James Maynard Theatrical Designs

I believe that these were the first designs I did for KING KONG. I found these and others in a folder marked "REJECTED" and they certainly were. The Giant Head was originally designed as a kind of "cave" that would magically rise up on the central platform and through which Grover as Kong would make his appearances. The Giant Hand was to move down a ramp, hold poor Ellen as Anne Darrow in it's grip and move back up as Kong "defended" her from the various Monsters that would come to threaten her.

All very Grand and Expensive and ultimately completely WRONG!

This might be a proper concept for some other company to produce, but it just didn't suit HIP POCKET at all.
Johnny and I talked about how he saw the staging of the play ( and he reinterated his desire to be as faithful to the original film as possible. We discussed the tribal aspect of Skull Island and it's inhabitants...how they felt invaded by these "white devils"...and something clicked in my mind!

Once my mind got "unclicked" almost everything fell into place.

More on that next posting...