The world's most famous giant ape has been reinstated at Universal Studios Hollywood, in a new three-dimensional experience scheduled to open this weekб DPA reported.
The King Kong 360 3-D attraction is due to open Thursday, after the previous King Kong ride was destroyed in a 2008 fire. The new ride features an on-screen Kong, replacing his animatronic predecessor.
The two-and-a-half-minute tram ride takes visitors through a 3-D encounter with the three-storey ape, created under the guidance of New Zealand film director Peter Jackson.
Jackson has resuscitated the world's favorite monster ape before, as the director of the widely acclaimed 2005 remake of the 1933 classic film.
The attraction makes use of 3-D technology developed for films like James Cameron's Avatar, unavailable when Jackson made his version.
"It's amazing what five years have done," he was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
The new ride "employs all of your senses," Jackson added, as visitors are subjected to the sights, sounds and even smells of the giant monkey's wrath.
Universal Studios, around 15 kilometres north-west of Los Angeles, has been a film industry leader since the silent movies of the early 20th century.
Since they opened in the mid-1960s, the tours have offered over 135 million visitors a glimpse behind the scenes, according to the studios.