Kong Dinos @ San Diego Comicon

[Neal Romanek <nromanek@earthlink.net>]

I went to Comic-Con 2005 in San Diego this past weekend, where there 
was a "King Kong" panel discussion which showed footage--some of it 
still sans fx--from the film. I, of course, did not attend this 
discussion. Why? Because I'm a big idiot. And I was trying to get in as 
much of walking around the convention floor as I could. I am filled 
with deep regret. But I HEARD that...

...Kong fights THREE Tyrannosaur-type dinosaurs. So that's exciting, 
yes?

I did see, at the WETA Workshop booth, a large number of Kong 
collectibles on display. I doubt they will be ready for purchase until 
after the movie is out. They were really beautiful. And looking at them 
closely explained a lot about the movie that was puzzling me.

First, the lead dino antagonist is called a "V-Rex". What the V stands 
for I don't know. Anybody? "Viceroy"? "Victoriana"? "Victory Over 
Terrorism"? The bust of the V-Rex was gorgeous. Many of the teeth were 
broken and growing in at odd angles. The skin was scarred and patchy. 
It looked like it had been living in the jungle for decades. Wonderful.

Also among the other "dinos" represented was a multi-spiked ceratopsian 
which resembled a styracosaurus--or resembled it about as much as the 
Lord of the Rings "oliphants" resembled a modern elephants.

Peter Jackson is apparently using every bit of creative genius at WETA 
to create new, undiscovered species of dinosaurs for the film, but 
trying to give them more individual life and personal history as 
animals than we've seen before.




Neal Romanek
http://www.nealromanek.com