them digibitz guys wrote: The King Kong: Two-Disc Special Edition (SRP $26.99) will include the 104-minute restored and remastered B&W film on video in its original full frame, with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Extras will include audio commentary (by Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston, with Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Ruth Rose, Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong), the 2005 I'm Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper documentary, a gallery of trailers for other films by director Merian C. Cooper, the new RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, Eighth Wonder of the World documentary by Peter Jackson (featuring the following featurettes: The Origins of King Kong, Willis O'Brien and Creation, Cameras Roll on Kong, The Eighth Wonder, A Milestone in Visual Effects, Passion, Sound and Fury, The Mystery of the Lost Spider Pit Sequence and King Kong's Legacy) and Creation test footage (with commentary by Ray Harryhausen).
The King Kong: Two-Disc Collector's Edition (SRP $39.98.) will include all of the above in limited tin packaging that also features a 20-page reproduction of the original 1933 souvenir program, King Kong original one-sheet reproduction postcards and a mail-in offer for a reproduction of a vintage theatrical poster.
The King Kong Four-Disc Collector's Set (SRP $39.92) will include the King Kong: Two-Disc Special Edition along with The Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young. It will NOT include the extras in the Collector's Edition tin.
Fortunately, The Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young will also be available separately (as will The Last Days of Pompeii, also by Kong directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack) for an SRP of $19.97 each.
The Son of Kong will include the 70-minute restored B&W film on video in the original full frame, with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Extras will include the theatrical trailer.
Mighty Joe Young will include the 94-minute restored B&W film on video in its original full frame, with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Extras will include audio commentary (by Ray Harryhausen, Ken Ralston and Terry Moore), 2 new featurettes (Ray Harryhausen and The Chioda Brothers and Ray Harryhausen and Mighty Joe Young) and the film's theatrical trailer.
Finally, The Last Days of Pompeii will include the 96-minute, B&W film on video in the original full frame, with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio and English, French and Spanish subtitles. There are no extras.
We're waiting on high-quality cover art for any and all of the above. We'll post it as soon as it comes in.
DinoDeLaurentiis wrote:I LOVE A THE DONG!
Curtis Martin wrote:Firstly, I'd like to dispel a misconception that many "reviewers" here onsite are promoting: that the 1976 verison of "King Kong" was a notorious financial flop. This is simply not the case.
King Kong (1976)was a huge hit back in the seventies--I know because I was there, I saw the frenzy, I remember the crowded theaters. It cost $24 million and made $60 in 1977 dollars, only a little less than the highly regarded blockbuster "Jaws" made a couple of years earlier. Calling the film a commercial "flop" is not just inaccurate--it is a statement that borders on stupid.
Now, admittedly, it also had a huge pr campaign, which undoubtedly helped it garner a lot of that dough, but there was a lot more to the flick than just the hype.
While the commercial success of the film is a matter of indisputible record, its artistic success is a matter of personal opinion. I happen to think this is one of the best pop films of the Seventies--and there are a lot more folks out there who agree with me than you think.
Many people rag on the film for not being reverential to the original, ignoring that fact that "being reverential" was the antitheseis of what the 70s were about. Kong 76 could have probably been an even bigger hit than it was if the filmmakers had played it safe and hadn't gone out of their way to make a film so stubbornly odd. I mean this thing stomps over a gigantic swath of styles: panoramic spectacle, high adventure, pathos, romance, social commentary, absurdist comedy, thrills, and occasionally outright goofiness--all comprised in a slyly satiric package designed to tweak the noses of Kong purists. Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s ("Papillon ") screenplay is all over the place when it comes to style and tone, borrowing from whatever and whenever, almost as though it had been patched together from several different treatments--yet it still remains incredibly tight in terms of interesting, well-drawn, consistent characters, witty dialog, exploration of theme, and the forward momentum of the plot. King Kong 76 is a great example of anarchic postmodernism being perfectly wed to the staunch formalism of good storytelling. A contemporary example of this approach would be Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films.
The direction by veteran John Guillermin was absolutely fearless, pushing each of Semple's concepts to its limit, even at the risk of seeming silly. And he had a great cast to work with, especially young Jessica Lange in her first film role. Unfortunately, Jessica played the role of the vivacious, childlike, kinda dimwitted bubblehead blonde Dwan so incredibly well that most people wrote her off, assuming she was just a dumb blonde playing herself. But in actuality it is a bravura performance, one of the best in her career, and certainly a more individual, more fully-realized character performance than we get in most movies these days.
As big a hit as the disco era Kong was, however, there were a lot of people who were put off because they weren't expecting anything as freewheeling and insane as what they were given. They weren't expecting weirdness and satire. They weren't expecting to see Kong blowing a hot, wet blonde dry after a dip in a lake (metaphors anyone?), a scene simultaneously erotic and ridiculous. They weren't expecting to see the captured Kong turned in to a corporate shill--is there any scene in mainstream 70s cinema more surrealistically satiric than that of Kong being presented to the masses encased in a thirty story replica of a gasoline pump? They also were not expecting to see a big budget adventure film with a downer ending--the romantic leads ending up emotionally separated by their experiences instead of united. And they didn't expect to feel bad when the monster died.
