King Kong Lives

King Kong Lives (1986)

America's biggest hero is back... and he is not happy.

After falling from the Twin Towers, Kong lies in a coma for ten years. When his heart begins to fail, scientists engineer an artificial heart, and a giant female ape is captured to serve as a source for a blood transfusion. When Kong awakens following his heart transplant, he senses the nearby presence of the female ape and the two escape to wreak havoc together.

Date of release
1986-12-16
TMDB
5.2 / 10 (281)
Runtime
1h 45m
Genres
Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Director
John Guillermin
Collection
King Kong (1976) Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: King Kong
  • Filmed in: North Carolina
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

King Kong Lives is a 1986 American monster adventure film directed by John Guillermin. Produced by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and featuring special effects by Carlo Rambaldi, the film stars Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin.

Production

Dino De Laurentiis had been interested in making a sequel to King Kong since he made the remake. In 1977, he said there would "definitely" be a sequel. "Steve McQueen made a picture in which he died at the end, but they made another picture with Steve McQueen. Many stars die at the end of a picture and then go on to the next picture. Kong is a star. We are going to have a new story, a new Kong."

The progress of a sequel was complicated by the fact the 1976 film was considered a financial disappointment and there were ongoing legal uncertainties over who owned the rights to King Kong. A number of scripts had been written. "They had King Kong in Russia and King Kong in outer space", said writer Steve Pressfield. "Really, this is not an exaggeration.

Pressfield and Ron Schusett pitched the idea that Kong has been on a giant respirator for years, and he was brought back to life with an artificial heart. According to Pressfield, "Dino loved the whole idea of the artificial heart and said, 'That's brilliant.

The film was announced in October 1985. It was part of a slate of films from De Laurentiis in association with Embassy that also included Blue Velvet. Pressfield said "The whole thing is a love story with the two apes, but there's also a lot of action and an uplifting ending, although there are some elements of tragedy, as there were in the original. We even give a nod to women's lib with Lady Kong falling for the male scientist.

Brian Kerwin said, "I knew that my name would be up there as the lead, but there was never any question that the star of the movie was the ape. Also, the 1976 movie had such low prestige and Jessica Lange was ridiculed, but then so was Christopher Reeve for Superman, and look at the subsequent success of those two. So, I don't worry about it. We tried to have fun when we were making the movie, without poking fun at it.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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