King Kong (2005 film)

br />}} King Kong is a 2005 epic adventure film and remake of the 1933 film of the same name. Directed, co-written and produced by Peter Jackson, the film stars Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, Jack Black as Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll and, through motion capture, Andy Serkis as the title character. Serkis also played Lumpy, the galley chef on the SS Venture. Set in 1932–1933 New York City and the nightmarish Skull Island, the film tells the story of an overly ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter King Kong, a legendary giant gorilla. Captured, he is displayed in New York City, with tragic results.

The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million. The film was released on December 14, 2005, and made an opening of $50.1 million. While the film performed lower than expectations, King Kong made domestic and worldwide grosses that eventually added up to $550 million, becoming the fourth-highest grossing movie in Universal Pictures history. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release. The film garnered generally positive reviews from film critics and appeared on several "top ten" lists for 2005, though some reviewers also criticized it for its 3 hour, 7 minute running time. It won Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Plot
In the autumn of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression in New York City, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) has lost her job as a vaudeville actress but is hired by troubled filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) to act in his new motion picture. Ann signs on when she learns her favourite playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) is the screenwriter. As their tramp steamer SS Venture sails to the mysterious Skull Island, they slowly fall in love. As for Carl, a warrant is out for his arrest and Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) begins to have second thoughts, following the fears of his crew about Skull Island and its strange creatures that have evolved alone from the outside world. Deep in the southern seas the "Venture" receives a radio message from her owners informing the Captain about Denhams' arrest warrant and instructing him to divert to Rangoon immediately. Despite his attempt to turn around, the ship is lost in fog and runs aground on the rocks encircling the island.

Carl and his crew explore the island to film and are attacked by the vicious natives, degenerated descendents of a once great civilisation. Mike (Craig Hall), the sound technician, is speared, one of the sailors has his head bashed in, and Jack is knocked out. Ann screams as she is captured, and a roar beyond the wall responds. The matriarch of the tribe vows to sacrifice her to "Kong", a 25 ft (8m) tall gorilla, and the last of its kind. Englehorn and his crew break up the attack and return to the stranded ship. They lighten their load to float off the rocks and carry out repairs to the hull, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped. On the island, Ann is hung from a primitive drawbridge on the side of the wall. The crew comes armed, but is too late as Kong takes Ann into the jungle. But as time passes in her captivity, Ann manages to entertain and win over Kong with juggling and dancing, and begins to grasp Kongs' great intelligence and capacity for emotion.

Captain Englehorn organizes a rescue party to find Ann and hunt down the beast. The rescue party is caught up in a Venatosaurus pack's hunt of Apatosaurus, and Herb (John Sumner), the cameraman, is killed along with three sailors. The rest of the rescue party come across a swamp where Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) and two others leave the group. The landing party survivors make their way across a giant fallen log, whereupon Kong arrives and attacks, shaking them off the log into a ravine. He returns to rescue Ann from three Vastatosaurus Rex, and takes her up to his mountain lair. Englehorn and the rest of the crew save what is left of the rescue party from the pit of giant insects, and as Jack decides to continue to search for Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack goes to Kong's lair, waking him. As Kong fights a swarm of flying Terapusmordax, Ann and Jack escape by grabbing the wing of one of the bats and then jumping into a river. They arrive at the village wall with the angry Kong following them, and Ann becomes distraught by what Carl plans to do. Kong bursts through the gate and struggles to get her back, but he is eventually knocked out by chloroform.

In New York, in the late winter of 1933 - upon the unintentionally triumphant return of the expedition - a now feted and successful Carl presents a chained Kong the Eighth Wonder of the World on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann has become an anonymous chorus girl and a double of her is no replacement in Kong's eyes. Camera flashes from photographers enrage the gorilla. Kong breaks free from his chrome-steel chains and chases Jack across town, where he encounters Ann again. They share a quiet moment on a frozen lake in Central Park, Kong joyfully entranced by his first experience of ice and snow, before the army unexpectedly attacks. Kong climbs with Ann onto the dome of the Empire State Building, where he fights off a flight of six Curtiss Falcon fighter planes sent to attack him, downing three of them. Ultimately, Kong is hit by several bursts of gunfire from the surviving planes, and gazes at a distraught Ann for the last time before falling off the building to his death. Ann is greeted by Jack, and the reporters gather around Kong's carcass. Carl takes one last look and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."

