Stephen writes: Just giving you a heads up that here in NY they have begun showing TV commercials for the King Kong Millions lottery, featuring crowds of people running away intercut with a few shots of Kong roaring, rampaging, etc (including a quick one I don't think I've seen before, a headshot of Kong roaring next to the easily recognizable art deco features near the top of the Empire State Building). I don't know if the commercial is anywhere online yet, but I thought I'd let you know so KIKN can keep their eyes peeled for it if and when it does show up. [More]

The folks from Latinoreview write: Yes folks, we at Latinoreview got ourselves the multimillion-dollar script of Halo by Alex Garland! I had to pull some Sam Fisher Splinter Cell moves to get it – but we got it. Let’s see, they paid Alex Garland $1 million bucks to write it, they sold it to Universal and Fox for $5 million bucks plus 10 percent of the gross. And they gave a seven-figure deal to both Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to exec produce the movie. A $10 million dollar script – at least. Wow. The question: Is the script any good? My answer? [More]

“King Kong” – The 2005 Edition: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”) revisits the unforgettable story of a gigantic ape captured and brought to America in his revamped version of the 1933 classic, “King Kong.” Jackson co-wrote, produced and directed this new “King Kong,” which stars Naomi Watts as struggling actress Ann Darrow, Jack Black as filmmaker Carl Denham, and Adrien Brody as New York playwright Jack Driscoll. Colin Hanks, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, and Thomas Kretschmann are also featured in the tale of a great ape who bonds with a beautiful woman and rebels against being held in captivity. [More]

There is a lot of hype surrounding the new King Kong game for the Xbox 360 game console. Apparently Peter Jackson himself (director of Lord of the Rings trilogy) is playing a major role not only in the new movie but in the game itself, and a lot of people are excited about the chance to play as King Kong. Well the GamingExcellence team got a chance to cut through the hype and get some first impressions of this highly anticipated game at X’05 Canada. The look and feel of the King Kong game blew people away and definitely made it one of the gems of the show. [More]

Finance Minister Michael Cullen has toppled the most powerful man in Hollywood, film-maker Peter Jackson, in a new list of the most influential New Zealanders. Prime Minister Helen Clark, into her third term as most powerful politician in the country, held on to the No 1 slot for the second year in the NZ Listener's annual list of 50 formidable Kiwis. Dr Cullen, controller of the nation's purse strings, snatched second place from Jackson, who slipped to No 5, showing how fickle power can be. Just six months ago, Jackson was named the most powerful man in Tinseltown by Premiere magazine, pushing aside the likes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise. [More]

The latest edition of 'Filmink Magazine' features this article on King Kong. You should all check out filmink.com.au, a very cool place indeed. Filmink is on newsstands in Australia and New Zealand (on the 15th of each month). Folks overseas can also purchase the magazine online or by contacting the lovely Dina here!. [More]

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - When Peter Jackson unveiled the first "Lord of the Rings" movie in 2001, it ushered in a torrent of attention on New Zealand and its film industry, kicking it into high gear and showing that the country was a viable place for Hollywood to make its movies. Four years later, with Jackson's "King Kong" just more than a month away, the director's shadow still looms large over the film industry in the remote country of 4.1 million people. "He's important because of the films he makes himself, he's hugely important because of the infrastructure he's developed to enable him to make the films himself," New Zealand Film Commission chief executive Ruth Harley said at the annual American Film Market in Santa Monica. [More]

(Kyodo) _ They say you never forget your first love. For Academy Award-winning movie director Peter Jackson this is certainly true. He remembers the first time he felt that rush of emotion as if it were yesterday -- staring into the eyes of a giant gorilla while watching the 1933 movie King Kong in his lounge room as a young boy. "It had such an effect on me, such a profound effect...The escapism, the adventure, the romance of the film, the emotion of the film...It was the most perfect piece of escapist entertainment I could ever imagine and it made me fall in love with films and with film-making," he says enthusiastically. [More]

From moviesonline.ca: We just updated our gallery for Peter Jackson's "King Kong" with 22 new movie photos. Jackson will bring his sweeping cinematic vision to the iconic story of the gigantic ape-monster captured in the wilds and brought to civilization where he meets his tragic fate. [More]

When Scott Coffey's "Ellie Parker" premiered last winter at the Sundance Film Festival, it was greeted with polite applause. Coffey, 38, was so annoyed with this tepid response that he felt like going home. But subsequent screenings went really well. "The rewards of the movie are particular and subtle," Coffey says. "I think people were expecting a Naomi Watts vehicle. It's not your normal linear story line. It's very much a portrait of a person at a particular time in their life. It's an art film." [More]

Gayzilla writes: I have enclosed a picture of the Kong Lotto game poster, this is a nice back lit one and they are appearing all over town, I saw one 10 feet tall the other day. [More]

