King Kong (film)

King Kong would be an upcoming adventure fantasy film written, co-edited and directed by David Lowery, produced by Tim Burton, Lowery and Jim Whitaker, and loosely based on the 1933 film of the same name by James Creelman, Ruth Rose, Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper. A co-production between Universal Pictures, Tim Burton Productions, and Whitaker Entertainment, the film would star Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong'o and Karl Urban, while the score would be composed by Daniel Hart. The fiulm would focus on Ann Darrow, a young vandeville performer is taken to Skull Island, where she develops a friendship with a 25-feet-tall gorilla named Kong, who becomes the target of unscrupulous film director Carl Denham.

Development on a new King Kong film would start at Universal by early 2021, with Burton set to produce the film, and Lowery being in talks to write, co-produce, and direct it. Lowery and Whitaker would join the film by July 2021, while Nyong'o and Urban would join as the lead characters in November 2021. Filming for the project would begin in January 2022 and end in April 2022. Lowery would make the film different from previous King Kong projects by introducing animal rights themes to the plot, as well as by focusig more on Darrow and Kong's relationship.

King Kong would be released on February 24, 2023, and would be met with critical acclaim, with critics particularly praising its direction, performances (particularly Nyong'o's), script, themes, visual effects, score, and action sequences. The film would also become a commercial hit, earning 1.2 billion dollars at the box office over a budget of 177 million dollars. The film would earn Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Synopsis
King Kong tells the adventure of vandevlle performer Ann Darrow, who, desesperate for getting a big break, decides to join failling director Carl Denham on a dangerous expedition to the mysterious Skull Island. Once there, they learn of a giant gorilla known as Kong, who seems to be mad as of late. Hoping to calm down the ferous beast, Darrow is knocked down and surrended to Kong as a sacrifice. Darrow escapes her ties, but is neverthless captured by the gorilla. Right before being harmed, Darrow calms down Kong, and convinces him to help her find the crew. As the two spent time together in the jungle, Darrow begins to see that there's more to Kong than what meets the eye, that life is more than just the next big break, and that there are bigger beasts in smaller sizes.

Cast

 * Andy Serkis as the motion-capture for Kong: A 25-fee-tall gorilla who, being the last of his species, is deeply lonely, until he meets Ann Darrow. Serkis would reprise his role from Peter Jackson's 2005 film. According to director David Lowery, Serkis would be brought back to reprise his role due to the "big amount of emotion he gave to the character" in Jackson's film, something Lowery would feel "is really necessary here". Serkis would say that, while previous King Kong films gave "some intelligence and hints of loneliness" to the character, the film would potray Kong as "as someone with abandoment issues, with humor, with fear, with a lot of intelligence, but most importantly, with a level of humanity as big as his size".
 * Lupita Nyong'o as Ann Darrow: A young vandeville performer who, hoping to get a big break at the film industry, chooses to go to Skull Island, where she meets and befriends a giant gorilla known as Kong. Nyong'o would say that Darrow has "more agency and development here than before", describing hher as "a vandeville girl who wants to be big and famous, only to discover that there are things a lot bigger than that in life, figuratively and literally".
 * Karl Urban as Carl Denham, an unscrupulous film director who tries to become famous again by capturing Kong. Urban would describe him as "a narcisist who only wants to get the spotlight, even if he has to put blood on his hands to have it".

Music
Recurring David Lowery collaborator Daniel Hart would compose the score for the film. While he would drawn inspiration from his score for Lowery's Pete's Dragon (2016), Hart wouldn't listen to scores from previous King Kong films while writing the scorem in order to create something that "is purerly [his] own". Darrow's theme would be "a vandeville-style melody that grows to become less vandeville as she learns that acting is not everything in life". Kong's theme would be "crazy and loud" initially, only to become "quiter and more emotional" as the character is further explored. By contrast, Hart's theme for Carl Denham would initally be "sad and quiet", and would later become "desesperate and bombastic".

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film would have an approval rating of 98%, with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 301 reviews. The film's critical consensus would read, "Thougth-provoking, visualy stunning, and with epic action sequences, David Lowery's take on King Kong gives the universally-known monster adevnture a timely touch that fits perfectly with the story, creating a tale that is as epic as previous adventures and as touching as the best of Lowery's work". On Metacritic, the film would have a weighted rating of 79 out of 100, basd on 50 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Trivia

 * The film's action sequences would be inspired by both Peter Jackson's 2005 King Kong film and Jurassic Park (1995).
 * This would be the first live-action King Kong remake to end with Kong surviving.
 * David Lowery and Karl Urban previously worked together on Pete's Dragon (2016).
 * This would be the first King Kong film to potray Carl Denham as an outright villain, as Peter Jackson's King Kong film potrayed him as more of a morally dubious character, while previous films potrayed him as a protagonist.