When the stage musical King Kong opens at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, on June 15, the star will be the robot eighth wonder of the world: a 20-foot-tall, animatronic silverback gorilla that weighs more than 2,400 pounds. Eleven onstage aerialists/puppeteers are needed to direct its movements: "If there's a more complex puppet out there, I'd love to see it," says Sonny Tilders, a designer at f/x company Global Creatures. "It's as believable as the meat puppets it shares the stage with." Here's a look at what makes the big guy tick.
Movement
Steel wires connected to a gantry crane guide Kong like a giant marionette. His major moves are preprogrammed, but one of the offstage puppeteers can tweak them in real time from "voodoo" controls so Kong interacts more naturally with the set and his less predictable human actors.
Head
Kong's skull is a carbon-fiber shell packed with 15 industrial servo motors (the same type used in the NASA Mars rovers) and two hydraulic cylinders capable of creating facial movements, from raised eyebrows to a tooth-baring roar. One of the two voodoo puppeteers is devoted to the gorilla's mug.
Skin and Muscle
This Kong is furless, making his musculature paramount. Bags filled with polystyrene beans play the part, extending and contracting as he moves—and they're covered with a layer of hand-sewn, synthetic, stretch net fabric that wrinkles and moves to mimic actual skin.
Innards
Kong packs about 1,000 feet of electrical cable and 16 microprocessors. His steel-tube skeleton is hydraulically controlled. The shoulders are especially important: "They're a great expression tool to hunch up or pull down," Tilders says.
Chest and Abdomen
Instead of a rigid fiberglass torso, Kong has a layer of balloonlike bags inflated by a converted carpet-drying fan. These allow the entire front of the creature to expand and contract naturally.
Forearms
From the elbows down, there's no steel. Kong's forearm "bone" is a high-pressure inflatable tube. This helps keep onstage humans from getting accidentally pulverized and absorbs the impact when Kong bashes walls or pounds his fists into the ground.
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