Cast

 * Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow: a struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work. Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple from a fruit stand. As the voyage goes on she falls in love with Jack and she forms a special relationship with Kong.
 * Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll: a scriptwriter who falls for Ann. He is on the voyage mistakenly, when he delivers 15 pages of script to Denham and delays him when the Venture begins its voyage.
 * Andy Serkis as Kong (motion capture and voice): A 25 ft mountain gorilla who is around 120–150 years old. He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong.
 * Jack Black as Carl Denham: a film director who obtained the map to Skull Island. Due to his debts Carl starts to lose his moral compass and obsesses over his film.
 * Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn: the German Captain of the Venture, who shows a dislike for Denham.
 * Colin Hanks as Preston: Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant.
 * Jamie Bell as Jimmy: a boy, found on the Venture, wild and abandoned. He is a kleptomaniac and views Hayes as a father figure.
 * Andy Serkis as Lumpy: the ship's cook, barber and surgeon. He warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong. He joins the search for Ann but is killed in the insect pit.
 * Evan Parke as Ben Hayes: Englehorn's first mate and a mentor to Jimmy, who leads Ann's rescue mission because of his army training and combat experience gained during World War I. He is killed after Kong throws him against a rock wall during the log scene.
 * Kyle Chandler as Bruce Baxter: an actor who specialises in adventure films. He abandons Ann's rescue mission but brings Englehorn to rescue the search party from the insect pit, and is given credit for rescuing Ann during the Broadway display of Kong.
 * John Sumner as Herb: Denham's loyal cameraman. He is eaten by a Venatosaurus.
 * Lobo Chan as Choy: Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture, who falls to his death during the log scene.
 * Craig Hall as Mike: Denham's soundman for the journey. He is the first person to be killed when the Skull Island natives spear him.
 * William Johnson as Manny: an elderly vaudevillian actor who befriends Ann Darrow at the beginning of the picture.
 * Mark Hadlow as Harry: a struggling vaudevillian actor.
 * Jed Brophy and Todd Rippon cameoed as crew members.

Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody were the first choices for their respective roles with no other actors considered. In preparation for her role, Watts met with the original Ann Darrow, Fay Wray. Jackson wanted Wray to make a cameo appearance and say the final line of dialogue, but she died during pre-production at 96-years-old. Black was cast as Carl Denham based on his performance in High Fidelity (2000), which had impressed Jackson. For inspiration, Black studied P. T. Barnum and Orson Welles. "I didn't study [Welles] move for move. It was just to capture the spirit. Very reckless guy. I had tapes of him drunk off his ass." The native extras on Skull Island were portrayed by a mix of Asian, African, Maori and Polynesian actors sprayed with dark makeup to achieve a consistent pigmentation.

Development
Peter Jackson was nine-years-old when he first saw the 1933 film, and was in in tears in front of the TV when Kong slipped off the Empire State Building. At age 12 he attempted to recreate the film using his parents' Super 8 mm film camera and a model of Kong made of wire and rubber with his mother's fur coat for the hair, but eventually gave up on the project. King Kong eventually became his favorite film and was the primary inspiration for his decision to become a filmmaker as a teenager. He read books about the making of King Kong and collected memorabilia, as well as articles from Famous Monsters of Filmland. Jackson paid tribute to the 1933 film by including Skull Island as the origin of the zombie plague in Braindead (1992).

During the filming of The Frighteners (1996), Universal Pictures was impressed with Jackson's dailies and early visual effects footage. The studio was adamant to work with Jackson on his next project and, in late-1995, offered him the chance to direct a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). He turned down the offer, but Universal became aware of Jackson's obsession with King Kong and subsequently offered him the opportunity to direct that remake. The studio did not have to worry of lawsuits concerning the film rights from RKO Pictures (the studio behind the 1933 film) because the King Kong character is held in the public domain. Jackson initially turned down the King Kong offer, but he "quickly became disturbed by the fact that someone else would take it over," Jackson continued, "and make it into a terrible film; that haunted me and I eventually said yes to Universal."