So I put it to you all that not only was the 1976 Kong a financial success, it was also an artistic success. But you can't watch it as a remake of a classic film. It is no more a remake of the 1933 King Kong than Quentin's Kill Bill is a remake of Sonny Chiba's Streetfighter's Revenge. Watch the film for what it is, not what you think it should have been, or what you wanted it to be, and you will be better able to appreciate its cracked brilliance.
kortanaskew wrote: But it still was a boring old Gorilla. Why not bring back something we've NEVER seen like Oh, let's say a FREAKIN DINOSAUR??! The uneducated sailors didn't even know what they were looking at. Im sure a T-Rex that has the ability to scratch his head with those tiny arms could fetch a lot more at the Box office than a hairy ape. Let's never send Carl Denham into space. He's liable to bring back a species of human thats 8 feet tall rather than the green alien with 8 arms and 8 eyes.
What Dinosaur chased them all the way down to the beach?? There is your answer.
Chairman Kaga wrote:The real question is why would the villagers/natives put a big giant door in the wall large enough for Kong to get through? Was Kong in his youth assisting them with constructing huts?
Chris Tribbey wrote:He’s large, in charge and in September, he’ll be in 1080p.
On the heels of several successful classic film releases on Blu-ray Disc, Warner Home Video has remastered another all-time favorite for Blu-ray: the original 1933 RKO King Kong. The Sept. 28 release (pre-order Aug. 24) will include extensive bonus features and will be packaged with a 32-page Blu-ray color book, featuring photography and trivia. It is listed at $34.99.
“The success of great classic films such as Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, North by Northwest, and most recently, Doctor Zhivago, on the new state-of-the-art Blu-ray format, encouraged us not to wait and withhold this seminal film from the marketplace,” said Jeff Baker, Warner Home Video’s SVP and GM of theatrical catalog. “Consumer research and studio data indicate that Blu-ray households are openly receptive toward re-buying select films that rise to a level of being considered classic or legendary in nature. Clearly the original King Kong falls within that definition.”
The 32-page book comes courtesy of film historian Rudy Behlmer, while the disc bonuses include a documentary on Kong creator Merian C. Cooper, directed by filmmakers Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird, and a commentary by creature creator Ray Harryhausen and visual effects artist Ken Ralston, with archival sound bites from Merian C. Copper and Fay Wray. There’s also a seven-part documentary about the making of the film and trailers.
The film itself will include all the scenes cut from the re-releases, presenting the 1933 version in its entirety.
Warner also will make Kong available on demand, and for download to rent or own via iTunes, Amazon VOD and gaming consoles.
GothamAlleys wrote:I just wish the 1978 version would get some attention too. I know it gets some slack nowadays but I always enjoyed that version a lot and it still remains the only modern rendering of the story which I find very interesting
SilentScream wrote:GothamAlleys wrote:I just wish the 1978 version would get some attention too. I know it gets some slack nowadays but I always enjoyed that version a lot and it still remains the only modern rendering of the story which I find very interesting
The original Kong will never, ever be surpassed. It's now passed into film folklore and that is that. But I agree that the 1976 version is pretty underrated. It's a lot of fun and a lot more to the spirit of the story than the bombastic, overblown Peter Jackson movie of 2005 which failed - for me, anyway - on pretty much every level of entertainment. The effects were good, yes, as you would expect, but it came across predominately as a hollow, vacuous piece of vanity filmaking, whereas the original Kong and even the 76 version had both spectacle and a heart to it.
GothamAlleys wrote:SilentScream wrote:GothamAlleys wrote:I just wish the 1978 version would get some attention too. I know it gets some slack nowadays but I always enjoyed that version a lot and it still remains the only modern rendering of the story which I find very interesting
The original Kong will never, ever be surpassed. It's now passed into film folklore and that is that. But I agree that the 1976 version is pretty underrated. It's a lot of fun and a lot more to the spirit of the story than the bombastic, overblown Peter Jackson movie of 2005 which failed - for me, anyway - on pretty much every level of entertainment. The effects were good, yes, as you would expect, but it came across predominately as a hollow, vacuous piece of vanity filmaking, whereas the original Kong and even the 76 version had both spectacle and a heart to it.
Well I enjoyed Jackson's too. Actually, I think Jackson's Kong was one of the best movies of the decade and was one of those very, very rare recent films that had both grandeur and heart. The 76 version (idk why I typed 78 previously) I just look at as a different take and a very different movie which I also enjoyed a lot. I always found the scene of Kong wrecking through the wall and falling into the gas trap to be very memorable and very good, and I liked the sound of Kong's roar in it (later used for Thanator in Avatar)
The only ones I didnt like where the sequels to the 76 movie.
ufoclub1977 wrote:I think a fan made edit is due...
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