Irascan writes: Joe Letteri was joined by a surprise “second speaker” – Andy Serkis. The lecture lasted about an hour including an introduction, an AutoDesk showreel, the talk with demos itself and Q&A from the floor at the end, with about 200 attendees. I’d provide a report but in all honesty there’s very little to report. There were some very cool demos of how New York was digitally built and lots of “this was the real set and what we filmed” pieces morphing into the scenes as shown in the film that were very impressive, and a lot of discussion about Andy’s work with gorillas and on set with Naomi Watts. [More]

Joe Letteri, visual effects supervisor at New Zealand post-production facility, Weta Digital, will discuss the creation of the Academy Award winning visual effects for Peter Jackson's 'King Kong'. Joe will show how Weta built 1933 New York City, grew the lush jungles of Skull Island, and brought King Kong to life. [More]

From The Hollywood Reporter (via superherohype.com): 20th Century Fox has picked Academy Award-winning visual effects house Weta Digital to oversee the upcoming film Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer. The studio tapped Weta to create a state-of-the-art version of the Marvel Comics character Silver Surfer. Noted character actor Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) will provide performance and movement references for Weta, in a process similar to the way Andy Serkis portrayed Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The voice casting of Silver Surfer has yet to be determined. The Hollywood Reporter says Weta has developed an advanced computer-generated animation process that employs motion-capture techniques updated to add further dimensionality to the liquid-metal hero.

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Check out some TV goodies like 'Brotherhood - S1', 'One Tree Hill - S3' & 'Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Season 1, Vol. 1'. Be sure to check out the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street: Infinifilm' Collection and a vew DVD sets of Gene Autry films. There are quite a few DVDs on the Iraq war and 9/11, check out 'Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers', 'Parallel Lines', 'The Ground Truth', 'Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company' & '9/11: Press For the Truth'. Personally I'm excited about 'Kids in the Hall-Best of', 'Transformers Armada: Season 1 - Part 2', 'Voltron, Vol. 1: Defender of the Universe' & 'Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Season 1, Vol. 1'. Check out the whole list here! [More]

Just as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg morphed into moguls in the late 1970s, New Zealand native Peter Jackson is following the same career path. He's acting as a guiding light on multiple movies he won't actually direct, in hopes of expanding his Wellington-based movie studio into a Down Under powerhouse. Entertainment Weekly has already reported on the news that Jackson might helm a new version of The Hobbit; here's an extended Q&A that fills out the details on everything he's currently up to. [More]

Andy Serkis, one of the leading actors in modern film animation, and a star of the successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, is due in Swansea later this year for a major film animation conference. The city's annual Swansea Animation Days event returns in November, attracting companies and speakers from the animation and computer graphic imagery industry into the city. Serkis, due to be a speaker at the Swansea Institute conference, provided the movements and the voice for the computer- generated character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films (2001-03). [More]

Ohio University students and faculty were treated to a crash course in Hollywood special effects far beyond any DVD special feature Thursday night by Chris White of Weta Digital, the visual-effects company that worked with director Peter Jackson on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and, most recently, "King Kong."

White outlined the various programs and strategies he and his team employed not only to create the giant beast Kong and his habitat, Skull Island, but to complete the unprecedented re-creation of New York City circa 1933.

Perhaps the huge scale of the project was the inspiration for one of the pieces of software White's team designed, "Massive." Most of the people going about their lives in the background of "King Kong," White explained, are actually what he termed "Massive" agents -- artificial-intelligence units programmed to have "brains" so that they can actually see, hear and react to things in a realistic manner. [More]

A ton of interesting new films are out on DVD this week. Take an early look on our 'DVD Tuesday' feature...every Monday! Check out some TV goodies like 'Battlestar Galactica - Season 2.5', 'Everybody Loves Raymond - Season 7'. Be sure to check out the 'Boris Karloff Collection', 'Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection'. Personally I'm excited about 'He-Man & The Masters of the Universe Season 2 V.2'. Check out the whole list here! [More]

Today is Kyle Chandler's birthday! Kyle was born on September 17th, 1965 in Buffalo, New York. That makes him 41 years old today! Happy Birthday Kyle!

The First Annual Movies.com Reader's Poll has nominated KongisKing.net as one of the best 'Unofficial Movie Sites' of the year. Head on over to the movies.com poll site and be sure to vote for us to win! The results will be posted online soon!

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Will writes: Thought your Wellington viewers might be interested in this. A group of folks at Weta Digital are putting together a photo exhibition on at Thistle Hall Community Gallery next week (17th-21st September, 2006). It's a chance for people to see some art away from the fantastical worlds and characters they have a habit of creating. It opens on Sunday the 17th at 6pm - there's bound to be drinks and nibbles available, but feel free to stop by any time during the week and have a look. It'll be a fun, little exhibition to come and see. For more information visit earlyworm.co.nz

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Peter Jackson is eyeing his next fantasy series. The filmmaker has optioned "Temeraire," a historical fantasy series by first-time novelist Naomi Novik, as he puts the pieces together for his career post-"King Kong."

The "Temeraire" saga reimagines the world of the Napoleonic Wars with the addition of an air force of dragons and valiant aviators. It centres on British naval Capt. Will Laurence, who captures a French ship, where he discovers an unhatched dragon egg in the hold -- a gift from the Emperor of China intended for Napoleon. When the egg hatches, he is forced to give up his naval career to become captain of the dragon he names Temeraire. [More]