At the same time, Jackson was working with Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Films to purchase the film rights of the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while 20th Century Fox was trying to hire him for the Planet of the Apes (2001) remake. Jackson turned down Planet of the Apes and because Weinstein was taking longer than expected to buy The Lord of the Rings rights, Jackson decided to move forward on King Kong. Weinstein was furious, and, as a result, Jackson proposed a deal between Universal and Miramax that the two studios would equally finance King Kong with Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films. Universal would receive distribution rights in the United States, while Miramax would cover foreign territories. Jackson was also warranted the right of final cut privilege, a percentage of the gross profits, as well as artistic control; Universal allowed all filming and visual effects to be handled entirely in New Zealand. The deal was settled in April 1996, and Jackson, along with wife Fran Walsh, began working on the King Kong script. In the original draft, Ann was the daughter of famed English archaeologist Lord Linwood Darrow exploring ancient ruins in Sumatra. They would come into conflict with Denham during his filming, and they would uncover a hidden Kong statue and the map of Skull Island. This would indicate that the island natives were the last remnants of a cult religion that had once thrived on the mainland of Asia. Instead of a playwright, Jack was the first mate and an ex-First World War fighter pilot still struggling with the loss of his best friend, who had been killed in battle during a World War I prologue. Herb the camera-man is the only supporting character in the original draft who made it to the final version. The fight between Kong and the three T. rex also changed from the original draft. In the draft, Ann is actually caught in the T. rex jaws, where she becomes wedged, and slashed by the teeth; after the fight, Kong gets her out but she is suffering from a fever, from which she then recovers.

Universal approved of the script with Robert Zemeckis as executive producer, and pre-production for King Kong started. The plan was to begin filming sometime in 1997 for a summer 1998 release date. Weta Digital and Weta Workshop, under the supervision of Richard Taylor and Christian Rivers, began work on early visual effects tests, specifically the complex task of building a CGI version of New York City circa 1933. Jackson and Walsh progressed with a second draft script, sets were being designed and location scouting commenced in Sumatra and New Zealand. In late-1996 Jackson flew to production of Titanic (1997) in Mexico to discuss the part of Ann Darrow with Kate Winslett, with whom he previously worked with on Heavenly Creatures (1994). Minnie Driver was also being reportedly considered. Jackson's choices for Jack Driscoll and Carl Denham included George Clooney and Robert De Niro. However, development for King Kong was stalled in January 1997 when Universal became concerned over the upcoming release of Godzilla (1998), as well as other ape-related remakes with Mighty Joe Young (1998) and Planet of the Apes (2001). Universal abandoned King Kong in February 1997 after Weta Workshop and Weta Digital had already designed six months worth pre-production. Jackson then decided to start work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

With the financial and critical success of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002), Universal approached Jackson in early-2003, during the post-production of The Return of the King (2003), concerning his interest in restarting development on King Kong. In March 2003 Universal set a target December 2005 release date and Jackson and Walsh brought Lord of the Rings co-writer Philippa Boyens on to help rewrite their 1996 script. Jackson offered New Line Cinema the opportunity to co-finance with Universal, but they declined. Universal and Jackson originally projected a $150 million budget, which eventually rose to $175 million. Jackson made a deal with Universal whereby he would be paid a $20 million salary against 20% of the box office gross for directing, producing and co-writing. He shared that fee with co-writers Walsh (which also covered her producing credit) and Boyens. However, if King Kong were to go over its $175 million budget, the penalties would be covered by Jackson.

