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Tag: Kong Unmade

Bonus Episode #1: Jimmy From NASA Presents ‘Space Kong’

Published April 1, 2020

Hey, guys!

The Vault is now under new management—Jimmy From NASA! Yes, after starting a betting pool during Nathan’s livestream of Override: Mech City Brawl Friday night and cleaning out the Monster Island Board of Directors, Jimmy became the new host of the podcast but kept Nathan on as his producer. Nathan is still a bit sore about that, as you’ll hear, but Jimmy is sure he’ll get over it.

For his first episode, Jimmy is discussing his favorite unmade Kong film: “Space Kong.” This was a wild idea that came about in the 1960s while Merian C. Cooper was corresponding with comic book publisher Western/Gold Key Comics to produce a comic adaptation of original film and a sequel. This would’ve featured the children of the original characters and Carl Denham still young from finding the Fountain of Youth. Cooper suggested setting it on another planet with “King Kong reincarnated.” While Jimmy first learned of this lost project through a book written by his (first) flame war nemesis, John LeMay, he showed up that know-it-all by buying Cooper’s long lost story treatment for this proposed film on eBay using his newfound wealth. Be the first to hear about it in today’s episode!

Here’s Nathan’s transcript of Episode 14.

Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @NasaJimmy

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#WeShallOvercome

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© 2020 Jimmy From NASA & Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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Episode 10: John LeMay vs. ‘King Kong Lives’

Published February 12, 2020

Hello, kaiju lovers!

Despite a slight delay thanks to MIFV mascots Goji-kun and Bro Kong hiding Nathan’s laptop, the unavoidable has happened: King Kong Lives. John LeMay, author of Kong Unmade and other kaiju books, returns to Monster Island to discuss the Godzilla vs. Megalon of the Kong series—and John un-ironically likes it! This ill-fated sequel to Dino de Laurentiis’s 1976 remake stars Linda Hamilton, fresh off of her star-making role in The Terminator, as a scientist who resurrects King Kong with an artificial heart…because that cures falling off of a building. Not only that, he “falls in love” with Lady Kong, a female giant gorilla, which leads to most of the Kong film tropes getting turned on their ears. Also, King Kong eats rednecks. Yep. Nathan goes full-tilt MST3K with this movie, but he riffs because he loves. That is, when he isn’t mediating a conflict between John and the show’s intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA. The Toku Topic is the convoluted King Kong copyright, which came to a head twice when Universal tried to sue Dino de Laurentiis in the 1970s and Nintendo in the early 1980s. Hear all about it in the newest episode of The Monster Island Film Vault!

You can buy the hardcover of John’s book Kong Unmade on Amazon.

Check out Jimmy’s Notes on this episode!

Timestamps:
Intro: 0:00-3:28
Entertaining Info Dump: 3:28-9:29
Toku Talk: 9:29-1:04:18
Toku Topic: 1:04:18-1:31:04
Outro: 1:31:04-end

© 2020 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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Jimmy’s Notes on ‘Episode 5’ (and the Podcast’s New 2020 Schedule)

Published December 4, 2019

There isn’t much to add to the latest episode (although I heard most of it after it was recorded), but here are a few points I noted.

  • Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein novel is in the public domain, but as John said, other incarnations like the Universal film versions aren’t. There have actually been several lawsuits related to Frankenstein copyrights, including way that arguably saved the VCR.
  • John calls the island in Son of Kong, “Skull Island,” when that name isn’t stated—but I’m not arguing with him because he’s John LeMay. 😛

Now, as Nathan said on the podcast’s Twitter last week, here’s a revamped (though tentative) 2020 schedule for the show. We’ll be returning to the original format—one full episode and one mini-sode each month—with Godzilla vs. Kong being delayed to November.

January
King Kong (1976)
The Mysterians (Mini-Analysis)

February
King Kong Lives
Varan the Unbelievable (Mini-Analysis)

March
King Kong (2005)
3 Treasures (Mini-Analysis)

April
Kong: Skull Island
Battle in Outer Space (Mini-Analysis)

May
Rebirth of Mothra
The Last War (Mini-Analysis)

June
Rebirth of Mothra II
Gorath (Mini-Analysis)

July
Rebirth of Mothra III
Matango (Mini-Analysis)

August
Daimagin
Atragon (Mini-Analysis)

September
Return of Daimagin
Space Monster Dogora (Mini-Analysis)

October
Daimagin Strikes Back
Frankenstein Conquers the World (Mini-Analysis)

November
Godzilla: King of the Monster (2019) (Mini-Analysis)
Godzilla vs. Kong

December
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
War of the Gargantuas (Mini-Analysis)

Hopefully, we won’t have to redo this again. (Got that, Legendary?)

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Episode 5: John LeMay Presents ‘King Kong vs. Frankenstein’ & ‘Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla’

Published November 27, 2019

(FYI: This was recorded before the news that 2020’s Godzilla vs. Kong would be delayed).

Hello, kaiju lovers!

In this special “side Kong Quest” ( 😛 ), Nathan is joined by author John LeMay (who is a gentleman and a scholar) to talk about two unmade King Kong films with connections to King Kong vs. Godzilla. The first was “King Kong vs. Frankenstein,” a project that special effects legend Willis O’Brien tried to get made in the late 1950s before it ended up at Toho. Then Godzilla and Kong almost had their rematch in the 1960s with Shinichi Sekizawa’s “Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla,” where the Eighth Wonder becomes a surrogate parent to a Japanese baby! Hear all about them in this episode! These and many other lost Kong films are covered in great detail in John’s book Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island, which is part of Monster Island’s library and one of Nathan’s go-to resources for the podcast.

Jimmy From NASA is absent for most of this episode because Kong and Godzilla were upset that Nathan skipped their 1962 monster mash movie, so Jimmy left to calm them down with the ORCA. The thing is, Nathan covered that film on his previous podcast, Kaijuvision Radio. Here’s a link if you want to listen to it before the next episode:

Episode 8: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) (The Japanese Economic Miracle (The Golden 60s))

Also, Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here on Monster Island!

Read Jimmy’s Notes for corrections, riffs, and more info on this episode!

© 2019 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

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