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Merian C. Cooper's King Kong

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Merian C. Cooper's King Kong

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Overview

Since its release in 1933, Merian C. Cooper's film King Kong has shocked and delighted generations of movie fans, setting the standard against which all such movies have been judged ever since. In December, 2005, Peter Jackson - whose films of the Lord of the Rings won critical acclaim and set box office records around the world - released his version of this classic film, bringing King Kong back to the forefront of the popular imagination.

Fully authorized by the estate of Merian C. Cooper, Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland's novel is a full rewrite of the original 1932 novel, bringing Cooper's original vision of King Kong back to readers and fans alike. Set in the early 1930's, it is a classic story of exploration and adventure, at the center of which is the "eighth wonder of the world" himself - Kong.

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ISBN-13:	9781466841888
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	831,523
File size:	695 KB

About the Author

JOE DEVITO is a lifelong Kong fanatic, as well as the co-writer and illustrator of the graphic novel Kong: King of Skull Island. He lives in Chalfont, Pennsylvania.

Co-writer BRAD STRICKLAND is best known for his young adult science fiction and fantasy work as well as co-writing Kong: King of Skull Island. He is a professor of English at Gainesville College and lives in Oakwood, Georgia.

Brad Strickland has written and cowritten forty-one novels, many of them for younger readers. He is the author of the fantasy trilogy Moon Dreams, Nul’s Quest, and Wizard’s Mole, and the creator of the popular horror novel Shadowshow. With his wife, Barbara, he has written for the Star Trek Young Adult book series, for Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? book series, and for Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (Pocket Books). Both solo and with Thomas E. Fuller, he has written several books about Wishbone, public TV’s literature-loving dog. When he's not writing, he teaches English at Gainesville College in Gainesville, Georgia. He and Barbara have two children, Amy and Jonathan, and a daughter-in-law, Rebecca. They live and work in Oakwood, Georgia.

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Editorial Reviews

DeVito and Strickland (Kong: King of Skull Island) deliver a fast-paced rewrite of Cooper's landmark 1932 adventure novel. Filmmaker Carl Denham is desperate for a starlet for his new project, but it's hard to locate a dame willing to board a ship bound for a secret destination with a cargo full of gas bombs. But find Ann Darrow he does, and the ship sails for the West Indies. The journey and arrival chapters are pretty boilerplate (Ann and first mate Jack Driscoll start falling for each other; the West Indian natives of Skull Island are stereotypically savage). But DeVito and Strickland do a bang-up job after the natives kidnap Ann from the ship and Denham and Driscoll must enter the island jungle and fight off deadly dinosaurs in search of Kong and the damsel in distress. The familiar scenes after Denham captures Kong and bring him back to Manhattan are thankfully succinct, and overall the authors do a fine job of respecting Cooper's pre-WWII idioms while picking up the pace for a contemporary audience. The result is a book that seems genuine and uncontrived, even as it's timed to coincide with another cinematic remake (Peter Jackson's movie hits theaters in December) of the King Kong story. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This is the first of what will no doubt be a host of Kong-related books accompanying director Peter Jackson's big-screen remake debuting in December. DeVito and Strickland have rewritten the original 1932 novelization. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Gr 4 Up-King Kong (St. Martin's Press, 2005) is a giant gorilla who needs no introduction. Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland have used the 1932 novelization of Merian C. Cooper's classic movie to create an authentic Depression-era story. The adventure begins with filmmaker Carl Denham desperately seeking an actress for his new project. He meets plucky, but broke, Ann Darrow who signs on for a mysterious journey to an uncharted island. Even ship's Captain Englehorn and First Mate Jack Driscoll are in the dark about their final destination when they ship out with a hold full of gas bombs and a huge steel cage. Things heat up when Denham finally steers everyone into the middle of a ceremony where a young woman is about to be sacrificed to an unseen creature behind a high stockade fence. Interrupting the proceedings, the interlopers retreat when the witch doctor spots Ann's blonde hair. That night the natives kidnap Ann, and First Mate Driscoll leads a party to find the woman he's grown to love. The search of the skull-shaped island brings the crew face-to-face with King Kong who now has Ann in his grip. Though the giant beast is willing to fight for his fair-haired prize, he is also gentle with her. Rescuing Ann isn't enough for Denham who brings King Kong back to New York. There the story closes with the gorilla's demise on the Empire State Building. The largely male cast delivers solid performances with narrator and leads all well chosen. Well-placed sound effects add just the right touch. With the 2005 release of the latest King Kong movie, this recording will be a popular addition for school and public library collections.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

A just-passable pulpy novel based on Meriam C. Cooper's tale King Kong, immortalized in a 1933 film, from DeVito and Strickland (Kong: King of Skull Island, 2004). "Have you ever heard of . . . Kong?" one character asks another of the iconic gorilla. Oh, yes. And with Peter Jackson's December '05 film remake, the world will hear quite a lot more. The authors' aim is to reintroduce swashbuckling filmmaker Cooper's original novel and film. Authorized by the Cooper estate, it features a top-secret excursion to mythical Skull Island in search of the storied Kong and a cast of characters cemented in the popular imagination by the film: an old sea salt with a monkey for a pet, a danger-seeking moviemaker, a dashing leading man and a pretty waif (lured, starving, off the streets of New York). The prose here is simultaneously workmanlike and sensationally extravagant ("High above, the nimble airplanes renewed their dance of death as they dove toward Kong in another grotesquely beautiful ballet"). Newcomers will appreciate the sense of mystery that builds during the voyage and pre-Kong encounters with Skull Island natives. As with the film, the third act can seem a long time coming. A more contemporary and adult approach might have invited book-club explorations of colonialism, racism and humankind's exploitation of the natural world, but the idea is to keep the cornerstone of the franchise as pure as possible. This they do, though the best piece of writing here is James V. D'Arc's foreword. The curator of Cooper's papers at Brigham Young University, D'Arc writes movingly of Cooper, truly a larger-than-life figure-although not as large as his famous primate. In terms of pushing the story along andgetting Kong atop the Empire State Building, DeVito and Strickland get the job done. But whether today's readers will appreciate their faithful effort is another question.

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