Where to watch King Kong (2005)

Trivia & production notes

• Peter Jackson decided to become a filmmaker as a teenager after King Kong became his favorite film, inspired by watching the 1933 original at age nine.
• At age 12, Jackson attempted to remake King Kong using his parents' Super 8 camera and a Kong model constructed from wire, rubber, and his mother's fur coat for hair.
• Universal offered Jackson the King Kong remake after being impressed by his visual effects work on The Frighteners, though he initially declined the opportunity.
• Jackson accepted the King Kong project partly out of fear that someone else would take it over and make it into a terrible film.
• Universal and Miramax Films equally financed King Kong, with Universal handling U.S. distribution and Miramax covering foreign territories, all filming and effects work done entirely in New Zealand.
• The 2005 screenplay drew from James Ashmore Creelman's original screenplay, including a scene of giant spiders devouring sailors that was cut from the 1933 film and known to Kong fans only through a rare still in Famous Monsters of Filmland.
• Jackson optioned vaudeville performer June Havoc's memoir Early Havoc to help develop the character of Ann Darrow.
• The film's budget escalated from $150 million to $207 million due to additional visual effects work and Jackson extending the running time by thirty minutes, with Jackson covering most of the $32 million surplus himself.
• Principal photography took place entirely in New Zealand, with New York City streets constructed at Camperdown Studios and Gracefield, and ship scenes shot on a full-scale deck constructed in a parking lot then composited with digital ocean backgrounds.
• At $207 million, King Kong became the most expensive film ever made at that time and received a $34 million subsidy from New Zealand.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article King Kong (2005 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.