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Image credit: King Kong: Weta Digital Ltd.

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King Kong (Movie - 2005)

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U UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Depicting Depression-era New York City with historical veracity wasn't easy. Case in point: the Universal billboard visible in Times Square shots. According to visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, a Columbia Pictures sign loomed over the real square in 1933. But Columbia apparently refused to give permission to use its logo without being paid, so the CG crew inserted a Universal sign. Goodbye, accuracy. Hello, product plug.

V V. REX
Because evolution never stopped on Skull Island, the Tyrannosaurus rex mutated into a bigger, scalier beast dubbed Vastatosaurus rex. Weta's faux paleontologists and Universal's merchandisers adopted the new name, but nobody told Jackson & Co. They've been calling them T. rexes in all the behind-the-scenes promo material.

W WIRE, DOWN TO THE
By early fall, Universal had decided to release Kong at three hours, about 40 minutes longer than initially planned. That led to manic postproduction and 24-hour days for many members of Weta's effects crew (some even brought sleeping bags to work). The last two CG shots finished — one of which is Kong starting to scale the Empire State Building — didn't wrap till the morning of Nov. 28, just two days before the first press screening.

X XMAS LIGHTS
The twinkly accompaniment to Kong's tender interlude with Ann on an icy pond in Central Park. The sequence was one of the last Watts filmed, and grew out of an improv idea by Andy Serkis about how Kong would find it tough walking on snowy city streets.

Y YEAH, RIGHT
Nits for nitpickers:
· Why doesn't Kong's weight crack that pond ice?
· Ann meets Kong in Manhattan wearing just a sleeveless dress. In subfreezing weather, wouldn't she turn blue or have misty breath?
· Could Kong really be hauled to New York in that rickety cargo ship — a feat left unshown, as in the original? (Yes, insists Jackson: ''We did double-check for our own satisfaction, and Kong would fit fine into the hull.'')

Z ZEMECKIS, ROBERT
He exec-produced Jackson's 1996 ghost comedy The Frighteners; that failure jeopardized Jackson's fledgling Weta firms. Zemeckis then hired Weta for some digital F/X work on 1997's Contact. If not for that crucially timed commission, there might be no Lord of the Rings or Kong remake. Hail Zemeckis!