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Joe DeVito, author of KONG: King of Skull Island will be displaying some original Kong paintings and giving out collectible postcards at signings in the next few weeks. Today he will be at 'Borders Borders Books Music & Cafe' (801 Bethlehem Pike, E North Wales, PA). Follow this link for more dates and locations! [More]

Kong Spy Gandalf writes: While sitting outside enjoying a glorious afternoon in Wellington, I noticed the unmistakable shape of the Venture heading for its berth at the Miramar Wharf. These shots were taken just after 5pm today (Saturday 12) and are the somewhat distant view I had as the vessel steamed past the heads and slipped quietly into the harbour after the dramas a few days ago on the Kapiti Coast. [More]

Kong Spy Richard sends along this scan from the latest edition of USA Weekend featuring a blurb about Naomi Watts and King Kong. [More]

With Adrien Brody, think intense. Whether playing victimized underdogs in "The Jacket" or "The Pianist" or delivering a lingering kiss to Halle Berry upon winning a best-actor Oscar in 2003, he does so with fervent concentration. He insists that the Berry smooch was "never planned. It just happened." However, his onscreen intensity is a product of careful research. In "The Jacket," which opened March 4, he's seen as amnesiac Gulf War veteran Jack Starks, who is incarcerated in a mental hospital after being framed for murder. [More]

Security experts plan to keep King Kong, one of the year's most anticipated movies, out of the hands of pirates. Night-vision goggles will be used at early screenings of the Peter Jackson film to make sure no one is videotaping it to make illegal copies. All reels of the film will be held in vaults and transported under escort. [More]

Peter Jackson dives back into fan requests and features a Production Diary on the makeup team. As Naomi says 'All roads lead back to the makeup department', and in this case it is very true! On a period piece like King Kong makeup and hairstyles need to accurately reflect the era, you'd be amazed who is wearing a wig and who isn't! We get a chance to see Andy Serkis turn into Lumpy the cook, and see Colin Hanks bemoan his haircut! Peter King shows us how he does his research for accurate hairstyles and makeup examples...and Jack Black shows us his...Rock 'n' Roll doo. [QT6 240x132px 7Mb] [QT4 320x176px 13Mb] [QT6 480x264px 17Mb] [Bit Torrents!]

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

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

Renato writes: I was doing a research on 30's Brazilian magazines and found this! An original King Kong advertisiment. [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 weekly Kong Chat will be Thursday nights at 8:30PM Eastern Standard Time. 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 Greenwich
2:30AM (Friday) (Central European Time)
9:30AM (Friday) in Hong Kong
12:30PM (Friday) in Sydney
2:30PM (Friday) in Auckland, Wellington

Once reserved for big-budget Web portals, video is poised to change the World Wide Web of static text-and-photo pages into a full-motion medium, market watchers say...Video is also being used to promote business ventures, and posting quick on-line clips isn't just for amateur film makers. Professional footage is being used to generate buzz around Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson's upcoming movie, a remake of King Kong. Part video blog and part production diary, KongisKing.net includes exclusive behind-the-scenes video clips and a daily account of the film's progress. [More]

The computers that brought Gollum, the Balrog and Middle Earth to life are now available to work for hire. The computers used to create special effects for the Lord of the Rings films are becoming an on-demand processing centre. The cluster of 1,008 computers in New Zealand can now be hired on a per hour, per processor basis. [More]

The old ship being used for filming Peter Jackson's King Kong sprung a leak off Kapiti Island on Tuesday because of rust in its steel hull, the Maritime Safety Authority says. MSA spokeswoman Heidi Brook said a marine surveyor had inspected the 49-year-old Venture II after Tuesday's incident, where crew members were put ashore on Kapiti Island while emergency repairs were made. [More]

Peter Jackson admits he has found shooting King Kong in Wellington much tougher than anticipated. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald this week, Jackson described himself as in "survival mode" since filming began last September on the $200 million film. "We had some perceptions that this would be easier than The Lord of the Rings. It's only easier in the sense there's one film instead of three, but it's a tough film to make," he said. Last week, on a Web video diary, an exhausted Jackson was shown falling asleep during a production meeting. On Tuesday, King Kong crew were forced to abandon the film's boat Venture II off Kapiti Island after it sprang a leak and the engineroom was flooded. [More]

King Kong crew were forced to abandon ship when the boat being used to film scenes off the Kapiti Coast sprang a leak and began to take on water yesterday. Venture II, the boat bought by director Peter Jackson for use in the film, got into difficulty when the engine room flooded. Those on board had to be transferred to a support boat – and were later left on nearby Kapiti Island – as emergency repairs were carried out. Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Heidi Brook confirmed it was investigating the incident, which happened about 8am. The authority had received a report from the boat's crew. [More]

She promised we'd see more of her in 2005, and now she delivers! A full Production Diary featuring Naomi Watts on the set of King Kong! But this is no ordinary shoot, this is what people have been daydreaming about since the remake was announced...Naomi in...Kong's giant hand! Without giving away too many details I've got to say this PD will be whetting the fans appetites for Kong rampage scenes! Many fans have been asking if the close-up scenes with Naomi in Kong's grasp will be created using a massive robotic arm or CGI, here we get the answers! Naomi, I've got to say...you are well worth the wait! [QT6 240x132px 6Mb] [QT4 320x176px 12Mb] [QT6 480x264px 15Mb] [Bit Torrents!]

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

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

Happy Birthday Louis Sutherland! Louis, who plays a Venture Crewman in the King Kong remake, was born on March 8th, 1970. That makes him 35 today! Happy Birthday Louis!

Wrestling with King Kong is no easy task. Deep into filming his remake of the classic about a giant ape who is taken from an island jungle to New York, director Peter Jackson says he is in "survival mode". Long days on set in New Zealand and endless demands on his time have left the filmmaker behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy so weary that his web video diary recently showed him asleep during a production meeting. [More]

Even before she arrived on the King Kong set in September, Watts had a pretty good idea of what she was in for as the love interest of the giant, skyscraper-climbing ape. Earlier in the summer, she and director Peter Jackson had hiked to the windswept top of the Empire State Building in preparation for the film's famous final scenes. "I'm not good with heights, and we went way up beyond where tourists can go," Watts says in L.A. during a break from shooting the movie in New Zealand, where the "Lord of the Rings" director is re-creating the teaming streets of New York circa 1930. Watts stars in the $110 million Kong remake, due out in December (following in the footsteps of Fay Wray in the original 1933 classic and Jessica Lange in the 1976 version). [More]

Joe DeVito writes: Thought I'd send over some shots from the last signing in Syosset, NY. It was great to meet everyone and talk all things Kong for a good part of the evening. Of particular note was a young Kong fan named Vincent. If his interest and knowledge of King Kong lore were any indication, the memory of Kong will be in good hands for generations to come! [More]

King Kong has captured Naomi Watts and won't let her leave New Zealand. Watts has been absent from media events in the US to promote The Ring 2, the sequel to her 2002 horror hit, The Ring, leaving Japanese director Hideo Nakata, the film's producers and special effects experts to talk up the movie in her absence. At a recent Ring 2 media day in Los Angeles, journalists from around the world keen to have Watts's face on the cover of their magazines were left asking: "Where's Naomi?" [More]

Peter Jackson will take time out from filming King Kong and suing Hollywood studio New Line Cinema to speak about his Lord of the Rings movies in Sydney next week. Jackson will speak for two hours at the Powerhouse Museum in the Australian city on March 12. The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition, developed with Te Papa, has been on show there for several months, attracting 128,000 visitors. Tickets for An Evening with Peter Jackson are $A65 ($NZ70). [More]

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. [More]