Creation

We have always had a great curiosity about this film that has finally been satisfied by the release of KING KONG (1933) on DVD. Peter Jackson has recreated by narration, story boards and the surviving footage a coherent representation of the film. Enough for us to at least give some sort of realistic rating. The film was short circuited and canceled for three (3) reasons. Economic pressure on RKO due to the Great Depression, the expense of the film (several times that of the completed KING KONG) and that Merian C. Cooper did not like it. For details of the plot review the DVD, it is extensive.

Though not a viable feature film, we think it could be made into a nice made for T.V. movie for the Sci-Fi Channel and would certainly be better then a lot of their other efforts (they are not all as good as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and would fit into their Saturday programing. Like Peter Jackson's KING KONG (2005) it would be best to keep it in it's original 1930's time-line. If successful the THE WAR EAGLES could be looked to next. You might even coax Ray Harryhausen as a technical director. If anybody knows anything about these films he does.

ADDENDUM; Understand that Ray Harryhausen is a producer of a version of THE WAR EAGLES as of this date 05/01/08.

After doing the clay/stop-motion dinosaur sequences in The Lost World, Willis O'Brien then wanted to do a film called Creation which once again involved those prehistoric creatures, this time discovered by a crew on a ship. The cost-especially during these Depression times-was too expensive though so it was dropped. But not before O'Brien managed to shoot some footage of a Triceratops and her two kids playing around on the island before one of those kids wanders around to the sight of the movie's villain who shoots the poor boy in the eye and when the mother hears her son's cries, she rushes to the villain who fails to make a quick retreat before she gores him! All but that last part, I managed to see on YouTube which was part of a short sequence of which the narrator told the whole story while drawings of what was supposed to happen were shown as well as that only photographed sequence I just described. I read in the comments on YT that it was part of a documentary of the 1933 version of King Kong on that movie's DVD extras section. Anyway, while this movie was cancelled, producer Merian C. Cooper wanted O'Brien to help do some similar sequences for his own movie. And what was that movie, why it was King Kong, of course!

There are a number of films in Hollywood history that went into preproduction, even actually shot test footage for a presentation reel, only to be shelved by the studio for various reasons. Usually such ventures are forgotten to all but a few film fans & scholars, let alone actually listed on the Internet Movie Database. So it was very surprising (but a pleasant surprise!) to find Willis O'Brien's CREATION actually given a full listing here, especially since less than a full reel of film still survives. When JURASSIC PARK came out, there were dozens of bargain bin tapes on dinosaur movies that popped up to cash in on the interest in dino-films of the past, many of which included the CREATION footage in their collection of clips. Perhaps, when the DVD of the original KING KONG finally gets its years-overdue release, the CREATION footage will be restored and included among the extras.

Creation, one of many of Obies' incomplete projects. Only a few minutes of footage remain, and on the King Kong DVD, on disc 2, a dramatization of Creation is done to give you a feel of how it was meant to be filmed. It has an interesting story, average dinosaur story, but interesting. This one had some drama as well. The film was scrapped because $500,000 dollars were already spent on the movie for a few minutes of footage. If the project was completed, it would have brought it to a staggering $1,000,000. They would have never been able to sold enough tickets to see it. Although it was scrapped, it was the main basis for Kong. Some of the scenes in Kong were actually from Creation. All of the dinosaurs are from Creation. Creation helped King Kong go down as one of the best movies of all time.

This 8.5 minute extract of a movie was available in the Super 8mm film format and then of course DVD. According to the books, A Pictorial History of Horror Movies(1973); and Movie Magic(1974), a date of 1929 would be more accurate then the speculated 1931 date for the creation of Creation. This film also would have made obvious to the makers of King Kong that more live action animals is not a good thing! The birds however fit in so well that they were kept. The print viewed had only fair picture quality and at the height of 8mm film collecting was not a title easily acquired.