Immediately after the completion of Return of the King, Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, supervised by Richard Taylor, Christian Rivers and Joe Lettieri, started pre-production on King Kong. Jackson brought back most the crew he had on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, including cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, production designer Grant Major, art directors Simon Bright and Dan Hennan, conceptual designer Alan Lee, and editor Jamie Selkirk. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens began to write a new script in late-October 2003. Jackson acknowledged that he was highly unsatisfied with the original 1996 script. "That was actually just Fran and Peter very hurriedly getting something down on paper," Boyens explained. "It was more one of many possible ways the story could got." The writers were adamant to base the new script on the 1933 film, rather than the 1996 script. They also included scenes that were either uncompleted or entirely omitted from James Ashmore Creelman's original script in the cutting room floor. 1933 film. In the scene where Kong shakes the surviving sailors pursuing Ann and himself from a log into the ravine, it was originally the intention of directors Merian Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack to feature giant spiders emerging from the rock to devour their bodies. This was cut from the original release print, and remains known to Kong fans only via a rare still that appeared in Famous Monsters of Filmland. Jackson included this scene and elaborated upon it. Jackson, Walsh and Boyens also cited Delos W. Lovelace's 1932 novelization of King Kong as inspiration, which included the character Lumpy (Andy Serkis). To make the relationship between Ann Darrow and Kong plausible, the writers studied hours of gorilla footage. Jackson also optioned Early Havoc, a memoir written by vaudeville performer June Havoc to help Walsh and Boyens flesh out the characterization of Ann Darrow. Carl Denham was intentionally modeled after and inspired by Orson Welles. Their new draft was finished in February 2004.

Filming
Principal photography started on September 6, 2004 at Camperdown Studios in Miramar, New Zealand. Camperdown housed the native village, and the Great Wall, while the streets of New York City were constructed on a backlot. The majority of the SS Venture scenes were shot aboard a full-scale deck constructed in the parking lot at Camperdown Studios and then were backed with a green screen, with the ocean digitally added in post. Scenes set in the Broadway theater from which King Kong makes his escape were filmed in the Opera House in Wellington and at the Auckland Civic Theatre. Filming also took place at Stone Street Studios, where a new sound stage was constructed to accommodate one of the sets. Over the course of filming the budget went from $175 million to $207 million over additional visual effects work needed, and Jackson extending the film's running time with thirty minutes. Jackson covered the $32 million surplus himself and finished filming in March 2005.

The film's budget climbed from an initial US$150 million to a record-breaking $207 million, making it at one point the most expensive film yet made. Universal Pictures only agreed to such an outlay after seeing a screening of the unfinished film, to which executives responded enthusiastically. Marketing and promotion costs were an estimated $60 million. The film's length also grew; originally set to be 135 minutes, it soon grew to 200, prompting Universal executives to fly to New Zealand to view a rough cut, but they liked it so their concerns were addressed.

Other difficulties included Peter Jackson's decision to change composers from Howard Shore to James Newton Howard seven weeks before the film opened.

Visual effects
Jackson decided early on that he did not want Kong to behave like a human, and so he and his team studied hours of gorilla footage. Andy Serkis, who modelled his movement, went to London Zoo to watch the gorillas, but was unsatisfied. He ended up going to Rwanda to observe mountain gorillas in the wild with a company called Rainbow Tours. The resulting Kong is entirely a special effect, who acts and moves very much like a real gorilla.

Apart from Kong, Skull Island is inhabited by dinosaurs and other large fauna. Inspired by the works of Dougal Dixon, the designers imagined what 65 million years or more of isolated evolution might have done to dinosaurs.

Release
The marketing campaign for King Kong started in full swing on June 27, 2005, when the teaser trailer made its debut, first online at the official Volkswagen website at 8:45 p.m. EST, then 8:55 p.m. EST across media outlets owned by NBC Universal (the parent of Universal Studios), including NBC, Bravo!, CNBC and MSNBC. That trailer appeared in theatres attached to War of the Worlds, which opened on June 29.

Jackson also regularly published a series of 'Production Diaries', which chronicled the making of the film. The diaries started shortly after the DVD release of The Return of the King as a way to give Jackson's The Lord of the Rings fans a glimpse of his next project. These diaries are edited into broadband-friendly installments of three or four minutes each. They consist of features that would normally be seen in a making-of documentary: a tour of the set, a roving camera introducing key players behind the scene, a peek inside the sound booth during last-minute dubbing, or Andy Serkis doing his ape movements in a motion capture studio.

