Peter Jackson's First Shot at King KongThe ape that almost wasBy Boyd Campbell
Back in 1997, Universal Studios closed negotiations with New Zealand director, Peter Jackson, to write and direct a new remake of the 1933 classic, King Kong for a summer of 1998 release. Jackson made a name for himself with low budget comedy/shocker films in New Zealand but really proved himself with the 1994 film, Heavenly Creatures. Universal hired Jackson to direct The Frighteners, based on a script he wrote with his wife, Fran Walsh. The Frighteners was a solid success for Universal who, impressed with his ability to bring in special effects pictures with a limited budget, decided to give him and producer Brad Wyman a chance at Kong. Jackson planned on shooting nearly the entire film in his native New Zealand, both for its remarkable natural settings and because he could stretch a dollar so much farther there. His own company, Weta Ltd., began working on test shots for the many special effects involved in King Kong, planning to produce them entirely with Computer Generated Animation. Jackson and Walsh produced a script for the film and began working out other details. No casting was officially announced but there were rumors that Kate Winslet, whom Jackson worked with in Heavenly Creatures might be Ann Darrow and that Jackson was considering a cameo role for the original King Kong star, Fay Wray. Things were looking good. Fans heard rumors of the production over the internet and were excited. But then, Sony/Tristar announced plans to produce a big-budget remake of Japan's Godzilla for release during the same summer of '98 time frame. Universal began to get nervous about their King Kong when the news came that Tri Star brought in the writer/director/producer team from the previous summer's smash hit Independence Day for their Godzilla effort, and was committing a huge amount of money to the project. They worried that two giant monster remakes in summer might be too much. Then the Walt Disney company announced their plans for a remake of Mighty Joe Young in the same time period and it was going to be the most expensive movie the studio had ever produced.
With three giant monster remakes scheduled for the same summer, Universal began to withdraw their support for King Kong, halting production and eventually canceling it. Jackson began working on other projects, eventually landing a deal to produce The Lord of the Rings as a trilogy. As it turns out, Godzilla, despite its budget, was a big disappointment and Disney moved Mighty Joe Young back six months so a Universal Studios King Kong might have been a big success. Canceling production on a King Kong remake must have felt like deja-vu for Universal Studios because the same thing happened to them in 1975 when their production of King Kong scripted by noted writer, Bo Goldman, was derailed by Paramount's Dino De Laurentiis. but legal challenges from Paramount forced them into a deal where Universal canceled their film in exchange for a percentage of the profits from the Paramount film. While Peter Jackson works on the massive Lord of the Rings project, fans can't help but wonder if he'll return to King Kong at some point in the future. Follow the link below to read Peter Jackson's first draft of King Kong to see what you think his production might have been like. Peter Jackson's King Kong at ABoyd.com |
