King Kong live on stage!
Five years in the making, KING KONG will feature a cast of more than 40 actors, singers, dancers and circus performers, and a team of puppeteers who will bring to life one of the most technologically advanced puppets in the world – a one-tonne, six-metre tall silverback gorilla.
The exciting score will feature modernised musical standards including I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU, BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME and GET HAPPY from the worlds best contemporary artist, as well as dazzling choreography, traditional puppetry, breathtaking circus skills and advanced animatronics to showcase one of the most romantic and timeless love stories of our time.
The King Kong robot is made by Global Creatures, and here are some test videos of the prototype:
More info on the King Kong Live Blog
King Kong Live official site
Categories: Kaiju News Tags: King Kong
King Kong returns again once more
King Kong is back again, this time in animated form (again), in a new film which will be done from the point of view of King Kong. I don’t know if this is the evolution of the long-rumored King of Skull Island project. The story is based on Mike Weber’s story (he’s producing) and is coming out of the Fox Animation studio.A History of Kong movies/shows:
- King Kong - The original and still the best (1933)
- Son of Kong – a quick followup made late the same year
- Wasei Kingu Kongu – a lost 1933 Japanese cash-in on King Kong
- King Kong Appears in Edo – a lost film from Japan featuring a giant ape attacking Edo from 1938
Animated musical The Mighty Kong 1998 (where Kong survives falling off the Empire State Building) - King Kong fought Godzilla in 1962′s King Kong vs Godzilla
- The King Kong Show – a 1966 cartoon series that also became inspiration for King Kong Escapes
- King Kong Escapes is the live action film where Kong fights his robot duplicate
- King Kong – Dino De Laurentiis’s 1976 big budget remake with a giant King Kong mockup and a climatic battle on the twin towers
- King Kong Lives followed up ten years later in 1986
- 1998 gave us the animated musical The Mighty Kong
- Kong: The Animated Series was an official animated series in 2001
Peter Jackson remade King Kong in 2005, which was twice as long as the original despite following the same plot and time period - 2005′s Kong: King of Atlantis was an animated movie based on the 2001 series made to cash in on Peter Jackson’s film.
- Kong: Return to the Jungle was the 2006 follow up to Kong: King of Atlantis
Categories: Kaiju News, Movie News Tags: King Kong, Mike Weber
Kong: King of Skull Island optioned
The book Kong: King of Skull Island, which is a prequel to Kong’s adventures before that blonde girl came along and changed everything, has been optioned and might show up at a theater near you.Variety sez:
Spirit Pictures is looking to breathe new life into King Kong and a project initially developed by effects legend Ray Harryhausen.
Producers at the shingle have picked up the rights to the book “Kong: King of Skull Island,” a prequel to the well-known tale of the big ape.
Penned by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, book focuses on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there. It introduces other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.
The book was published at the same time Peter Jackson was producing his remake of “King Kong.”
Oh, and we also have this:
Spirit also is developing “War Eagles,” a project Cooper and Harryhausen had developed together and were nearly set to produce before the outbreak of WWII. The period actioner is set in 1939 and revolves around an ace fighter-pilot who tests a new jet and winds up crash-landing in the arctic, where he encounters a lost civilization that’s been thriving there for centuries.
So we got two monster movies possibly coming soon!
Categories: Kaiju News, Movie News Tags: King Kong, War Eagles
King Kong on Ike! Greenman
Here are some cool photos of the Toho King Kong suit (from King Kong Escapes) used in the tv shorts tokusatsu series Ike! Greenman. Posted on the Classic Horror Film Board by The Giant Pacific Octopus. Kong was simply called Gorilla and was in episode 33. The original costume had long arm struts which were removed, so his arms flop around. These episodes are not available on DVD anywhere and I don’t have them. It is a tragedy that I hope is corrected one day. (The suit from King Kong vs. Godzilla was modified into the monkey Goro for the Ultra Q episode Goro and Goro)
Categories: Kaiju News Tags: Ike! Greenman, King Kong, tokusatsu
