Trailer for King Kong well received by first viewers

Naomi Watts plays Ann Darrow. Picture / UIP

The first trailer for director Peter Jackson's King Kong film, released today for viewing by more than 109 million people, was reported to be well received by the premiere audience.

Audiences at the International Cinema Expo in Amsterdam were told they were the first audience in the world to see it.

According to the movie's promotional website, KongisKing.com the trailer was given a good reception.

And a viewer at a similar early showing in Egypt -- before the official launch in the United States -- said it started off with Carl Denham (Jack Black) searching for an actress to play the lead in his monster film.

"He finds Anne (Naomi Watts) who he has discovered while she was stealing an apple, much like the original film.

"She boards the ship along with (actor) Adrien Brody's character who she meets while climbing up the rail.

Denham starts talking about a map he discovered which detailed the location of Skull Island, followed by a montage of scary looking natives and skulls. The ship goes through a strong storm which pushes them straight to a huge wall on Skull Island, Jamie Bell yells a warning.

The trailer then shows the "movie-within-a-movie" crew shooting their film by the rocky beach, and Denham asks Anne to scream which she does, followed by a ferocious growl, apparently from Kong himself.

Anne gets kidnapped and offered as sacrifice, the crew try to rescue her but witness a large hairy hand grabbing her. "What is it?" Brody's character asks Denham, but all the audience sees is the actor's tense face.

The trailer cuts to a series of jungle scenes with dinosaur rampages, monster chases, the crew facing off a water beast on top of a log raft, Kong wrestling dinosaurs, and city scenes in which Kong runs amok.

The trailer ends with a scene in which Anne is faced off by a dinosaur, followed by Kong's jump, Anne's frightened face and a look at the big ape.

"Kong looked so real ... his last roar really got the goosebumps running," said one viewer at the Egyptian showing, which accompanied Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds.

- NZPA