Peter Jackson has no intention of buying the rights to China's best-selling novel Wolf Totem. And he will not be raising wolves in New Zealand or having his Weta Digital company produce computer graphics of Mongolian wolves, either, says a spokesman for the New Zealand director, Matt Dravitzky. He was responding to an article in the New York Times that Jackson had acquired and planned to produce a film based on Wolf Totem. Mr Dravitzky said the newspaper had got it wrong and would be printing a correction. [More]

Footage from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong has been shown in the UK for the first time. A trailer and unfinished 14-minute action sequence from the highly anticipated movie was screened in London, watched by film critics and the BBC News website. The three-hour epic, said to have cost $207m (Ł117m), will not be released in the US and UK until December. The clip was preceded by footage of director Jackson, who won the best director Oscar in 2004 for Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. [More]

With one fist clutching Naomi Watts, expect to see a big hairy ape use his other paw to grab Best Picture bids at the Golden Globes and Oscars. Impossible, you say? Especially at the Oscars where voters usually prefer snootier, arty fare like "Lost in Translation," "The Hours" and "In the Bedroom"? Ha! That's usually true, but I stand by this prediction anyway — shoulder to shoulder (or shoulder to ankle) with King Kong. Here's why: for starters, the movie is directed by Peter Jackson, who's proven he can get academy voters to gobble up popcorn pix. Not only did "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" win Best Picture, but it tied the all-time Oscar record and actually topped it by becoming the biggest undefeated champ in the kudo's history. [More]

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Memo to movie-industry trackers and simian fanatics: Mark Dec. 14 on your calendars. That's the day "King Kong" comes to the big screen for a third time. Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is bringing this installment to theaters, with Naomi Watts starring as the gorilla's love interest, a role played in previous editions by Fay Wray and Jessica Lange. Made for an estimated $207 million by Universal Pictures, "Kong" is not only 308 times the cost of the $670,000 original made in 1933 and nine times that of the 1976 version, but also its budget sets a new record for a movie. It's also the 800-pound gorilla that could make or break the holiday movie season. Universal is owned by General Electric. [More]

Actor Jack Black had so much fun working with Peter Jackson on new movie King Kong that he now considers the film-maker his adoptive father. Black, who stars with Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts in the giant gorilla epic, was initially daunted by the prospect of working under the Lord of the Rings director, but the pair soon developed a strong bond. [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

Welcome to 'The Mix: Part 2', with 6 weeks to go Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Chris Boyes again let us peek into the fascinating work in the sound mixing department. Chris shows us around his toy, the Mix Console (it deserves capital letters), this massive piece of hardware looks like it belongs on the Enterprise. Along with more mixers, re-mixers, and a ton of other stuff I have no idea what to call, Chris must piece together every aspect of sound. Chris works in 3 dimensions to make sure the sound experience you hear while watching the movie is as realistic as possible. Some great new dialog and scenes here, as well as snippets from the 'newly mixed score'!!! Take a look! [QT6 240x132px 7Mb] [QT4 320x176px 13Mb] [QT6 480x264px 16Mb] [Bit Torrents!]

And don't miss our latest addition to the Kong History section, a 360 turnaround of the Kong Model! [Kong History]

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]

Well, the KiKn crew worked a little overtime tonight to get a frame by frame up for your viewing pleasure. We are constantly improving our frame by frames, so we hope you aren't too harsh on the assumptions we make, or the spelling mistakes!..:) As a side note, the images are screen grabbed from the high res version, so you can see some great detail. Enjoy! [Click Here]

The Kong trailer is now online at Apple.com! Take a look at it in awesome Quicktime 7 small, med, and super large! [More]

Stay tuned for the Frame by Frame!

ReturnOfTheKong sends along this German Toureg video that shows a surprising amount of New York rampage scenes! After Kongs rampage and the famous yellow cab scene we see in German: [Toureg Ad (6.5MB Quicktime)]

Guy who steps out of the car: "Whoa, looked good to me!"
Same guy: "A donut anyone?"

Text: The Touareg. Official member of the King Kong crew.

Voiceover: "Volkswagen, for the love of the automobile."

Access Hollywood will be airing this baby on North American TV screens tonight around 7PM EST. After that look for super-high-res versions to appear on Apple.com and KingKong.com..but for now we have this from TVNZ..take a look! !!!BIG SPOILERS!!! [More]

UPDATE: Universal has kindly asked us to remove the link..be sure to catch the super-high-res version tonight!!

MrCere writes: Xo - I am fairly tight with a movie critic who viewed the King Kong trailer this week when he viewed "Jarhead" for screening purposes. He called the trailer "easily the best part of 'Jarhead' ". Anyway, I pried as many details out of his as possible. Here are what I could glean. !!!SPOILERS!!! [More]

A reminder to all, the new King Kong trailer will be available immediately after its debut on Access Hollywood exclusively on Apple.com tomorrow, November 3rd! Watch this space for mirrors, screenshots and more!

