At last week's press junket in New York City, director Peter Jackson admitted that he changed the animation credit for Christian Rivers and Eric Leighton on KING KONG. Originally, the duo responsible for overseeing the masterful creation of the CG gorilla (with Rivers handling previs and MoCap) was given the credit: "Animation Designed & Supervised by," which appears in the production notes. However, Jackson requested that they be acknowledged as the animation directors in the end credits.
Jackson did not discuss the DGA's involvement but merely explained: "It was deserved[considering the work they did with the previsualization and animation] This shouldn't happen all the time but should be a case by case basis."
When asked if he was tempted to cut his own "Spider Pit" sequence given the remake's three-hour length and the fact that the legendary sequence was cut from the original 1933 landmark movie because it slowed the pace Jackson replied: "When I was worried it would be cut, I made it impossible [and protected myself by having two main characters in the pit]."
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
