Extract: “Monsters of Hollow Earth” — Godzilla vs Kong Concept Design by ADI

Godzilla vs Kong - Hollow Earth creature design by ADI

In this exclusive extract from The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong, Amalgmated Dynamics, Inc. co-founder Tom Woodruff Jr. discusses the company’s concept work for Godzilla vs Kong. Under Woodruff’s direction, artists including Xander Smith, Justice Joseph, Ken Barthelmey and Bryan Wynia designed the monstrous denizens inhabiting the subterranean realm of Hollow Earth.

Read the full story about the design, cinematography and visual effects of Godzilla vs Kong in Issue 1 of The Illusion Almanac, available now as an 80-page* digital magazine formatted for Kindle. Download it from Amazon online stores worldwide — just search for “illusion almanac.”

ADI designed the winged serpents that attack Kong early in the Hollow Earth sequence, plus a group of creatures living under the surface of the rock. As these rock-dwellers break free into the open air, a dinosaur-like beast appears and gobbles one of them up. For these, ADI drew inspiration from a sequence that had been completed for the original 1933 King Kong, but ultimately cut from the film. In the sequence — which Peter Jackson resurrected for his 2005 remake — luckless crew members from the S.S. Venture survive a fall into a deep ravine only to be attacked by giant spiders. “Luckily for us,” said Tom Woodruff Jr., “Kong was completely integrated into our scene, so we didn’t suffer the same fate as the spider pit in the original and get cut out of the movie!”
Early iterations of the rock monsters resembled terrestrial turtles; these rapidly evolved into something more crab-like. “We added these big appendages on the front,” Woodruff related. “They’re like huge gauntlets that run from elbow to claw. When the creature tucks back into its rock-like shell, they close up. That gives them a way to be able to extend themselves out of their shell, but also retract back and completely block everything off, so there’s nothing exposed but this impenetrable rock surface.”
Extract from “The Illusion Almanac: Creating Godzilla vs Kong” — available now for Kindle from Amazon