Kong is Back

The King Kong attraction at Hollywood park, the first theme park attraction that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based f/x shop Weta Digital has created, reopens on July 1 after a devastating fire two years ago. “King Kong 36 3-D,” is an attraction that will become a permanent part of the Hollywood theme park’s studio tram tour. It will also be prominently featured in the park’s annual Halloween Horror Nights event. Jackson jumped on the chance to create a theme park ride when he realised he could “create the illusion of reality in a way that is much more tactile and profound than can be done in a cinema environment of a normal theater. As a filmmaker, you’re hoping to have the audience step inside your movie and become part of the experience.” Jackson will also be a regular fixture on the tram tour, introducing guests to what they can expect during a pre-ride sequence. The new attraction borrows heavily on character designs and plot points from the 25 film as guests, wearing 3D glasses, find themselves deep in a jungle where they encounter a pack of menacing raptors. Guests are then caught in the middle of a battle between the dinosaurs and King Kong as the ape tries to save the jostling trams from sliding off a cliff.