Director: Peter Jackson
Writer: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Colin Hanks
Released: December 14, 2005
Rating: (M)
Runtime: 187 minutes
Websites:
Story: It is 1933, and vaudeville actress Ann Darrow has found herself - like so many other New Yorkers during the Great Depression - without the means to earn a living. Unwilling to compromise and allow herself to sink into a career in burlesque, she considers her limited options while aimlessly wandering the streets of Manhattan. When her hunger drives her to unsuccessfully try to steal an apple from a fruit vendor's stall, she is rescued - literally - by filmmaker and multiple hyphenate Carl Denham.

It seems that the entrepreneur-raconteur-adventurer is no stranger to theft, having that day lifted the only existing print of his most recent and unfinished film from under his studio executives' noses when they threatened to pull his completion funds. Carl has until the end of the day to get his crew onboard the Singapore-bound tramp steamer, the S.S. Venture, in hopes of completing his travelogue/action film. With that, the showman is certain he will finally achieve the personal greatness he knows awaits him around the corner . . . and although the crew believe that corner to be Singapore, Denham actually hopes to find and capture on film the mysterious place of legend: Skull Island.

Unfortunately for Carl, his headlining actress has pulled out of his project, but his search for a size-four leading lady (the costumes have all been made) has, fatefully, led him to Ann. The struggling actress is reluctant to sign on with Denham, until she learns that the up-and-coming, socially relevant playwright Jack Driscoll is penning the screenplay - the fees his friend Carl pays for potboiling adventure are a welcome supplement to Driscoll's nominal income from his stage plays.

With his newly discovered star and coerced screenwriter reluctantly onboard, Denham's "moving picture ship" heads out of New York Harbour ... and toward a destiny that none aboard could possibly foresee.
Cast:
Naomi Watts Ann Darrow
Jack Black Carl Denham
Adrien Brody Jack Driscoll
Andy Serkis King Kong/Lumpy the Cook
Jamie Bell Jimmy
Kyle Chandler Bruce Baxter
Lobo Chan Choy
Thomas Kretschmann Captain Englehorn
Evan Parke Hayes
Colin Hanks Preston
John Sumner Herb
David Dengelo Venture Crew
Stephen Hall Venture Crew
Richard Kavanagh Venture Crew
Louis Sutherland Venture Crew