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Mar 17 10 11:36 PM
Mar 17 10 11:45 PM
Mar 18 10 12:28 AM
And maybe that is even the real Empire State building in those cuts, with a painted city scape.
Mar 18 10 2:08 PM
Don Glut wrote: But Cooper apparently liked the ape suit idea enought to consider it seriously before seeing the CREATION footage and meeting Obie.
The Catch of the Day!
Mar 18 10 7:23 PM
Mar 18 10 9:45 PM
The Giant Pacific Octopus wrote:Don Glut wrote: But Cooper apparently liked the ape suit idea enought to consider it seriously before seeing the CREATION footage and meeting Obie.I'm just curious as to where you got that info from? Its not mentioned in either The Making of King Kong (The definitive book on the production of the film) or Living Dangerously : The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper (the definitive book on Cooper's life). Both books mentioned that Cooper wanted to use a real gorilla through miniatures before he saw the Creation footage. There is even a quote in the book David O. Selznick's Hollywood (page 77) about how he didn't want to use an ape suit when he was having discussions with Selznick at RKO before he saw The Creation footage or O'brien's work.There is some quotes from him in the Dangerously book about how silly he thought the gorilla suit gag was. One of the reason's he was so upset about King Kong vs Godzilla (he sued John Beck, Universal, and Toho in 1963 to block distribution of the film) was because he saw Kong being played by a man in a suit. (Dangerously Pg.361)
Mar 18 10 10:29 PM
Mar 18 10 10:45 PM
Tim Smyth wrote: I don't believe for one second, that Cooper ever had a conversation with Selznick, about his gorilla picture, at RKO, before seeing the Creation footage. He was not brought to RKO to make movies, just help pick out the rotten apples. Creation was the new spark of inspiration which made Kong possible. Cooper stated that the first time he told Selznick about the Giant Terror Gorilla, was when he told Selznick to dump Creation, and then showed him the Kong painting by OB and Crabbe, and told him that this is the picture we ought to make. Not that I believe everything that Cooper ever said either, but I do think that Creation played a far bigger role in Kong than Cooper admits. O'Brien's ideas run rampant though Kong as well. Tim
I don't believe for one second, that Cooper ever had a conversation with Selznick, about his gorilla picture, at RKO, before seeing the Creation footage. He was not brought to RKO to make movies, just help pick out the rotten apples. Creation was the new spark of inspiration which made Kong possible. Cooper stated that the first time he told Selznick about the Giant Terror Gorilla, was when he told Selznick to dump Creation, and then showed him the Kong painting by OB and Crabbe, and told him that this is the picture we ought to make. Not that I believe everything that Cooper ever said either, but I do think that Creation played a far bigger role in Kong than Cooper admits. O'Brien's ideas run rampant though Kong as well.
Mar 19 10 12:45 AM
The Giant Pacific Octopus wrote:Tim Smyth wrote: I don't believe for one second, that Cooper ever had a conversation with Selznick, about his gorilla picture, at RKO, before seeing the Creation footage. He was not brought to RKO to make movies, just help pick out the rotten apples. Creation was the new spark of inspiration which made Kong possible. Cooper stated that the first time he told Selznick about the Giant Terror Gorilla, was when he told Selznick to dump Creation, and then showed him the Kong painting by OB and Crabbe, and told him that this is the picture we ought to make. Not that I believe everything that Cooper ever said either, but I do think that Creation played a far bigger role in Kong than Cooper admits. O'Brien's ideas run rampant though Kong as well. TimI believe it. In that book I mentioned (Living Dangerously) it states that Cooper pitched his "terror gorilla" idea to Selznick in the Summer of 1931 at Long Island (pages 201 and 202). Cooper had originally discussed the idea with David Bruce and they "pitched" the story to Selznick that summer. Selznick had just left Paramount in June and was hoping to found his own independent studio. Thanks to MGM head Louis B Mayer, (who saw Selznicks attempt at an independent studio an assault on the hierarchy of the studio system) his attempt was met with powerful resistance. He eventually took a job with RKO. Cooper joined RKO in September of 1931 (page 203) and saw the Creation footage in December of 1931 (page 207).O'Brien heard about Cooper's interest in a "terror gorilla" picture and along with Byron Crabbe illustrated that famous picture of a giant gorilla menacing a hunter and a jungle girl. When Cooper saw the painting and was assured that O'Brien could bring it to life with stop motion, Cooper realized that he had a way of bringing his "terror gorilla' picture to life without having to "journey to wild locations or snare real gorillas" (page 207). He formally proposed his gorilla picture to replace Creation on December 18 1931 to David Selznick.So the fact is he had wanted to do a "terror gorilla" picture before he got to RKO and even discussed this with David Selznick prior to joining the company. I agree that Creation was a spark of inspiration, but according to this well researched book discussion between the two men occurred earlier than that.
Mar 19 10 11:45 AM
Tim Smyth wrote: I believe that he wanted to make a film about gorillas, or a gorilla, and film on Komodo island,
I believe that he wanted to make a film about gorillas, or a gorilla, and film on Komodo island,
I just don't think that the gorilla was supposed to be gigantic, and later, at RKO, it turned into the Giant Terror Gorilla. There has never been one piece of paper, or outline, or even something scribbled on a napkin, referring to Cooper's original concept. Willis O'Brien made giant monster movies, and even had a Kong looking missing link fighting fighting a dinosaur in 1916. My guess is all this gelled when Cooper saw the creation reel, then the painting, maybe because of a misconception of the word huge, or giant, and Kong was born. His explanation of filming on Komodo island and making the creatures appear gigantic also doesn't make sense to me. Cooper made natural dramas, OB made films of the fantastic, together they made the greatest fantasy movie ever, that part I am sure of.
Mar 19 10 1:11 PM
Mar 19 10 5:17 PM
In Dangerously, (pages 186-187) it states: The Monstrous gorilla had been gestating in Cooper's imagination since 1929, but after John Hambelton's death Cooper had focused on the emerging storyline with a new passion. And in February 1930, when he was leaving his midtown office, heard an engine overhead, and looked up as an airplane, gleaming in the setting sun, passed over the New York Insurance Building. "Without any conscious effort or thought I immediately saw in my minds eye a giant gorilla on top of the building."
Mar 19 10 5:28 PM
Mar 19 10 6:18 PM
Mar 19 10 6:56 PM
Mar 19 10 7:12 PM
skull island escapee wrote:KONG looks like a Conehead when shrunk down in your avatar, KKK!Kong never looked like a conehead to this extent at any time during the movie: just shows how easily an extreme longshot can distort imagery: who knows for sure the actuality?
Mar 19 10 10:36 PM
Wich2 wrote:Cooper was not afraid of "non-realism"; his career also included:The Monkey's Paw Son of KongSheDr. Cyclops Mighty Joe Young This Is Cinerama Seven Wonders of the World And you can make a good argument that - like Carl Denham? - even his "natural" movies were bigger-than-life.-Craig
Mar 19 10 10:48 PM
The Giant Pacific Octopus wrote:I understand that Cooper did "docudramas" but he was a man that was fascinated by larger than life characters and fantasy so for him to want to shift his "terror gorilla" story from docudrama to fantasy seems very plausible.
Mar 19 10 11:21 PM
Mar 19 10 11:56 PM
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