KING KONG - How much of an influence on Welles?

[Le Chiffre]

Yes, the mistake they made with SORCERER'S APPRENTICE was in blowing it up to the full IMAX size. What they probably should have done was windowbox the image- large enough to be impressive, but small enough to retain the image quality. Somewhere there should be an optimum point at which that would happen, especially if something like SHOWSCAN were used to enhance the image. I can remember about 10 years ago seeing a 70mm print of 2001 projected onto a local IMAX screen and being blown away by the visuals AND the sound. The advantage of having old classics like the Welles films (or the original KING KONG for that matter) shown in IMAX format, or even just projected onto an IMAX screen, would be not only visual, but aural as well. Personally, I would love to HEAR a Welles film coming from that massive IMAX sound system.

[Terry]

I want to play my video games on it.

[Le Chiffre]

I want to watch the Super Bowl on it. I think that'll happen before long.

[Terry]

Then I want to watch the Red Wings.

I didn't care for the last Potter movie in IMAX, though I loved that 3-D Space Shuttle thing.

[Phoebe Wallingford]

Question about Peter Jackson's Kong: is it my imagination, or is Jack Black meant to be Orson?? Or at least Orsonesque. Certainly looks like it from the trailer & ads....does anyone have any info on this? Thanks!

[Roger Ryan]

Question about Peter Jackson's Kong: is it my imagination, or is Jack Black meant to be Orson?? Or at least Orsonesque. Certainly looks like it from the trailer & ads....does anyone have any info on this? Thanks!

Well, Jack Black is playing Carl Denham, a strong-willed adventurer-filmmaker who wants to put on-screen something that has never been seen before. It's essentially the same character that Robert Armstrong played in the original which was, more or less, based on co-director Merian C. Cooper himself.

By the way, I've always admired Danny Peary's theory that Kong is Denham's id and that the original film never shows the two of them together unless Denham has somehow subdued or "chained" the giant ape (this is especially true during much of the jungle action where Denham will suddenly appear after Kong has left the scene). I'm curious if Jackson will follow this idea with his remake.

[Le Chiffre]

Danny Peary's CULT MOVIES has long been one of my favorite film books. Some of my all-time favorite movies like JOHNNY GUITAR and THE SCARLETT EMPRESS, I'd never even heard of until I got that book. I dug it out and reread that KONG essay- very interesting. And the theory of Kong being a monster from Denham's Id is very convincing, especially since the landscape of Skull Island (Denham's skull?) has such a dreamlike quality. I also like this part:

"Having no penis-is impotence the reason Denham avoids women?-Kong has symbolic intercourse with Ann when he takes her up the world's greatest phallic symbol: the Empire State Building. Once this sexual act has been carried out, (Denham) no longer has to enjoy sex through a surrogate-and Kong, now obsolete, can die. In the sequel SON OF KONG, Denham is the romantic lead, and the gorilla need not be and is not a sexual being."

"You're not a patch on your old man", Denham says to the little Kong.

Skull Island as psychological landscape reminds me of an essay I read on Kane awhile ago which made a similar claim about Xanadu: that it was basically a representation of Kane's psyche, like Poe's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, or Prospero's Island in THE TEMPEST. Welles's MACBETH seems to have the same quality too.

[Terry]

Ids and penises. You should go read that Naremore book again.

[Tony]

Check out the Matt Lauer interview with Jack Black on MSN.com right now: Matt quotes Jackson as saying that the Denem character

"has a sort of energy and vibrancy and an ability to sweep people along with his vision; he'll do whatever he needs to get his film made. He's ambitious and a little bit of a scoundrel in an Orson Welles way; we started to realize that if we took that approach, then Jack Black was the perfect person for the role."

[Le Chiffre]

With the moustache Jack Black does resemble Welles somewhat, circa THE STRANGER. Maybe they're also making a statement on Welles's Kong-sized ego.

Ids and penises. You should go read that Naremore book again.

One of the best-ever books on Welles. I take it you found it overly Fruedian?

[Wellesnet]

Several critic's reviews of the new King Kong spectacular, "Kong: Skull Island", have noted the campy fusion of the original Kong film with Francis Coppola's 1979 "Apocalypse Now", with the new film being set in 1973 Vietnam (one reviewer even used the term "Viet Kong" as a play on words). Both the original "King Kong" and "Apocalypse Now" are said to have been inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella, "Heart of Darkness", which Orson Welles sought to make as his first film at RKO back in 1940. Here is an example of a review from this morning that notes the connections:
"Kong: Skull Island Is a Thrilling Ride to the Heart of Darkness"-
http://www.indyweek.com/arts/archives/2 ... f-darkness

Kong: Skull Island, the second installment in Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse revival, reimagines the Kong introduction story through an Apocalypse Now lens, grounded in the evergreen allegory of perilous American military interventionism...Any political commentary is strictly secondary, however, to director Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s creative camp...he keeps the action moving, and the viewer at rapt attention.

[tonyw]

"Viet Kong"? - "The horror! The horror!" If only someone could film faithfully Welles's screenplay. However, there are no giants matching his talent and background around today.

[Roger Ryan]

With characters named "Marlow" and "Conrad" in the film, Kong: Skull Island apparently wears its Heart of Darkness influence on its sleeve (director Vogt-Roberts has mentioned the importance of the Conrad novella in a number of interviews). Jackson, too, crammed in references to Heart of Darkness in his Kong with the "Jimmy" character actually reading the novella in the film (the more blatant references are found only in the extended cut). One gets the impression these filmmakers really wanted to do a proper adaptation of Conrad, but had to settle for weaving in its themes into a monster movie.

Given how prominent the novella is, I find it surprising that there has been only one completed film adaptation of it - a middling TV-movie version directed by Nicolas Roeg. I guess the grimness of the plot along with the inherent racism has kept it off the screen.

[Wich2]

If only someone could film faithfully Welles's screenplay. However, there are no giants matching his talent and background around today.

Tony, with respect:

My "Love for Orson" bona fides are solid - but the man did not walk on water. And neither solar storm nor act of Congress has banished talent since his death.

I think that several directors working now could succeed at this: Eastwood, Howard, Scorcese, Spielberg. But Roger may have nailed the stumbling blocks inherent in the piece.

-Craig

[tonyw]

Yes, but only if they followed the original screenplay making the necessary adaptations that did not dilute Welles's vision. As the late Joseph H. Lewis once said during a seminar presentation at Webster University, St. Louis, during the 90s. With a good screenplay 2/3rds of the director's job is done. The same is true of this screenplay but if any director suffers from what Harold Bloom defined as "the anxiety of influence" insecurities and fragile egos rule leading to box-office considerations destroying the original creative vision.