Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my report on yesterday's KING KONG EE footage from Universal.
Peter Jackson recorded a video introduction, welcoming us to the Con and telling us that he wishes to make it out here one day, if only to shop on the floor. He presented us with the clip, which ended up being a full sequence from the extended edition and a trailer for the entire EE.
The sequence was the raft sequence. If you remember from the original the crew members build a raft and cross a swamp. In the original they encounter the only carnivorous Brontos in recorded history. In this one, they encounter a fish monster. This sucker is sick. He's about 15 feet long and has a head similar to (forgive my ignorance on fish species) that one that attracts other fish with that little light antenna thingy and the body of an eel. They produced a toy of Kong fighting one of these things, but the finished version in the film is so much cooler, detailed down to the individual scales.
This sucker snakes up underneath the raft, nudging it. We see that great JAWS shot high up over the actors looking down at the raft and the water around it. The actors are looking around for the source of the bump, but we can see the shadow underneath the water and see how huge it is compared to the little floatation. The big sucker ends up capsizing one raft, sending Adrien Brody into the water, the weight of the ammo strapped across his shoulder dragging him down to the swamp floor.
The swamp monster picks off the sailors on the surface. Preston's in the water, holding the camera above the water, calling for help. Denham notices and calls out, obviously alarmed more for the camera than the safety of his assistant. The swamp monster rises up and Denham tommy guns the creature, hitting the water more than the fish. It charges Denham's raft. He continues shooting, eventually hitting the raft, going right down the middle, breaking it in half.
On the bottom of the swamp Brody isn't alone. Above him is the monster and next to him is a crew member just freeing himself of his weight. Brody glances up and sees the monster coming back around. He tries to catch the crew member as he ascends, but misses him. Just before the guy gets to the surface he gets chomped savagely. The swamp monster notices Brody and swims after him. He swims towards camera and manages to make it to the relative safety of some drowned tree limbs. As he gets to it you can see the swamp monster coming up behind him and tries to suck him in, but when he closes his jaws they get caught on the tree limbs and he can't get the guy. There's tons of easy pickings on the surface, so he swims away, letting Brody finally get to the surface and catch a breath.
The majority of the survivors make it to the water's edge. Denham calls for Preston who is slowly getting to land. He pulls up the camera and immediately checks it. It's wet, but it runs. He cranks it, listening to the gears turning. Everything sounds fine. The last sailor walks out of the water and the swamp monster jumps out and pulls him back into the water. Denham filmed it all! "You get a good shot, Denham?"
That's where it ended. The trailer for KONG showed more effects (over 200 more digital shots), 13 minutes of extra footage, more Kong, more bugs, more action and commentary tracks. 3 discs. Coming this fall!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
