KING KONG Tidbits from Casting!

Hey folks, Harry here - a special tailender from up in New York provided me with a treat of info so I figured I'd pass it along. Turns out that KING KONG is entering the serious casting phase of things and currently they're looking to cast 4 parts. Now, there's no telling how big these parts will end up, or if these are characters that will be throughout the film at the same level as Ann Darrow, Jack Driscoll and Carl Denham... but, it gives us a tidbit of insight into what Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and the Queen of the Geeks is up to.

The first new character will be called WALT - he'll be in his mid-twenties to early thirties. He's a writer that has been making his living writing travelogues for newsreels which used to run before or between movies back in the early days. He's a vivid writer that describes the mysterious distant locales far beyond most Thirties Americans' experiences, though he's never set foot out of depression era New York City. He thought he had signed on to write a serious documentary about the Simalungun tribes of Sumatra, but instead finds himself doing a B-picture of intrigue and pulpy romance. He's a studious fellow that is quite aware of his own limitations, but finds himself "Funny, kind-hearted and actually, quite brave."

The next new character is FRANK - he's between thirty and forty and is a "wily" Production Manager - a guy that makes it up as he goes along. He buys into Denham's idea to dupe the Studio and shoot a feature film in place of another documentary, which they were hired for. He's a bigger than life fireball personality. He dreams of being a part of something gigantic and exciting which will earn him fame and esteem.

The audition scene between WALT and FRANK is one created for the audition, and not actual script pages, but it is a scene in which Frank convinces Walt to join the plan to make a narrative feature instead of a documentary. After Frank tells Walt they need a title for their narrative film like "The Ravaging Islands" Walt protests with: "No, no no! They gave us money to make a news reel.. Movie-tone gave us that money to make-" Frank then interupts with, "PULP! That's what they want to see, Walt - cleavage and a little rough stuff." Walt still protesting, "Someone's going to pay us, Frank... They're actually giving us money! This is our chance -" Frank answers with a low voice, "Chance? You make your own chances in this world, Walt." Frank continues pouring on the charm, "Com'n 'we've got the boat, we've got the girl - the cameras - we've got everything we need." As Walt is softening, Frank continues to himself, "All we gotta do is find the pygmies."

Then we have HERB, who falls somewhere between thirty and fifty. He's a trusting big-hearted fella, who happens to be Denham and The Captain's long term cameraman. It also seems he has one false leg. In the audition papers he has a very funny/serious encounter with a giant Axoltol. But you must remember that this information is just coming off audition sides which are almost always made especially for audition purposes with nearly all information aside from that directly related to playing the character in question, being false, but indicative of the type of emotional range that Peter is looking to see come out of the audition tapes. That being said - the sides for HERB/CAPTAIN are very action orientated with humor mixed in. But more on that after I talk about the captain.

Lastly there is the Captain, who is around 45-65 - there really isn't any information about his background or character at this point, but in this scene - which was meant to play beats that may be similar to what the character is asked to do in the film - he forces a character to go down the throat of a dead Axolotl after the camera which has footage of the Giant Gorilla on it. In case this scene ends up in the film, I don't want to spoil it, but it's pretty damn funny. We basically learn about Herb and the Captain is that the Captain is desperate to get out of this adventure by getting paid and he'll put anyone in danger and make anyone do anything to assure himself of cashing out. Herb is shown to be the man to follow orders and step up for his captain.

What I like about these sides is this... It seems that Peter, Fran and the Queen of the Geeks are pacing their dialogue in a rapid-spitfire manner not unlike the pentameter one would find in a 30's film. It'll be interesting to see how much this stuff will resemble what the actual script and film turns out like. But at this stage it's looking mighty fun and cool.