”A real gorilla doesn`t have these detailed expressions,” says Carlo Rambaldi, ”but for the movie you need this. It`s acting.”
King Kong, or, to be exact, the mechanical head that model-maker Rambaldi has made of everyone`s favorite rampaging ape, has just switched into his
”ferocious” mode. All snarl and sharp teeth, the model looks appropriately scary, and the 20 or so technicians sandwiched into the small, hot soundstage in a corner of the DEG Film Studios are excited.
As a jockey-sized actor dressed in an ape sits in front of a camera, four technicians operating levers that look like the gearshifts found in 18-wheeler trucks push and pull, tug and jerk, operating a mechanical system that allows Kong to achieve a variety of expressions.
Want a snarl? Push some mouth levers here, a few nose and brow levers there, and you`ve got the required look. How about ”lust” or a healthy
”sniff”? No problem: Rambaldi has worked out all the technical glitches.
Creator of E.T. and winner of three Academy Awards for his work (for
”E.T.,” ”Alien” and the 1976 remake of ”King Kong”), Rambaldi is a key player in the production of ”King Kong Lives,” the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group production currently filming in this small coastal city located a 30-minute plane ride from Charlotte.
The Italian effects expert, who has just flown back from Rome after being awarded the Premio Alcide De Gasperi, his native land`s highest civilian honor, is here to run through the first in a series of mechanical and photographic tests of the several Kong models that will be so crucial to the sequel`s success.
Ten years after producer De Laurentiis promised that ”when the monkey die, people gonna cry,” King Kong will rise from the dead and attempt to tug at our heartstrings again. Despite nearly unanimous critical pans, De Laurentiis` remake of the 1933 classic grossed over $70 million at the domestic box office in 1976, and was a major hit overseas. This smash success made it obvious that Kong`s appeal transcends cultures and generations. Hence, this sequel, scheduled to be released at Christmas.
Fifty-three years after he first appeared on a motion picture screen, King Kong has, in fact, passed beyond the realm of classic film character into the areas of folklore and mythology. The ”beauty and the beast” sexual subtext of the Kong films has been the object of comment and speculation for decades, and Kong`s final, valiant stand on top of the Empire State Building is one of the truly enduring moments in the history of the cinema.
More importantly, despite the destruction he wreaks, Kong is–like Frankenstein`s creation and the Wolfman–a monster with a heart; a tragically misunderstood being, a creature who strikes back only in defense. ”You can love him because he is unspoiled,” sums up Michael McClendon, a day player in the sequel. ”It`s something we would all like to go back to: That lost innocence.”
In ”King Kong Lives,” the giant ape`s story takes up where the remake left off: Kong, after being riddled with machinegun bullets and falling from the top of New York`s World Trade Center, is airlifted to a medical facility, where he is put on life-support systems. Cut to 10 years later, when explorer Brian Kerwin (”Murphy`s Romance”), trekking through the wilds of Borneo, discovers a female equivalent of Our Hero.
Rushed to a Tennessee medical facility, Lady Kong`s blood is used for transfusion during an operation peformed by Linda Hamilton (”The
Terminator”) in which Kong is fitted with a 10-ton Jarvik heart. After recovering, Kong, sniffing his spouse equivalent`s ”aroma,” helps Lady Kong to escape from the concrete silo in which she is imprisoned.
The duo flee across the Tennessee wilderness, with the Army in hot pursuit. Both apes are eventually recaptured, but not before Lady Kong has been impregnated. The film ends with the birth of Baby Kong. Another sequel seems inevitable.
”Kong is classic mythology,” says male lead Kerwin, ”the monster that nobody understands. Everybody wants to watch the monster wreaking havoc, but the attractive part of the myth is that there`s one person who`s privy to the monster`s affections, who understands him.”
In the previous Kong films, the love interest was played by women: first Fay Wray, then Jessica Lange. But in the spirit of camp fun that director John Guillermin (director of the remake) and the producers hope to impart to this sequel, it is Kerwin who will be the object of Lady Kong`s love crush.
With this in mind, model maker Rambaldi has had to come up with three separate Kongs–male, female and baby–each with individualized features. It is these creations that will be the stars of the film, since, as the actors acknowledge, plot and humans are secondary to Kong-like effects.
”The movie is about Kong, about special effects, about jeeps being blown up,” says John Ashton, who plays the Army general responsible for Kong`s capture (and is known to millions as Judge Reinhold`s detective partner in
”Beverly Hills Cop”).
Extreme care and a lot of money are being spent on models, miniatures and special effects. In the studio`s model department, more than 16,000 man-hours are being expended to produce 1,200 miniature trees that will be used in only one scene.
On the same day that Rambaldi is testing his models, a soundstage is a beehive of activity, with artists and carpenters busily preparing teeny roads, bushes, rocks, and other scenic paraphernalia. On another huge soundstage, consisting on 20,000 square feet with a 45-foot high ceiling, an enormous heart transplant set has been erected, complete with platform bed for Kong, pulley for the heart, and monstrous tanks for blood plasma.
In the meantime, Rambaldi and his crew are at work, preparing for their run-through. This time out, with 50 technicians working for three months, Rambaldi has produced a Kong that will come in several sexes and pieces: there is an enormous, 60-foot version of Kong, which features a removable head and legs (the head and fur color can be changed to create Lady Kong), and extremely limited movement (mostly in the jaw and eyes); a giant hand, used for scenes in which Kong picks up objects and humans; a Baby Kong about a foot high, with a limited number of movements; and three Kong heads, for King, Lady and Baby, featuring different characteristics, but each including about 15 different points of movement (in contrast, E.T., a complete body model, had 85 movement points). Those movements can be combined to create an almost infinite number of expressions, including labor pains for Lady Kong, and a ”love crush” for King.
Rambaldi, a thin, placid man in his late 50s who chainsmokes while directing his technical crew, claims that ”70 percent of the old Kong is repeated” in the current version, with the rest ”of higher structural quality. Mechanics are better than electronics (for models like this), because the movements are more precise. This kind of mechanics is not taught in any university. This (Kong`s face) is like a prototype, but it`s a prototype that must work the first time.”
For the test, one of the actors puts on large contact lenses (the ape`s eyes are not mechanically controlled), dons an ape suit, and sits in front of a camera. The mechanical head is then put in place. Inside the head are wires that lead to the large levers. Four technicians operate 12 different levels
(two levers for the nose, two for the brow, eight for the mouth), practicing a synchronization that produces fluid movements. As Rambaldi puts it, ”many people (the operators) are the soul of the actor.”
The test, although done under crowded, hot conditions, seems to go well. Basic expressions tried out include ”ferocious” and ”sniff,” with Rambaldi and ape choreographer Elliott conferring at key moments as to proper movements.
”Peter,” says Rambaldi at one point, ”I think a good sniff here is one big and one short.”
”Yes,” responds Elliott, ”and remember, you`re looking at what you`re sniffing, at what scent you`ve picked up.”
Rambaldi, a low-keyed genius, knows that on his shoulders rests the continued success of the Kong craze. He is not one to shirk the challenge.
