King Kong [2005]

Country of Origin: New Zealand / USA
Year of Production: 2004
Running Times:
Format: colour
Ratio:
Sound: SDDS     Dolby EX     DTS

PRODUCTION
Producers: Jan Blenkin, Carolynne Cunningham, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Co-Producers: Philippa Boyens, Eileen Moran
Associate Producer: Annette Wullems

SCRIPT
Script: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Story: Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace

DIRECTION
Director: Peter Jackson
2nd Unit Director: Randall William Cook

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Andrew Lesnie
2nd Unit Director of Photography: Richard Bluck
Aerial Director of Photography: David B. Nowell

EDITING AND POST PRODUCCTION
Film Editors: Jamie Selkirk, Jabez Olssen

MUSIC
Music: James Newton Howard
Additional Music: Blake Neely, Chris P. Bacon, Max Steiner [Fanfare No.1 from King Kong [1933]]
Ambient Music Designer: Mel Wesson
Additional Ambient Music: David Donaldson, David Long, Steve Roche, Janet Roddick

SOUND
Sound Designers: Ethan Van Der Ryn, Brent Burge, David Farmer, David Whitehead
Sound Recordist: Hammond Peek
2nd Unit Sound Recordist: Ken Saville

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up / Hair Designer: Peter Swords-King
Make Up / Hair: Georgina Lockhart, Adams Angela Mooar, Nancy Hennah, Susie Glass, Catherine Maguire, Allie Rutherford
Make Up To Miss Watts: Michael Bigger
Make Up Assistants: Edyta Koscielecki, Erin Kelly, Hayden Bloomfield, Amy McLennan, Frankie Karena, Jamie McIntosh, Susan Durno, Natasha Lees, Lisa Ferguson
Wigmaker: Jessica Lalande
Costume Designer: Terry Ryan
Assistant Designer: Eliza Godman

SPECIAL MAKE UP EFFECTS
Special Creatures Make Up and Miniatures: Richard Taylor
Special Make Up, Creatures, Weapons And Miniatures By Weta Workshop Ltd

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Supervisor: Stephen Ingram

VISUAL EFFECTS
Senior Visual Effects Supervisor: Joe Letteri
Additional Visual Effects: Asylum; Café Fx
Motion Capture Systems: Giant Studios

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Grant Major
Supervising Art Director / Set Decorator: Dan Hennah
Art Directors: Simon Bright, Joseph Bleakley

LOCATIONS
Locations: Civic Theatre, Queen Street, Auckland Central Business District, Auckland, New Zealand; Los Angeles, California, USA; New York City, New York, USA; Opera House, Manners Street, Wellington Central Business District, Wellington, New Zealand; Thailand
Studios: Camperdown Studios, 36 Para Street, Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand; WETA Studios, Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand; Stone Street Studios, Wellington, New Zealand
Location Managers: Jared Connon, Peter Tonks

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinators: Shane Dawson, Chris Anderson, Kirk Maxwell
Assistant Stunt Coordinator: Rodney Cook

CASTING
Casting: Liz Mullane, Victoria Burrows, John Hubbard, Dan Hubbard, Ann Robinson
Additional US Casting: Avy Kaufman
Casting Assistants: Amanda Duncan, Dra McKay

