--- In sonsofkong@yahoogroups.com, "Dean" <ripjagger@y...> wrote:
> I agree it looks nice, but I was more than a bit taken aback that they
> showed as much of Kong as they did. I would have thought the bellow
> alone after the girl's scream would have been enough of a tease this
> early. Or at the most the big arm that slams down into the shot. To
> actually show Kong's face and form makes me think they're nervous
> about the movie's chances. I have a general rule about trailers, that
> the more they show the weaker the film is believed by the company to
> be.
>
> It's not Jack Black I'm worried about, but that Brody guy. He looks
> completely out of place, but maybe it'll work.
>
> Dean

I think that everyone making big-budget, effects-heavy pictures
nowadays that feature a character who has a well established past
remembers the fiasco of TriStar's "Godzilla." That film was an
enormous let-down to fans of that series. The ploy by the producers
to keep the big guy's appearance a secret may have worked to get
people into the theatre that first weekend, but their redesign was
such a brutal slap in the face to both hardcore and casual fans that
the box office suffered as a result. Of course being a grade "Z" film
touting itself as an A-level pic sure didn't help.

I think today's movie makers want to assure fans that there beloved
characters haven't been messed with in order to avoid bad word of
mouth far in advance. Spider-Man, Hulk, Batman and others which I
can't remember at the moment spring to mind. Pictures and/or footage
of these characters were released well before the films came out. I
think this was done primarily to calm the fans. Maybe Hollywood is
finally realizing that fans really can make or break a film.
Especially now, with the instant-world of the internet. Getting the
fans "on board" (at least in regards to a character's design or
costume or whatever), can help take some of the heat off the studios
and let them re-direct their focus on the other aspects of the film,
and spend less time being on the defensive over whether or not a
director or producer has remained "true" to the character.

My $.02

-JN