King Kong Makes the Cover of Wired
The October issue of Wired features King Kong on the cover. The cover story focuses mainly on the behind-the-scenes production diarie video clips that Peter Jackson has been posting on kongisking.net for more than a year.
The story is accompanied by a great photoessay of the cast and crew of King Kong that includes a cool shot of the Weta f/x and design team and a nice pic of Naomi Watts.
Audio Interview About King Kong
NPR’s Movies Podcast from this past Friday includes a terrific 15 minute interview with Mark Cotta Vaz, author of Living Dangerously — The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong.
The interview (which kicks off about halfway through the podcast show following an interview with Paul Reiser on his upcoming movie) includes commentary on everything from Cooper’s inspiration for King Kong to why the entire New York sequence almost didn’t make it into the film to whether or not Cooper consciously included bondage and other sexual imagery into the film to Cooper’s decision to rush a sequel – The Son of Kong – out the same year as the original King Kong.
Naomi Watts Says ‘Kong is the Ultimate Man’
Both contactmusic.com and The Daily Telegraph have quoted Naomi Watts as saying that King Kong is the ‘ultimate man.’ I guess size does matter after all (I couldn’t resist!). The contactmusic piece doesn’t have much to say, but the more than 2,000-word Telegraph article is quite a good read offering some new insights into the making of the film.
NPR’s Fresh Air from WHYY talks with writer Mark Cotta Vaz, author of the new book Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong. ( amazon link )
You can listen to the interview by visiting npr.org
Times Story on Marketing King Kong
The New York Times is running a big story on King Kong, titled ‘Huge. Awesome. Irresistible. Just Not Overbearing,’ in a special section on the upcoming film season in its Sunday paper. There’s not much new in the story, which focuses on the considerable efforts of Universal and Peter Jackson to avoid overhyping Kong in the marketing of the film, other than a reference to plans for an 8,000-person special Kong premiere (including seats for Mayor Bloomberg and 3,000 fans who win seats through various marketing promotions) on December 5th in the Times Square area of Manhatan.
More On King Kong Marketing Partners
Universal Studios has made an official announcement regarding the select group of marketing partners, mentioned in our post yesterday, that will help promote the worldwide release of King Kong.
In the announcement, Stephanie Sperber, EVP of Universal Studios Partnerships said this about the marketing partners: “they want a less cluttered field. So we’ve taken a ‘quality over quantity’ approach, limiting alliances to only those that provide a clear strategic fit.”
A couple of highlights:
* Also beginning in October, Nestle will include King Kong packaging graphics featured on more than 10 million units of the company’s top-selling candy bars
* Starting in December, approximately 7,500 U.S. Burger King locations will begin serving limited-run King Kong-themed menu items.
Wellington N.Z. Gets First Look at Kong
The New Zealand Herald is reporting that King Kong will have its New Zealand premiere on December 14 in its capital city of Wellington, roughly 20 miles from the small town of Pukerua Bay where Peter Jackson was born and raised. The film will have its official world premiere in New York on December 15.
Kong iPod Sounded Far Fetched? How About a King Kong SUV?
Looks like we were wrong about the King Kong-branded iPod – Seems AdAge is confirming that the invitation-only Sept. 7 announcement from Apple will, in fact, center on the much-anticipated, much-hyped iTunes phone from Motorola, the ROKR.
So, while you won’t be walking around with fury, black earbuds sticking out of your ears, Universal Pictures has made sure you’ll be able to purchase a Kong-branded SUV with a Kong-branded credit card. The film studio, of course, has managed to form several big-time marketing partnerships around King Kong, including ties with Burger King, Nestle, Volkswagen, JP Morgan Chase and Toshiba.
According to AdAge, Volkswagen will run TV spots centered on its Touareg SUV that will show how the car was used by the Kong crew in making the movie in tough-to-reach New Zealand locations. Get this, there will be 5,000 King Kong branded Touaregs produced (huh?!!). Now the Kong-branded iPod doesn’t seem so outlandish, does it?
Say what you will about the 1976 version of King Kong, but if nothing else, the backdrop for Dino De Laurentiis’ take on the 1933 classic - a big-shot oil magnate from mythical Petrox Oil desperately seeking new petroleum deposits on a recently discovered Pacific island – would certainly resonate with audiences in today’s oil-shocked climate.
In the original film, of course, Kong is taken from his home to New York City by Carl Denham, an arrogant movie producer who had set out to Skull Island with grand plans to make an adventure film.
In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, however, Lorenzo Semple Jr., screenwriter for the 1976 Kong, decided that an oil expedition would provide for a more compelling back drop to the beauty and beast tale than a movie-making project.
Peter Jackson’s remake preserves the premise of the original film.