King Kong | movie news and insight

As of this morning, 44 different mistakes that apparently crop up in King Kong have been identified on MovieMistakes.com.

Most of the reported mistakes appear to be fairly innocuous ‘continuity mistakes (”When Ann meets Kong on NYC street, the camera flashes back and forth between them. When it shows Kong, he is surrounded by snow, but when it shows Ann, the street doesn’t have so much as a snowflake”), rather than factual errors. Seems like a significant number, however, given how much time Peter Jackson reportedly spent in the editing room.

Our friends over at HDTV Xbox 360 have confirmed first hand that Ubisoft made the King Kong game too dark for those with non-HDTV sets. The problem seems to stem from that fact that all the game developers tested and built the game while running HD televisions. So for those who have a choice of console version and still don’t have an HDTV, you may want to pickup the PS2 or original Xbox version.

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Interesting story over on CNN.com discussing how “Fictional King Kong mirrors odd island facts”. The basic idea being that animals on remote islands can evolve into massive versions of their mainland kin. Sue Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist and director of the global species program for WWF International makes the case: “There is evidence that this happens because of isolation and a lack of competition … the further an island is from the mainland the more potential there is for the evolution of new species,” she told Reuters by telephone from Rome.

The article goes on to say: “There are many examples of what biologists term ‘gigantism’ on islands. These include the Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards which can be 10 feet long or more and weigh up to 500 pounds. Found on a few small Indonesian islands, the Komodo — a recorded man-eater — is in many ways as chilling as anything from Jackson’s fertile imagination.”

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The New York Daily News reports that “King Kong” apparently fell from the top of the box office on the last weekend of 2005, a victim this time of a noble lion rather than those pesky airplanes.

Estimates from Friday and Saturday showed “The Chronicles of Narnia,” edging ahead of “King Kong.”

“Narnia” reportedly took in $17.2 million Friday and Saturday to $15.6 million for “Kong,” which had ruled the box office since its release two weekends ago.

“Narnia” passed $200 million at the box office over the weekend and “Kong” passed $150million.

ITN reports that King Kong heroine Naomi Watts is being lined up to star in the next James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

The call comes after Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron both refused the role. Many actresses are shunning the role due to stars such as Halle Berry and Terry Hatcher suffering a dip in their careers immediately after playing the parts.

The AP reported that a Sunday night surge gave Universal’s “King Kong” the needed push for the No. 1 box offcie spot over the Friday-through-Monday period with $31.4 million, edging Buena Vista’s “Chronicles of Narnia” estimated $30.1 million take.

Kong’s cumulative estimated domestic gross now stands at a respectable $118.7 million, with an additional $120.9 million from overseas - totalling nearly $240 million worldwide.

Ubisoft revealed that its official King Kong video games features an un-lockable, exclusive alternate ending in which players can save Kong from his cinematic death, pilot an airplane and discover Kong back home on his native Skull Island.

“I wanted the game to be able to take the audience a bit further than what the film could,” said Peter Jackson. ”

Read more on teamxbox.com

A very positive review has been posted on CNN.com. Written by Marc Saltzman of the Gannett News Service, Marc writes that:

While on the short side, the end result is a cinematic thriller that is difficult to put down.

He goes on to say:

Evident by a credits screen that takes more than 10 minutes to scroll by, Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” is one massive video game production.

Gamers can also unlock many goodies such as movie footage, hand-drawn artwork, interviews and a classic video filter that makes the game look like a grainy black-and-white movie.

While it may only take seven or so hours to complete, which is on the short side for a $50 video game, “Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie” is undoubtedly a “must-play” title regardless of your preferred platform.

You can read the full review on CNN.com.

King Kong once again graces the cover of Entertainment Weekly. This week’s issue of the magazine features a fun A-to-Z guide on Kong, providing readers with “everything [they] need to know about this year’s biggest blockbuster.”

This one’s hard to believe… In a story titled ‘Kong: Ape or Chimp?’ Variety has reported that King Kong opened to only $9.7 million in domestic box office yesterday, which is about half of the opening day take of “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” four years ago.

On the plus side, overseas grosses were fairly strong, with particular strength in (no surprise here) Australia/New Zealand.

The domestic number is so shockingly low (I need to confirm it from another source) that we hadn’t even thought to offer a ‘below $10 million’ option in our Opening Day Box Office poll (only 6% of you thought the movie would earn $10-$20 million).

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