A New King Kong from an Old Master?

Of all the classic stop-motion creatures that appeared in all the incredible fantasy films prior to the innovation of CGI, one name stands out amongst them all… Ray Harryhuasen. However, one of the most beloved and classic of the stop-motion creature creations in cinema, that being King Kong, wasn’t even from Harryhausen.

Apparently, that was almost remedied as the legendary effects master had plans of creating his own version of the King Kong epic. Now Spirit Pictures is developing a prequel based on the book by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland titled ‘Kong: King of Skull Island’.

“[the] 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.” — Variety

According to Spirit Pictures, the plan is to create the film using motion-capture technology similar to that used for THE POLAR EXPRESS and BEOWULF. The concept is cool, but once again I wonder if the entire film will be motion-capture or just the creature effects. As of yet, I’ve not been greatly impressed with the overall films using motion-capture, just mildly impressed by the technology.

Call me old-fashioned, but when a story calls for dramatic acting, I still believe real people are best for the job. BEOWULF was kind of a nifty film to look at, but I had trouble really connecting with and accepting the characters as real. That’s just my two cents.

Source: Variety