'Kong: Skull Island' News & Update: How Willis O’Brien Revolutionized Movie Special Effects

The movie "Kong: Skull Island" follows a team of scientists and Vietnam War soldiers who traveled to an uncharted island in the Pacific and meet terrifying creatures and Kong himself. No one can forget the first "King Kong" in 1933 made by Willis O'Brien, the embodiment of O'Brien's fascination with a performance that transcends mere puppetry.

According to Time, Willis O'Brien pioneered the blending of a stop-motion monster with live-action footage of actors in the original "King Kong" in 1933. And movies about big monsters bombarding innocent cities emerged like "King Kong vs Godzilla" and much more.

In the latest installment of the franchise, "Kong: Skull Island" clearly benefitted on the advancement of the movie-making technology today as it features the largest, most realistic Kong yet. The visual effects are created by Industrial Light & Magic; Kong will have the height of 100 feet and have 19 million of digital hairs.

The director wants to take Kong back to the 1933 version and focus on him being this whole new species of movie monster as the visual effects supervisor, Jess White said. According to The Washington Post, Willis O'Brien was born in the Bay Area.

O'Brien worked as a newspaper sports cartoonist, which led to his study of bodies in motion. He also traveled with a paleontologist looking for fossils of immense creatures which fired his imagination.

O'Brien then started to work with clay, molding figures and shooting seconds of animation, one frame at a time. In result of his studies, O'Brien released the 1925 "The Lost World" that attracted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Edison.

After years of efforts, the art of combining stop-motion creatures and actors emerged with the used of mattes and mirrors and rear-screen projection. So the time that you will watch the movie you should thank Willis O'Brien because of his patience we are able to see a breakthrough in CGI today.

TagsKong: Skull Island, Kong: Skull Island Update, Kong: Skull Island Cast, Kong: Skull Island Artwork, King Kong, Willis O'Brien, Kong: Skull Island Director