London MCM Expo write: Andy Serkis will be attending the UK’s premiere Movie & Collectors event on the 29th & 30th October 2005, The London MCM Expo takes place at Excel, Royal Victoria Docks, London, E16, UK. In attendance will be movie companies, computer games companies plus much more including other guests from Film & TV. [More]

It is time to come together and talk Kong! The chatroom has been a great success, however some people have been popping in at odd hours when there is no one to chat with. To that end I've devised a KONG Chat time, a set time and day of the week for all Kong chatters to meet and have fun! The bi-weekly Kong Chats will be Thursday nights at 8:30PM Eastern Standard Time (a new Saturday chat has been added click here for more info). World times are below, if you need more help click here. [Kong Java Chat Room] [irc chat settings: SERVER www.theonering.net ROOM: #kongisking.net]

8:30PM (Thursday) EST in New York, Montreal
5:30PM (Thursday) PST in Los Angeles, Seattle
1:30AM (Friday) in GMT (UK)
2:30AM (Friday) (Central European Time)
10:30AM (Friday) in Sydney, Australia
12:30PM (Friday) in Auckland, Wellington, New Zealand

From IGN: The December release of the video diaries on DVD exemplifies Universal's commitment to involve companies, and fansites, in the early marketing of the movie. Variety, in their October issue, reports this was an executive decision, straight from the top. By doing so, Chief Stacy Snider and Co-President of Marketing Eddie Egan intended to show companies the kind of movie they're making. It was easy to open the studio doors because Jackson has lot of things to say, and stories to tell. One of these stories is integral to Jackson's version of King Kong. To tell it, he enlisted the services of author Matt Costello (writer of the story-line for the Doom 3 videogame). The result is: King Kong: The Island of the Skull. To date, we haven't heard much about this prequel story. But now we're going to shed a little light on it. We have an exclusive debut for you: an excerpt from the prequel novel. We also have the brand new copy from the back cover. [More] [Pre-Order]

Leigh Scott writes: Thought you guys may be interested to know that I recently directed a modern day adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World. To coincide with Jackson's KING KONG, we added a giant ape just for fun. The film is called KING OF THE LOST WORLD and will hit all Hollywoo Video and Blockbuster video stores on the same day as the Jackson film. My company did a similar thing with WAR OF THE WORLDS. I'm sure we can't hang with Peter Jackson's version, but ours is fun and pretty cool. It may be worth you guys looking into. [More]

Many MANY people are chomping at the bit to see the official King Kong poster, and it seems SOMETHING has popped up online. While we are not sure the image above is the true teaser poster, mainly because we've seen this image in at least one magazine in the past, that is why I didn't post this image earlier today. This is however the first time we've seen it nice and big! Take a look, teaser poster or not it is still nice!

UPDATE: After a little digging I found the image in question, it is from the cover of EMPIRE Magazine from late August 2005. Now does this mean it is NOT the poster? That is anyone's guess...more info soon! [More]

The Oscar-winning creative team behind the "The Lord of the Rings" films, including director Peter Jackson, has been named to run the production of the upcoming film based on Microsoft Corp.'s blockbuster "Halo" video game, the company said on Tuesday. Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, will serve as the executive producers for "Halo," which is targeted for worldwide release in mid-2007 by Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox film studios. Universal will oversee the film's production and domestic distribution. Fox will handle international distribution. "Halo" will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand, and will use Jackson's production and post-production facilities there. "I'm a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen," Jackson said in a statement. [More]

Gandalf writes: A couple more shots of the Venture being dismantled in this brief update, taken last Thursday and today (Tuesday). The extra structure forward of the original wheelhouse has now been removed and I noted today while workers were still busy that the name "Venture" has been blacked out on her stern.

The final image is a scan of the photo from the Dominion Post article today with caption "Ship reshaped: Workers strip away sets fixed to the ship Venture used in Peter Jackson's King Kong and now berthed at Miramar wharf." [More]

Academy Award-winning Wellington scriptwriter Fran Walsh is to be awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature from Victoria University at its May graduation ceremonies. Ms Walsh, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria in 1981, began her career as a fledgling scriptwriter working in television, including writing episodes of Worzel Gummidge, Down Under and Shark in the Park. She then went on to collaborate with Peter Jackson in such full-length films as Meet the Feebles (1989), Braindead (1992), Heavenly Creatures (1994), and The Frighteners (1996). [More]

For years he towered over proceedings at Edinburgh's biggest market, helping reunite thousands of lost children with their parents. But now the giant, bright pink King Kong statue, which was a landmark at Ingliston Market for more than 30 years, has been taken away after the market's closure. The 22ft-high gorilla statue, which became famous at the market as a meeting point for separated parents and their children, is to be resurrected at the market's new site. But Spook Erections, the owner of the market, which was axed last month, has still not disclosed the location of the new site. [More]

During a trip last week in New York, Ubisoft debuted the Xbox 360 version of Peter Jackson's King Kong with three playable levels, and IGN was there to capture the first, exclusive hands-on preview of the beautiful, movie-based game. King Kong is an action-adventure game driven by the eponymous movie narrative taking place in 1933. [More]