A novelisation of the movie and a prequel entitled The Island of the Skull was also written. A multi-platform video game entitled Peter Jackson's King Kong was released, which featured an alternate ending. There was a hardback book entitled The World of Kong, featuring artwork from Weta Workshop to describe the fictional bestiary in the film.

Reception
In North America King Kong grossed $9.7 million during its Wednesday opening and $50.1 million over its first weekend for a five day total of $66.1 milion. Some analysts considered these initial numbers disappointing, saying that studio executives had been expecting more. The film went on to gross $218.1 million in the domestic market and ended up in the top five highest grossing films there. The film grossed an additional $332.4 million in the international box office for a worldwide total of $550.5 million which ranked it in the top five grossing films of 2005 worldwide.

During its home video release King Kong sold over $100 million worth of DVDs in the largest six-day performance in Universal Studios history. As of April 3, 2006, King Kong has sold more than 7.5 million DVDs, accumulating over $140 million worth of sales numbers in the domestic market. As of June 25, 2006 King Kong has generated almost $38 million from DVD rental gross. In February 2006 TNT/TBS and ABC paid Universal Studios $26.5 million for the television rights to the film.

Critical reaction
King Kong received an 84% "Certified Fresh" approval rating among 'T-Meter Critics', and a 79% rating among 'Top Critics' on review aggrigator Rotten Tomatoes. The most common criticisms of the film were of its excessive length, lack of pace, over-use of slow motion, and some obvious use of CGI effects. Positive critical reviews regarded it as one of the few good epics and placed it on several 'top ten' lists of 2005. Roger Ebert gave the movie four stars, and listed it as the 8th best film of 2005. The film received four Academy Award nominations for Visual Effects, Sound Mixing (Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek), Sound Editing, and Art Direction, winning all but the last. Entertainment Weekly called the depiction of Kong the most convincing computer generated character in film in 2005. Some criticized the film for retaining racist stereotypes present in the original film, though it was not suggested that Jackson had done this intentionally. King Kong ranks 450th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

Possible 3-D release
Peter Jackson has expressed his desire to remaster the film in 3-D at some point in the future. Jackson was also seen shooting with a 3-D camera at times during the shoot of King Kong.

Cinematic and literary allusions

 * Jamie Bell's character is repeatedly shown reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a novel about a journey into a primitive land and mankind's exploitation of fellow man.


 * Jack Black and critics have noted Carl Denham's similarity to Orson Welles.


 * When Jack Driscoll is searching for a place to sleep in the animal storage hold, a box behind him reads Sumatran Rat Monkey — Beware the bite! – a reference to the creature that causes mayhem in Peter Jackson's film Braindead (1992) (in that film, the rat monkey is described as being found only on Skull Island).

References to earlier versions of King Kong

 * Fay Wray, the original Ann Darrow, was asked by Peter Jackson to do a brief cameo in which she would utter the film's final line: "It was beauty killed the beast." At first she flatly refused, but then seemed to consider the possibility. However, she died shortly after her meeting with Jackson. The line ultimately went to the character of Carl Denham, as in the original.


 * An ad for Universal Pictures is visible while Kong is tearing up Times Square. In the original film, an ad for Columbia Pictures appeared in the same spot, and the production designers replicated it, but Columbia asked for a large amount of money for its use, so effects artists replaced it.


 * When Denham is considering who to play the part before meeting Ann, he suggests "Fay", but his assistant Preston replies, "She's doing a picture with RKO." Music from the 1933 original is heard, and Denham mutters, "Cooper, huh? I might have known."  Fay Wray starred in the 1933 film, which was directed by Merian C. Cooper and released by RKO.


 * When Carl Denham calls Bruce Baxter and Ann Darrow to film a scene on the deck of the ship, the shot is essentially identical to a scene between Ann and Jack Driscoll in the 1933 version.


 * In the original film, Merian C. Cooper made up an "Arabian proverb" about "beauty and beast". The 2005 remake repeats the fake proverb.


 * Kong's New York stage appearance looks very much like a re-enactment of the sacrifice scene of the 1933 film, including the posts the 'beauty' is tied to and the nearly identical performance and costumes of the dancers. In addition, the music played by the orchestra during that scene is the original 1933 score by Max Steiner.


