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The big budget spectacle, King Kong, will open in two weeks, and while most of the trailers seem to play up a fight with Godzilla and lots of jungle scenes (Naomi Watts - hot and sweaty!), part of the story does more to New York. Now, director Peter Jackson decided not to film in NYC because finding 1933 New York in today's New York is difficult. (Gothamist sorta buys that, but we actually believe that once you've created Middle Earth, then you've got a god complex.) The NY Post reports at what the King Kong New York, part model, part computer generated, includes:
Depression-era big town, Model T Fords roll through intersections of red and green streetlights (no yellow), blasting that wheezy dying-duck horn and narrowly missing a swarm of jaywalkers.Which makes Gothamist think that Peter Jackson's fake 1933 New York is more authentic than Chris Columbus's semi-fake 1989 New York in Rent. And we will be there, to see King Kong scale the Empire State Building and knock out elevated trains - will you?Stroll along the old-timey storefronts, and you'll pass shops like Flannery Watts Tobacco & Snuff, Kneebone Apothecary for Prescriptions and a Ten Cent Barber shop. There's even an F.S. Huffman Gunsmith, where you can "buy, sell and exchange" firearms. Clearly, this is pre-Giuliani New York.
At Lutzenberg's Meat and Poultry, fake sides of beef (kosher, naturally) hang in the front window - created by Jackson's special effects shop, WETA, from a mold made with a real carcass.
Then there's New York's Finest, who are quick with a poke of the nightstick, shooing along out-of-work protesters with signs proclaiming "No More Hoovervilles" and "Demand Cash Relief."
Here is the official King Kong fan site Kong is King, not to be confused with the Kong dog toy. Newsweek had a flattering article about the movie... and even New Yorker Martin Scorsese went overseas for old-timey New Yorker (Rome for Gangs of New York).
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"...while most of the trailers seem to play up a fight with Godzilla..."
They're just dionosaurs. Not Godzilla. Much like the 1930s original film--which predated Godzilla--in which King Kong fought dinosaurs without brand names attached to them.
I know it's not Godzilla, but I see big fighting movie animals, and it all goes back to Godzilla.
Golden Age New York movies are always so cool. I love seeing the Deco city in movies like Sky Captain. I can't wait to see KK just for the cityscapes.
Re: Rent: "Chris and ... have all dedicated themselves to defying anyone to recognize that the entire film wasn't shot in NYC."
Uh yeah. A subway entrance at the edge of Tompkins Square Park? The exterior block they used for most of the film was clearly a set anyway, so who cares whether they shot it in NYC, SF, or Toronto? But as long as they were building a replica of Mars Bar, why put it in the middle of the block??
One error we all should certainly forgive Peter Jackson for is the presence of Battery Park City (as seen in the trailer).
Love that New York Life building with the gold pyramid on the top just downtown of the ESB.
The thing I hate about these faux-NYC movies is that they look off to those who know, although the people in Peoria may not notice. One thing I love is watching movies set in NYC and IDing places in Toronto or LA.