STACK July 2017 Issue 153

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020 JULY 2017
visit DVD&BD FEATURE
Since his first appearance in Merrian C.
Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s
groundbreaking 1933 classic King
Kong, the mighty ape has stamped his
simian footprint into popular culture and been
reimagined for subsequent generations,
including two remakes and even a stage
musical.
Now the King has returned in the action-
adventure Kong: Skull Island, directed
by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and produced by
the team who resurrected another iconic
monster in 2012 – Godzilla.
“Kong represents all the mystery and
wonder that still exists in the world,” says
Vogt-Roberts. “That’s why he will never stop
being relevant.”
The director also acknowledges that
with reviving a great monster, comes great
responsibility. “Kong is film history. Kong
is where special effects came from and
when genre went mainstream,” he says.
“It’s an enormous responsibility and also an
enormous honour to tell a new story within
that mythology. We’ve seen the old story
over and over again, the beauty and the beast
angle, so it’s a huge responsibility.”
Kong: Skull Island is a different beast to
the remakes by John Guillerman and Peter
Jackson. There’s no Empire State Building
or exploitation of the ‘Eighth Wonder of the
World’ in this new take, which unfolds on
Kong's titular stomping ground and offers an
exciting expansion of the mythology.
“Kong is an adolescent when we meet
Hail to the King! It's time to go ape as screen
royalty returns for a major monster mash in
Kong: Skull Island. Words Adam Colby