The "Father of King Kong" escaped death four times and his deeds were made into Poland's most expensive movie

Merrian C. Cooper

From its birth in 1933 to the present, the legendary story of King Kong has gone through 84 years. Tracing back to its origins, the creator "Father of King Kong" Merian C. C. Cooper is a legend in his own right. Merian was an American pilot and former Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, screenwriter, director and producer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Pan American Airways. He faced the edge of life and death many times in his life, but he always miraculously escaped from death. In the end, he returned to his favorite film creation. During his film career, he worked at Pioneer Pictures, RKO, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and in the 1950s he became vice president of Cinerama Productions, where he invented the Cinerama film project. Merriam's most famous film is "King Kong" directed in 1933. In 1952, he was awarded the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award; "walked" the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, although his name was misspelled as "Merriam" ".

Film Road

Writing the script of "King Kong" in one year

In 1921, Merian returned to his hometown. He worked the night shift at the "New York Times" and began to contribute to "The New York Times". Written by Asia magazine. At this time, he was able to realize his childhood dream and began to explore various parts of Asia and Africa. He joined the National Geographic Society and began sailing to Abyssinia and Ethiopia. Unexpectedly, he was attacked when leaving Abyssinia in 1923. When pirates attacked and the ship was burned, he once again narrowly escaped death. In 1925, Merian began to practice his interest in film. He shot the adventure documentary "Forage" and the semi-documentary film "Elephant: Legend of the Wilderness". The latter won the first Academy Award for Technical Achievement; in 1929, Merian An also directed the silent film "The Four Feathers", which was about Sudanese tribal fighting, and then spent a year writing the script for "King Kong". Filming began in 1933. This film is his fourth and last film, and it is also the only famous film he directed.

The filming experience was full of twists and turns

The birth of "King Kong" was inseparable from a series of painstaking research conducted by Merian. He first studied the baboon tribe in Africa, and was deeply influenced by W· Inspired by Douglas Burden's "The Komodo Dragon", I created an outline of a script about a battle between an African gorilla and a Komodo dragon, and positioned the gorilla and a woman who was exploring alone as the protagonists. However, when Merian pitched his painstaking idea to Paramount Pictures, it was during the Great Depression. Paramount believed that filming in Africa would be too difficult and troublesome, so they gave up the idea. It was not until 1931 that Merian served as David O. Selznick's personal assistant, and was able to realize this idea with the help of RKO Pictures. During this period, his cooperation with David was not smooth. At first, David was not satisfied with the script of "King Kong" and believed that the movie should open with a scene of King Kong. However, Merian insisted that the movie should "slowly enter the theme and allow the emotions to unfold." "Accumulation", it was his artistic persistence in the film that made the film later become a masterpiece.

After the filming of "King Kong" was completed, Merian fell into poor health, and his legendary experience came to an end until he died of cancer in San Diego in 1973. Although he has passed away, the story of the classic IP "King Kong" created by his hands has just begun.

Life Path

Falling in love with gorillas at the age of 6

Merian was born in Florida, USA on October 24, 1893. He was the youngest of three children in his family. The youngest one, his biggest interest is listening to adventure stories. When he was 6 years old, he read "Expeditions in Equatorial Africa". The stories of explorers' adventures in the equator and Africa made him determined to become an explorer from that moment on. adventurer. This book is not only the beginning of his life's adventure, but also the relationship between him and orangutans. The book says that gorillas are famous for their huge size, and even calls orangutans the "King of the African Jungle". "When humans and they When you meet them, you will feel that they are creatures in the dream of hell, half-human and half-animal behemoths." Merian, who had an adventurous spirit since childhood, was awarded the title of "Honorary Scout" during outdoor activities. Only 19 children in the United States received this honor.

Successfully escaped from the prison camp

After graduating from school, Merian joined the army as an infantryman. In 1917, he learned to fly a plane, and in October of that year he joined the French 201st Flying Squadron. During a flight, the plane dropped 60 meters and hit his head. Merian suffered a severe concussion and had to learn to fly again after recovering. During World War I, Merian was commissioned as a U.S. Air Force DH-4 bomber pilot. On December 26, 1918, his plane was hit and caught fire during the battle. In order to suppress the fire, he flew the plane in crazy circles. Although he was burned, he saved his life.

In February 1919, the Soviet-Polish War broke out. As a member of the First American Volunteer Flying Squadron, Merian helped Poland fight against the Soviet Union. On July 13 of the following year, the plane he was flying was shot down, and he was imprisoned in a Soviet concentration camp. After being detained for nearly nine months, Merian successfully escaped from prison and escaped to Latvia. Because of this legendary deed, Merian became famous.

Pi?sudski, the Supreme Head of Poland at the time, also awarded him the highest medal of the Polish army. What is even more legendary is that Poland also filmed a movie "Starlight Squadron" based on his deeds. However, this movie was still Polish The most expensive film ever made before World War II.