Out of these four movies - Casablanca, The African Queen, King Kong and Battle Circus - only one does NOT star Humphrey Bogart... that's King Kong. What's the story of King Kong? well...
QuoteIn 1933, the bold and successful filmmaker Carl Denham travels by ship with a large crew, his friend Jack Driscoll and the starlet Ann Darrow to an unknown island to shoot a movie. The local natives worship a huge gorilla called Kong and they abduct Ann to offer her in a sacrifice to Kong. Jack Driscoll, who is in love with her, Carl Denham, who aims to capture the animal for an exhibition in New York and part of the crew hike into the jungle, where dinosaurs live, trying to rescue Ann. King Kong falls in love for Ann and protects her against the dangers. But the gorilla is captured and brought to New York. In the middle of a show in Broadway, King Kong escapes, bringing panic to the Apple city.
It's a film about making a film about a giant gorilla "King Kong"...
Here is how King Kong ends...
QuoteDenham hurls gas bombs at Kong, knocking him out, whereupon he exults in the opportunity presented: "He's always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear! We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you! Why, in a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! Kong! The Eighth Wonder of the World!"
The next scene shows those last words in lights on a theater marquee. Along with hundreds of curious New Yorkers, Denham, Driscoll and Ann are in evening wear for the gala event. The curtain lifts, and Denham presents a subdued and shackled Kong to the stunned audience.
All goes well until photographers, using the blinding flashbulbs of the era, begin snapping shots of Ann and Jack, who is now her fiancé. Under the impression that the flashbulbs are attacking Ann, Kong breaks free of his bonds and escapes from the theater, as the screaming audience flees.
He rampages through city streets, destroying an elevated train and killing several citizens. He looks into windows, his glaring eyes looming in the windows of the wrecked elevated train
Kong sees Ann in an upper floor hotel room, he reaches in the window, grabs her, and carries her to the top of the Empire State Building. The military dispatches four Curtiss Helldiver biplanes to destroy Kong.
The ape gently sets Ann down on the building's observation deck and climbs atop the upper mast, trying to fend off the attackers.
He manages to swat one plane down, but he is mortally wounded by machine-gun fire and plummets to his death in the street below.
Denham picks his way to the front of the crowd, where a cop remarks "Well Denham, the airplanes got him."
Denham replies, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
So...
Kong is kidnapped from his homeland, he is forced onto stage by film-makers and shifty showmen, and the flash of the cameras (paparazzi) drives him crazy and ultimately leads to his death.
Now, replace "Kong" with "Michael", and that could be a pretty close description of This Is It, no?
