Bargain-Bin books #3: King Kong the complete script by Lorenzo Semple, Jr.

This was one of a handful of oddities that popped up in work-related book sales, and I think I grabbed it for about 50 cents. I'm not sure why, as I was never all that crazy on the remake at the time, but it probably had a lot to do with the Frank Frazetta cover art. Since then though, I've swung around a little on the film, and I've decided to devote the rest of this week to Dino De Laurentiis and his mad attempts at bringing the big hairy fella back to the big screen.



Despite loving films so much, I've never really been all that pushed about reading scripts from big productions. I'm not sure why, but maybe it's that we don't really get much of an insight into the writing process from reading them as we do into the actual film making process from listening to a directors commentary, or watch a 'making of' special feature on a DVD or Blu Ray. And as much as I enjoy reading books on the 'making' of my favourite films, I really do wish we got more input from the writers perspective, which is probably why I went nuts for The JAWS Log, by Carl Gottlieb a while back, as he was very much instrumental in seeing the final drafts of the screenplay through to what we saw in cinemas. How do they feel about what becomes of their labour in the transition from page to screen? Mortified at what has become of the baby they slaved over? Delighted with finally seeing these characters come to life?

Sadly, we don't get much insight from Lorenzo Semple, Jr. here on what he thought of the film, as the book was published before the final film screened and delivered for the public and critics to devour. We do get a fun introduction from him, however, which at least sheds some light into the early production of such a dividing film. Semple was coming hot off of the acclaim for Three Days of the Condor which he had written for Dino, and before that, a string of success bearing names such as The Drowning Pool, The Parallax View and Papillon. Dino had apparently been talking to Semple about getting a sequel to Barbarella off the ground, which ultimately never transpired, but it led to Dino giving him the call for King Kong.

Despite not going into great detail on re-writes or changes, we do get a few little snippets - such as the character of Jack Prescott, who was played by Jeff Bridges - was "originally an eccentric and semi-comical Italian attached to the Vatican library". Same goes for Dwan, the love interest, who was initially written to be a camera operator on board the ship to film oil commercials for the company. Some things get changed for the better, others for the worse. Other back-and-forth's between the producer, director and writer included the climax, which was deemed too expensive to film at the time. Not surprising that issues were raised, as the budget ended up coming in around 25 million dollars. But as they say, they were making a big film, and it called for a big budget.

To be honest, not much else changed in the transition from script to screen here; no major sequences chopped at the last minute, or roles completely hacked away in the final cut: I get the feeling that De Laurentiis was putting such huge eggs in the basket that no chances were being taken with what was filmed. from a writers point of view, Semple seemed very happy with what he had seen in the rough cuts. Despite his run of hits, his career did take a bit of a cool-down after this, despite writing the 1980 updating of Flash Gordon. No doubt he had just reached that point where he had done plenty of great work, and by the time the 80's rolled around, he would have been in his 60's. Ultimately, the film did suffer from special effects problems, uneven performances and very mixed reviews, but we'll dive into that tomorrow. As far as Dino was concerned, "I wanted a good time from this movie, and that's what I got". Semple's final thoughts? "If it works, I'll take bows alongside Dino and John (the director), who made it happen. If it doesn't, I'm not being falsely modest when I say the blame is mine. Luckily, only those who ever read this will realise that".