Peter Jackson's Original Version of King Kong

Taking a look at what King Kong would have been like if Peter Jackson had directed it in 1996 like he originally planned before it was cancelled.

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
0:23 King Kong 1976
1:14 Peter Jackson
2:46 The Mummy
3:05 Opening Dogfight
3:34 Sumatra
4:54 Skull Island
5:18 Spider Pit
6:26 New York City
7:18 Cast
7:37 Designing the Dinosaurs
9:00 Designing Kong
9:38 Visual Effects
10:24 What Went Wrong?

Thumbnail art created by the incredibly talented Jeff Kepler

#kingkong

[revelare_xvii]

I like how King Kong went from “beauty killed the beast” to fighting alongside Godzilla in the MonsterVerse.

[freddyjosereginomontalvo]

King Kong 2005 is a awesome and majestic movie, as a kid who loves dinasourus and Jurassic Park, seeing Kong vs V Rex was the Endgame of my childhood. I love that

[shainewhite]

They had made stop motion puppets that were going to be used in the movie, but instead would be used as the maquettes for the dinosaurs and other vicious creatures that were brought to life with CGI.

[Rosabel_Believe]

Jackson’s Dead Alive also technically takes place in the Kong universe since the initial virus comes from Skull Island.

[andrewspielman]

Jackson’s ’05 King Kong is one of my favorite movies. The effects still hold up, imo

[davidjames]

Supposedly once Universal decided not to make King Kong, they used Jackson's script as the basis for The Mummy. This is why people who've read it say it reminds them of The Mummy. This is also why Jackson had to change things on the 05 film, such as tone, Jack being a battle fatigued, washed up veteran, and Ann being a British archaeologist's daughter.

[mathieuleader]

remarkable how Jackson's Kong movies are like polar opposites to each other

[srami]

Andy Serkis was KONG….That went over my head. Agreed with you 100%

[gabethedinosaur]

2005 King Kong is by far the best movie ever made. If they made Kong in 1996 I would have watched it at age 3 or 4 years old in 1999 and I would have said wow this is freaking awesome. But when Peter made Kong in 2005 I was really impressed and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Peter Jackson’s King Kong 2005 will always be my favorite childhood movie.

[Tallacus]

The 2005 movie proved that good things come to those who wait, best dinosaur movie ever! Honesty it was a master class in creature design and speculative evolution. PERFECTION! A world that is so mysterious that it deserves a deeper dive into his history. A fantasy world I wish actually was real.

[TwinRiver]

i like the idea of a Mummy style swashbuckler angle.
not entirely sure how this'd work for Kong, but I think I'd at least want to see a little more of it.

[jakeriggs]

Honestly your channel has been my adult version of Saturday morning cartoons! 😂

[bensneb]

This sounds like it would’ve been a really fun and interesting movie, but at least we got the 2005 film, definitely an underrated flick with a lot of passion and creativity

[burnthetrolls]

Oh Man Bruce Campbell in a King Kong movie shit I wish that had happened

[jaygarcia]

I'm glad he waited. Peter Jackson's King Kong was incredible 🙌🏼

[eddieblancher]

Some elements of the 1996 draft did appear in The Mummy 1999 and they even made a fanmade trailer of the film. Also in some videos about the 1996 draft they leave out Fay Wray's cameo.

[NobodieZ]

I kind of wished we gotten this version instead.
Also, the original plan for this movie was to use Carnotaurus instead of Raptors.

[mathieuleader]

the use of the early CG cityscape to inform the later Kong is a good example planning ahead and putting things to good use

[derekhofstetler]

First Godzilla '94, then Kong '96, all we need is Mothra, and the iconic trio is finished.

[JOSH-lwjv]

Interestingly, after Jackson's 1996 attempt with Universal was canned; there was another attempt at the
lost *"KING KONG"* remake known
as *"The Legend of KING KONG"*
which was to be produced by BBC Films with CBS & TNT (with a planned release in July 2000).

The planned £25 million TV movie
would be using Bo Goldman's
original 1975 script with actors
Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill,
Rachel Weisz and Ian McShane
set to star in the film, and the SFXs
were to be done by George Lucas' ILM. Locations to be used for filming included London & New Zealand.

But alas, the TV film never came to be.