Synopsis

In 1933, ambitious filmmaker Carl Denham leads a movie expedition to the mysterious Skull Island. The crew encounters dangerous prehistoric creatures and Kong, a colossal ape worshiped by the island's inhabitants. After Kong becomes fascinated by actress Ann Darrow, Denham captures him and takes him to New York, where the spectacle turns into a tragic struggle between nature, exploitation, and human ambition.

Factoids & Trivia

• The production began as a long-delayed project in the mid-1990s, but development was put aside while Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Universal revived the remake after the trilogy's success.

• The budget rose from an originally planned $150 million to approximately $207 million, making King Kong the most expensive film ever made at the time of its release.

• Most of the film was shot in New Zealand between September 2004 and March 2005. Sets included reconstructed 1930s New York streets, a native village, the Great Wall, and the deck of the SS Venture.

• Andy Serkis prepared for Kong by studying gorillas at the London Zoo and in Rwanda. His facial performance was captured and used as the basis for Kong's digital expressions.

• The giant-bug pit sequence pays tribute to a notorious scene filmed for the 1933 original but removed after preview audiences reacted badly. Jackson's production team later recreated that lost sequence as a stop-motion bonus feature.

• Howard Shore's score was replaced by James Newton Howard's music only seven weeks before the film opened.

• The film won three Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

• King Kong was supported by online production diaries that documented the filmmaking process and gave audiences an unusually detailed look at the production before its theatrical release.