New York, NY - Simon & Schuster has signed an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group to publish the official King Kong tie-in books. King Kong is directed by three-time Academy Awardâ winner Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and will be released on December 14th. Pocket Books is releasing five adult tie-in books, beginning with King Kong: The Island of the Skull -the official prequel novel. [More]

Wisse writes: Today I went to the local cinema in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. First thing I saw was a medium sized (3 mtr width and 2 mtr high) Kong poster featuring above the stairs up to the small screens. It was the famous Vs. poster also spotted in germany. Unfortunately, haven't got my new mobile phone with camera function yet, so I'm not able to give you a picture of the poster. [More]

November 2, 2005 - It sounds like the Halo movie could start shooting in as few as six months. According to a report on the Scoop Independant News website, the film adaptation of Microsoft/Bungie's hit videogame series will begin filming in May with a mid-2007 release date planned. This is the first news we've heard of a production timeline for highly-anticipated flick. This bit of news was apparently included in an official press release promoting a charity auction featuring an Xbox and Halo 2 game autographed by newly-signed Halo movie producer Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings, King Kong). [More]

Kong is King! Or at least the '33 model is treated like one at the Wellywood studios in New Zealand. Bob Burns and his wife visit the production with a very special guest, the original King Kong model. The Burns' get to shoot a special cameo for the 2005 film (also Peter's final live action shot) and the model makes its way around the studio...easily distracting everyone in sight. Then something very VERY special happens...I am not going to spoil it for you...you'll have to see for yourself! Take a look! [QT6 240x132px 6Mb] [QT4 320x176px 11Mb] [QT6 480x264px 14Mb] [Bit Torrents!]

And don't miss our latest addition to the Kong History section, a 360 turnaround of the Kong Model! [Kong History]

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]

Lord of the Rings Oscar-winning costume designer Ngila Dickson and King Kong production designer Grant Major have joined forces for the New Zealand International Arts Festival. The duo's The Holy Sinner, a play directed by fellow Kiwis Mike Mizrahi and Marie Adams, will be one of more than 100 events on offer. Artistic director Carla van Zon said she was excited by the calibre of acts secured for next year's $12.5 million lineup, which is her last. The programme, unveiled last night in Wellington, had a strong contemporary flavour with several events using multimedia technology. [More]

Peter Jackson, director of the upcoming King Kong remake, told SCI FI Wire that original Kong actress Fay Wray offered current star Naomi Watts valuable insights into the role, but sadly died before she could appear in the remake herself. "Naomi does channel Fay Wray a little bit, because she met Fay as well," Jackson said in a news conference beamed by satellite from New Zealand in September. "We organized a dinner, and Naomi and [Jackson's wife and co-writer] Fran [Walsh] and I met with Fay, and we spent a fantastic evening with her and asked her lots of questions ... about what it was like to act in the '30s. Because, obviously, Ann Darrow, who's the character that we're talking about, ... is an actress in the 1930s, and Naomi was playing this role, and she had an opportunity to talk to Fay Wray." [More]

Universal has just released a new Kong trailer: A look inside King Kong on Apple's trailer website. In it, you'll find interviews, scenes from the 1933 film, and a bunch of scenes from the PJ's version. You can all stop e-mailing us about this now! (Requires Quicktime V7) [More]

From Empire Online: Empire exclusively spoke to director Peter Jackson recently about a little film called King Kong that he has coming out this December, and he was in a talkative mood, revealing a treasure trove of information about this Christmas' biggest release. Here's what we learned - but beware of spoilers! [More]

René writes: After reading that you - as much as I - were hoping for a variation of the Kong/T-Rex UK quad as a teaser poster, I thought you might be interested in what I spotted yesterday in Stuttgart, Germany. I'm sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I was passing the cinema in a train, so that is all I could get with my mobile phone's camera. And I didn't see it anywhere else by now. Maybe I'll get a better look at it soon... At least we now know, that is available in Germany. So most likely it will come to other countries too. [More]

Director Peter Jackson told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming remake of King Kong fulfills a dream he's had since the age of 12 and differs significantly from a version he tried to get made in the mid-1990s. "It has changed a lot," Jackson said in a news conference beamed by satellite from New Zealand, where he's putting the finishing touches on Kong. "We wrote the film that we were going to make in 1996—we wrote a couple of drafts of that—and ... when the thought of doing it this time around came about a couple of years ago, we went back and looked at our old script, and we didn't like it at all." [More]

Digital Vision, a leading developer of advanced digital media applications specializing in film and video solutions, has announced that Academy Award winning visual effects company, Weta Digital is using Nucoda Color Timer for Universal Pictures’ King Kong. [More]