KING KONG
‘APING’ AN RKO CLASSIC
Simon Hooper looks back at the making of the 1976 version of King Kong, a monster box office flop when first released, but a bit of a cult favourite nowadays!
S incemoving to Hollywood from Italy, producer Dino De Laurentiis had proved himself to be Dino De Stupendous. His American films included Death Wish, Serpico and Three Days of the Condor, all of which had been financial hits, and he was now about to embark on his biggest challenge to date. In January 1976 he called a press conference where he announced to the world’s gathered media that he was to remake the classic monster movie, King Kong, for Paramount studios, much to the annoyance of Universal, who were on the verge of announcing their own Kong remake.
His version was to star Jeff Bridges who made an Oscar-nominated impression in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show and had costarred with Clint Eastwood in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. His career was on the ascent. He was to be joined by Charles Grodin who had successfully transitioned from TV shows to films that included Rosemary’s Baby and Catch-22. As Hitchcock had done with Tippi Hedren, De Laurentiis also decided to turn a model into a film star, and for that he had decided on 26 year old Jessica Lange, who he had signed to a seven year contract. Lange had not been the first choice for the role. That honour had gone to, of all people, Barbra Streisand who turned it down, as did Valerie Perrine who was under contract to Universal, followed quickly by Bette Midler and Cher, all of whom would have been expensive for an already escalating budget. De Laurentiis may have beaten Universal but he had yet to secure the rights and was in still in negotiations for them, so all this fanfare was likely to have been premature anyway. Added to this was that he had decided spectacle was everything and had set his heart on a 40-foot mechanical ape which, despite the press announcements, had not yet been built. It was an unknown as to whether something of that scale would even work. His intention was to combine the mechanical ape with that old staple, the man in a monkey suit. Additionally his effects people would build a single giant ape arm to pick up Lange.
Jessica Lange in a pin-up publicity still
Lange with Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin
Lange and Bridges on the beach
Lange captured by the natives and falling into the clutches of Kong
The producer had always been loyal to his colleagues from his days in Italy, and consequently hired Carlo Rambaldi and Mario Chiari for the mechanical effects. Neither of them spoke any English, but were whisked over to work in Hollywood.
Chiari very quickly realised that the work load was just too big and Production Designer Dale Hennesy was bought in. He had worked on Woody Allen’s early films Sleeper and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). Also brought on-board was Glen Robinson, who had worked on the disaster flicks Earthquake and The Hindenburg.
They told Dino that he should subcontract work out to an aviation company, which was a great idea until the company told them they would need 3 years. They only had six months so they soon bowed out of the project.
BAKER ON BOARD
For the mix and match Kong effects, the burgeoning genius of make up man Rick Baker was also brought on board. He was quickly earning an enviable reputation and his work on The Autobiography of Jane Pittman, with his 100-year-old make up for the title character had rightly drawn attention to the calibre of work he was capable of.