 * The 1933 film featured an extended sequence in which several members of the party were devoured by massive spiders and insects after being shaken off a log into a ravine by Kong. This scene was pulled before release when Cooper decided it slowed the film down. Peter Jackson recreated the scene for the 2005 remake. He also paid homage to the spider pit sequence by recreating the scene using stop motion photography, which he included as an extra for the deluxe DVD and Blu-ray release of the original 1933 film.


 * The battle between Kong and the final T. rex is almost move-for-move like the last half of the fight between Kong and the T. rex in the original 1933 film, right down to Kong playing with the dinosaur's broken jaw and then standing, beating his chest and roaring victoriously.


 * After the crew captures Kong on the beach, Denham speaks a line from the 1933 film: "The whole world will pay to see this! We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you. In a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! KONG, THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD!"


 * In the original film, director and co-director Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack appear in cameos as the pilot and rear-gunner who shoot Kong. In the 2005 film, Jackson plays one of the gunners; the pilot is played by Rick Baker, who played Kong (in a rubber suit) in the 1976 remake.

Soundtrack
King Kong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was composed by James Newton Howard. Originally Howard Shore, who worked with Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings, was to compose the score for the film and recorded several completed cues before he was removed from the project by Jackson. Shore makes a cameo appearance as the conductor in the theatre from which Kong escapes. The film's record album was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.


 * Track listing
 * 1) "King Kong" – 1:09
 * 2) "A Fateful Meeting" – 4:16
 * 3) "Defeat Is Always Momentary" – 2:48
 * 4) "It's In the Subtext" – 3:19
 * 5) "Two Grand" – 2:34
 * 6) "The Venture Departs" – 4:03
 * 7) "Last Blank Space On the Map" – 4:43
 * 8) "It's Deserted" – 7:08
 * 9) "Something Monstrous… Neither Beast Nor Man" – 2:38
 * 10) "Head Towards the Animals" – 2:48
 * 11) "Beautiful" – 4:08
 * 12) "Tooth and Claw" – 6:17
 * 13) "That's All There Is…" – 3:26
 * 14) "Captured" – 2:25
 * 15) "Central Park" – 4:36
 * 16) "The Empire State Building" – 2:36
 * 17) "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part I)" – 1:59
 * 18) "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part II)" – 2:22
 * 19) "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part III)" – 2:14
 * 20) "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part IV)" – 4:45
 * 21) "Beauty Killed the Beast (Part V)" – 4:13

The music played during the vaudeville - counterpoised with real life scenes from depression crippled New York - sequence at the beginning of the movie is the classic song "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" by Al Jolson. However, it has not been included in the original soundtrack album.

Home media
King Kong was released on DVD on March 28, 2006 in the United States. The three versions that came out were single disc fullscreen, single disc widescreen and a 2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition. The second disc of the Special Edition contains the remainder of almost all the KongisKing.net production diaries not contained on the Peter Jackson's Production Diaries DVD set. The only missing episode is "13 Weeks To Go" which contained footage of Howard Shore recording the original score. It is still available on the website. King Kong was not released on VHS in the United States, but it was exclusively released on VHS in Germany.

The 3 disc Deluxe Extended Edition was released on November 14, 2006 in the U.S.A., and on November 1 in Australia. Thirteen minutes were put back into the film, and a further 40 minutes presented alongside the rest of the special features. The film was spread onto the first two discs with commentary by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens, and some featurettes on Discs 1 and 2, whilst the main Special Features are on Disc 3. Another set was released, including a WETA figurine of a bullet-ridden Kong scaling the Empire State Building, roaring at the army with Ann in hand. The extended film amounts to 201 minutes in total.

A special HD DVD version of King Kong was part of a promotional pack for the release of the external HD DVD Drive for the Xbox 360. The pack contained the HD DVD drive, the Universal Media Remote and King Kong on HD DVD. It was also available separately as a standard HD DVD. The film's theatrical and extended cuts were released together on Blu-ray Disc on January 20, 2009.