CAST
Naomi Watts [Ann Darrow]
Jack Black [Carl Denham]
Adrien Brody [Jack Driscoll]
Thomas Kretschmann [Captain Englehorn]
Colin Hanks [Preston]
Andy Serkis [Kong / Lumby]
Evan Parke [Hayes]
Jamie Bell [Jimmy]
Lobo Chan [Choy]
Sumner [Herb John]
Hall [Mike Craig]
Chandler [Bruce Kyle]
Johnson [Manny Willians]
Mark Hadlow [Harry]
Geraldine Brophy [Maude]
David Denis [Taps]
David Pittu [Weston]
Pip Mushin [Zelman]
Jim Knobeloch [thuggish studio guy]
Ric Herbert [sleazy studio guy]
Lee Donahue [studio guy's assistant]
Tom Hobbs [young assistant]
Tiriel Mora [fruit vendor]
Jed Brophy, Frank Edwards, Michael Lawrence, Crawford Thompson, Richard Kavanagh, Stephen Hall, William Wallace, Joe Folau, Tim Wong, Steve Reinsfield, John Wraight, Matthew Chamberlain, Lee Hartley (radio operator), Troy O'Kane, Louis Sutherland, Jason Whyte, Toa Waaka, John Clarke, Ray Woolf (helmsman), David Dengelo, Greg Smith, Chris Bailey, Peter McKenzie, Peter Ford, Tamihana Nuku, Russell Dubois [Venture crew]
Phillip Grieve [laughing man]
Vicky Haughton [sharwoman]
Jacinta Wawatai [feral child]
Terence Griffiths [Skull islander]
Stephen Buckley [cab driver]
Chic Littlewood [old security guard]
Rick Baker, Jim Dietz, Rodney Cook, Gene De Marco [pilots]
John Dybvig [policeman]
Tim Gordon [hotel clerk]
Lee Mcdonald [chorus line tap dancer]
John Dybvig [NY police officer]
Stig Eldred [army commander]
Billy Jackson, Katie Jackson [NY children]
Tania Rodger, Samuel Taylor [hooverville mother & child]
[NY standers: Bob Burns & Kathy Burns, Jo Gertler & Jennifer Gertler]
Geoff Timblick, Geoff Allen [pressmen]
Belindalee Hope, Crushanin Dixor-McIvor, Jodie Taylor [burlesque dancers]
Hilton Denis, Geoff Dunstan, Daniel Tusia, Paul & Shannon Wilson, Jesse Rasmussen, Sosina Wogayehu, Peter Corrigan, Collin Boggars, Susan Eastwood & Carol Dallas, Darryl John & Felicia O'Brien [vaudeville acts]
Peter Jackson, Rick Porras, Frank Darabont, Hamish Bruce [gunners]
Latham Gaines [photographer]
Julia Walshaw [Broadway Ann]
Luanne Gordon, Lorraine Ashbourne, Edwin Wright, Glen Drake [theatre actors]
Lawrence Jarden [NY Police Chief]
Ross Duncan [audience member]
Jim McLarty, Matt Wilson [photographers]

Stand Ins: Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Julia Walshaw, Peter Russell

SUMMARY

In the 1930s, Carl Denham leads a group of filmmakers on an expedition to the mysterious Skull Island in the South Seas in search of a giant ape god known as Kong. They find that Kong is far more than the legend they'd believed him to be and manage to capture the massive gorilla and return him to New York. But Kong is soon loose and rampaging through the streets of the city causing mayhem wherever he goes.

Argentina
Theatrical Distributors: United International Pictures

Netherlands
Theatrical Distributors: United International Pictures

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Universal Pictures

AWARDS

2006
BAFTA Awards [UK]
Production Design [Grant Major] - nominated
Sound [Hammond Peek, Christopher Boyes, Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn] - nominated
Achievement in Special Visual Effects [Joe Letteri, Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hul, Richard Taylor] - nominated

2004
September
6: New Zealand - production begins

2005
May
Day Unknown: New Zealand - production ends

December
13: New Zealand - theatrical release
14: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Russia, Switzerland [French speaking region], USA - theatrical release
15: Argentina, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland [German speaking region] - theatrical release
16: Austria, Poland, Switzerland [Italian speaking region], UK - theatrical release
26: Australia - theatrical release

REMAKE OF
King Kong [1933]
King Kong [1976]

REFERENCES

MAGAZINES

Empire no.190 [April 2005] p.18 [UK]
illustrated preview; illustrated interview with Richard Taylor

Screen International no.1530 [6 January 2006] pp.17; 40
illustrated note [part of Awards Countdown: Best Picture; Box Office: North America: The chronicle of 2005 by John Hazelton]

KEYWORDS

actresses, apes, film-makers, giant apes, islands, king kong, monsters, remakes

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007