DVD Review: Peter Jackson's King Kong Production Diaries

As movie fans everywhere know, when he finally wrapped up the last special extended version of the last film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, director Peter Jackson might have pursued more hobbits by way of a version of The Hobbit. Instead, he opted to tackle another daunting task: making King Kong relevant again. The original 1933 film was a monstrous blockbuster for its time, encouraging many budding filmmakers (Jackson included). But years of late night television and the peril of overexposure brought the giant ape to the point at which he was little more than a pop culture joke, a throwaway reference hardly worth top billing in a Godzilla flick.

The pathetic 1970s remake with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange hardly helped matters; instead, it only seemed to cement the idea that movies about uncharted islands and giant apes were hardly relevant in an age obsessed with aliens, alternate universes, and robots run amuck. But Jackson wasn't fazed by the prospect of reshaping Kong for the 21st century. Instead, he opted to create a lavish film (complete with a $200 million plus budget that once made studio executives choke and require emergency intervention). The early buzz is that the film is a visual feast - and perhaps even a highly entertaining story as well.

In keeping with his persona as something of a Hollywood iconoclast and visionary, Jackson opted to do something largely unique in the history of filmmaking (at least, unique in this era of big budget extravaganzas). Fully aware that the ubiquitous nature of the Internet made it difficult to keep people from posting anonymous "inside" information for fans to read, Jackson chose to do something new: he started posting a series, called "Production Diaries," on an online fan site called Kongisking.net. Modestly conceived, the project was designed to give fans a behind-the-scenes feel for the making of the film. Short installments of three or four minutes (easily downloaded over a broadband connection), they feature such things as a roving camera capturing key players, or a peek inside the sound booth during last minute dubbing. But they're also something more: they represent a real-time capture of the filmmaking process.

Article Author: W.E. Wallo

W.E. Wallo is a book and movie junkie whose writings have appeared in a variety of print and online publications.

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