Wow factor busting the budget of Hollywood movies
 

It's a jungle out there
-Wow factor busting the budget of f/x pics like 'Kong'

By GABRIEL SNYDER, PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, Variety.com

Hollywood studio execs have long blamed stars like Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts for ballooning film budgets.

But those salaries seem like a bargain compared to the cost of special f/x.

Last week Universal acknowledged that "King Kong" costs shot up to $207 million when the studio agreed to add a half hour -- at a cost of $32 million -- to Peter Jackson's great-ape epic.

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Amazing how the stuff of dreams is so expensive. I'd be skeptical at the results, if PJ hadn't pulled off the battle scenes in Return of the King.

At US$207 million I'm guessing PJ really wanted some amazing angles of King Kong on the Empire State Building.

LOL at Michael, I read the write up on PJ in Wired mag. Remember when Superman came out and the marketing guys came up with "You'll believe a man can fly" well PJ wants you to believe an ape can grow to that size and not be crushed by his own weight. Things like these keep me up at night, that and why do space ships have to be areodynamic.

Easy - spaceships have to be aerodynamic because when they're flying along at Warp whatever, they need to have minimal wind resistance.

Perhaps you have wondered how the rumble of the engines or the zap of the lasers, travels so well in outer space. It's because in an airless vacuum, there are no air molecules to get in the way of the sound waves.

Thanks, that made me throw up all over my office mate's keyboard.

Maybe they're going to make King Kong aerodynamic.

The thing with FX is that it gets cheaper with time, however the same can not be said about actors!

Anhar

Hahahaha!!

I guess they'd have to shave him.

Erm Bill, why would a shapeship need to have minimal wind resistance, aerodynamics applies when you have a rigid body moving through gaseous or liquid environment, however this should not apply in space (I far as know) as there is no atmosphere, hence aerodymanics should not apply.

At warp speed time dilation would be more of something to worry about.

Anyway I digress :)

Anhar

The faster you go, the more particles you come into contact with. Space is not a perfect vacuum. Aerodynamics could help at higher speeds. By higher, I mean ludicrous.

Colonel Sanders: Prepare ship for light speed.
Dark Helmet: No, no, no. Light speed is too slow!
Colonel Sanders: Light speed too slow?
Dark Helmet: Yes. We're going to have to go right to...Ludicrous speed.
Colonel Sanders: Ludicrous speed? Sir, we've never gone that fast before...I don't know if the ship can take it.
Dark Helmet: What's the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chicken?

Ha ha ha ha ha