Jack Black , Naomi Watts to star in King Kong remake.

That may be one of the best pictures ever posted on this board.

You have to love Jack Black, he strikes a chord in all of us the way he creates comedy with his passion for life. This is so much better than the recent trend of comedians who try to create humor by portraying pathetic, but lovable losers. Ben Stiller, you know who you are.

Bow to the Black!!

 

Jack Black is an interesting pick. It's been forever since I've seen King Kong. Is Black's character comic relief or is his role serious?

You want directing hacks? Look no further than McG and Michael Bay.

McG's LOTR: 9-hour giant music video complete with dancing hobbits, Star Wars-level dialogue, gangsta ents, hot women orcs, and a tricked-out Shadowfax.

Michael Bay's LOTR: Chock-filled with extreme camera angles (shaking camera is a necessity), a boring love story, loads of American flag imagery, cheesy slo-mo, and incessant one-liners. Aerosmith love theme is a must, as is a score by Hans Zimmer (who'll change 3 notes from his Crimson Tide score and collect his paycheck). The role of Samwise Gamgee will also be replaced with a wisecracking street-smart cop.

 

Hmmmmmmm.

Dancing Hobbits? Star Wars level-dialogue? Extreme camera angles? A boring love story? Cheesy slo-mo? Incessant one-liners (maybe not incessant, but present and irritating)?

Sounds like a certain NZ director you love so dear.

And speaking of the score, LOTR's sucked. Zimmer is about 10 times better than Shore. And his Crimson Tide score happens to be better than anything Shore has ever done.

And for the sake of argument...

Ridley Scott's LOTR: Creating an entire new genre (or redefining if you consider past fantasy movies like Willow) like he did with Bladerunner using DARK DARK imagery, because let's face it the books were dark, not 8 year old Disney like fare. I'm talking creating an entire new world here, not just shooting it in some beautiful country like NZ. Extensive character depth, ambiguity that leaves the audience to determine their own interpretations of things and doesn't beat people over the head with certain themes. INTELLIGENT dialogue. A battle camera that isn't just hectic SHAKY CAMERA cutting where we can't see anything. Throw in a few shots that lets us know what is going on at least. And the score? A recollaboration with Vangelis.

 

Oh great. Another 'remake' movie. I guess Hollywood has truly run out of original ideas.

 

Zimmer may be a good composer, but the guy has been plagiarizing his OWN scores for many years now. Lion King = Crimson Tide = Gladiator = The Rock = Zzzzzzz. Sure, he's no John Williams, but Howard Shore's LOTR score was at least somewhat original.

LOL. You did see Gladiator, right? Just checking.

And c'mon, "creating an entire new world here, not just shooting it in some beautiful country like NZ"? You want everything to have a CGI background? Look how well that turned out for the new Star Wars films. Nice to look at, but oh-so-fake.

Hey, I think Ridley Scott could do a pretty decent job... but ONLY if he reclaims the magic of Blade Runner (his best work).

Right... so back to KING KONG...

 

Black Hawk Down was the first thing that popped into my head...

 

Of course I saw Gladiator. And the amazing battle scenes that didn't have that feature which were all of them besides the first one.

And did I say CGI background? It's called innovation. Ridley's done it before, BR.

 

The LOTR trilogy could've been directed by a resurrected Orson Welles, and it wouldn't have made any difference to me. Are the films as good as they could've been? I don't know, but considering that most of the LOTR nerds like the movies, he must've done at least an above-average job, and they certainly are nowhere near as bad as they could've been. I don't kow that anyone could've done any better.

Personally, I'm just glad they're over.

I'd actually like Jackson to take some chances again and do something that doesn't already have a built-in audience aside from his participation. Even if Fellowship of the Ring had turned out to be horrible, it still would've made over $200 million just because the books are so well-known and beloved by a lot of people. King Kong also has a long history and a built-in audience. You could get some first-timer to helm King Kong and it would do a great deal of business.

Why not go back, now that he's on top of the world and could likely write his own ticket, and do something original again and see how that goes? Of course, that might well mean a return to the $16 million (or worse) grosses he was getting before LOTR.