King Kong VFX Artist Breaks Down Making The Empire State Building Scene
King Kong visual effects artist Robyn Luckham has broken down what went into creating the movie's climactic Empire State Building Scene. 2005's King Kong was the third reboot of the classic story of the giant gorilla. The film was helmed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and was his first blockbuster after The Return of the King. King Kong tells the tale of a greedy filmmaker (played by Jack Black) who assembles a crew to make a movie on Skull Island, where they find one of cinema's most famous monsters. While the film was met with mixed -though mostly positive reviews - it did manage to snag three Academy Awards, including one for Best Visual Effects.
Luckham himself is an incredibly accomplished VFX artist. As well as being part of King Kong's Oscar-winning team, moviegoers will have seen his work somewhere in nearly every current major Hollywood franchise, including Star Wars, The Avengers, X-Men, Avatar, and most recently Dune, which has also been nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. King Kong was Luckham's second time working with Jackson, having previously lent his talents to The Lord of the Rings' conclusion, The Return of the King, which won a whopping eleven Academy Awards.
Related: Every King Kong Movie, Ranked Worst To Best
In a recent video from Corridor Crew, the Crew sat down with Luckham to analyze both good and bad CGI from many different Hollywood films. In the video, Luckham broke down what went into creating King Kong's iconic Empire State Building Scene. During the scene, Kong climbs up the side of the New York building while carrying Ann (Naomi Watts) in one hand. Luckham states that one of his goals was to make Kong's climb look «laborious,» as he had been injured at that point in
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