“Creating a maze for Halloween Horror Nights is a horror fan’s dream come true. I’ve been visiting Halloween Horror Nights for years, and still remember the heart-pounding terror of going through the mazes for the first time.”

New 'Hobo with a Shotgun' Red Band Trailer Features a Hobo, Shotgun

He stopped short of predicting it would be a nightmarish mash-up of special effects and thin plots, ’cause, you know, glass houses and whatnot, but he does go on about how Hollywood puts too much of a premium on established brands and not enough on creating new ones. He seems to (consciously or not) overlook the fact that respected helmer Peter Berg is running the Battleship circus, which throws a little more credibility behind the production of a big-budget feature based on a simplistic board game. (The fact that Rihanna and Brooklyn Decker are also on board is another story altogether.) His words may have had more gravity if he had cited a Michael Bay movie, but Transformers movies only come out every nine months or so, and Cameron didn’t want to wait that long to let his feelings be known.

Cameron summed up his point nicely, saying, “They want to make the Battleship game into a film… This is pure desperation.” Says the gentleman whose next two projects are Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.

King Kong, the world’s most iconic ape, is climbing off the silver screen and onto the Great White Way. Global Creatures, an Australian company currently producing "Walking With Dinosaurs," is working on a stage adaptation of the classic Hollywood film complete with a “20-foot-tall, animatronic incarnation” of Kong.

Unlike the ending to the classic film, the proposed robot Kong will most likely no break free of its chains and run amok in downtown New York. However, the state-of-the-art special effects may not be enough to carry the play. “Lennon,” a 2005 musical based on the life of the iconic Beatle, failed to draw an audience despite having a 15-foot-tall laser-wielding Ringo Star. (Variety)

I remember my dad taking me on the original King Kong ride at Universal Studios Florida. It wasn’t a big deal, just a monsterous hydraulic monkey shaking your tram around. The cool part about it was it transported you to a world only seen on the screen, or at least someone made their best effort to put you there. Then you could bond with your dad over movies he was too old for and you were too young for.

When a fire on the Universal backlot destroyed the California equivalent of that ride, it became a mixed blessing. The new, revamped, bigger, badder King Kong 360 3-D was designed by Peter Jackson, based on his 2005 remake of the movie. Universal Studios premiered the ride, which opens this summer, with a Kong themed party on the backlot. There were snakes and monkeys and tigers from the Wildlife Waystation, tribal drummers and free trams through the new attraction.

King Kong 360 3-D is part of the tram tour that takes you through the Universal backlot. They give you some 3-D glasses and drop some early foreboding ambiance like a Kong crushed tram car outside the tunnel.

Once the tram drives through the dark tunnel, Peter Jackson comes on a monitor to tell you to put your glasses on. You continue through and there are screens on each side showing life on Skull island. You see dinosaurs munching on vines in a setting basically as realistic as Jackson’s film. You’re way up close to it since the screen is only a few feet away, and shot from passenger’s eye level. Maybe the 3-D makes it a tiny bit less lifelike but you’ll definitely suspend disbelief.

Then Kong shows up. They basically do the awesome T-rex fight from the film, down to the same gags with the jaw and swinging vines. It’s great to see a brand new Peter Jackson action scene. I don’t think it’s quite the original set piece that James Cameron’s T-2: 3-D is, but it is noticeably an A-list director doing a theme park ride.

They didn’t allow pictures, but it’s like you’re inside this.

Kong jumps from one side of the tram to the other, and he rolls on top of you with the dinosaur. The tram shakes for effect and sprays you with T-rex saliva and monkey breath. The cool part is there’s so much going on on all sides, you could ride it several times and keep looking at different things. The gag directly involving the tram is brilliant and I won’t spoil it for you.

It’s only about a minute or so of Kong. Maybe it was two and it just flew by, but it’s a brief component of the overall tram tour. Afterwards, they take you through the rebuilt New York façade which looks the same as ever, perhaps more brand spanking new than the previous backlot that stood for decades.

If you’re a movie buff, you’ll want to see how they repaired the landmark, and if you’re new to Universal, you’ll be glad they fixed up their back lot so you can take your kids on a movie studio tram tour. This time, you’ll also get to drive through an Oscar-winning director’s playground for a few minutes.