1933 King Kong in November (1 Viewer)

[Eric Meske]

Nevermind the billions that he made for them when he directed that little independent trilogy known as Lord of the Rings.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yeah, there is kind of a relationship there....

Almost certainly in the realm of pure bullshit, but the RKO archives are reportedly in complete chaos, so the spider scene could very well have been sitting in a canister next to the trims from The Magnificent Ambersons for the last 60 years and no one stumbled across them despite decades of organized searching....

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

See Eric's response above. In addition, cross promotion is just that - it promotes BOTH products. I have little doubt that the remake will get a great deal of attention thus Warner stands to benefit by releasing the DVD the same time as the film.

 

[Kevin M]

I don't know folks, if you want to believe in something bad enough you will find a way to make it plausible.
(holds up hands) BUT HEY, to each their own, I'll be waiting for a great DVD of Kong & if this is somehow truthful then great....and if not then it's great to have the DVD anyway.

I'll tell you what though...the second they find the complete uncut version of The Magnificent Ambersons you let me know, ok?

 

[Joel Vardy]

This is one of the most anticipated remaining titles for me. Aside from The Jazz Singer and The African Queen (both 'rumored' to be under restoration for upcoming releases) I only have a handful of anticipated titles, such as The Sting and Reds (if that one ever sees the light of day). DVD classic releases are dwindling from A title must haves to more eclectic ones.

Joel

 

[John Hodson]

DVD Times has a rumoured release date of November 21 for the R2; R1 must be around then. See here.

 

[ScottR]

As long as someone cares enough about the Spider Sequence to attempt a reconstruction, I don't care who does it. But I do trust Peter Jackson's judgment calls.

 

[Steve...O]

Tom Weaver, the monster movie historian who was quoted in the original DVDTalk story about the supposedly found spider sequence, posted this on another forum



Either way I see this turning out badly. If the sequence was in fact found, Warners was probably working on an elaborate way of announcing this only to have the cat let out of the bag by people who shouldn't have been talking.

If it never was found, then this release is going to seem "a letdown" to some people no matter how spectacular it is.

My view is that spider or no spider I'm confident Warners will supply a DVD surpassing what anyone had the right to expect.

Steve

PS - I hope the rumor about the box is wrong and that MIGHTY JOE YOUNG is in fact included.

 

[Paul Borges]

Why do you have a bad feeling? If they do the recreation I think Warner wouldn't stick it in the movie. Probably a bonus feature. Warner has a pretty good record of not messing with a classic film.

 

[John Hodson]

Ain't It Cool News says it ain't gonna happen:

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=20484

 

[Kevin M]

Since when did this morph into a "recreation" by PJ or whomever? The only rumor that I have read was that the original Spider sequence had been found and an additional add-on rumor was that Peter Jackson was helping to fill in some of the missing sections of said scene....when did this switch over to a "recreation"?
Or is that what you mean, the word "recreation" has a different connotation to my thinking, I.E. recreating the entire scene as a facsimile rather than the original scene itself. If that is the case then sorry if I misunderstood.

 

[Al (alweho)]

There are those who trust Harry about as far as they can throw a piano...

 

[Hal D]

Years ago, why didn't anyone ask Cooper what he actually did with the spider footage after he excised it? Why not ask any of his family members? Why didn't O'Brien ask for it if he was heartbroken over it being removed? Would it actually of been thrown out? I find it hard to believe that after all the work done, it could be tossed so easily.Someone must know what exactly happened to it.

 

[EricSchulz]

I think you need to remember that seventy years ago no one probably realized that people today would even be interested in a movie from '33, much less what happened to excised footage. The article in "Monsters from the Vault" I referred to in an earlier post has a recollection of a meeting with Marcel Delgado who helped build the armatures of Kong. For a while, one of the original Kongs was missing, having been stored in a large hangar-type building. It was spotted, by accident, by someone looking for something entirely different. He wondered if it would even have been found and preserved if he had not stumbled upon it. There are lots of stories out there about films, manuscripts, artwork, videotapes, etc. that were lost or destroyed because no one really thought there was any value to it or that it should be preserved.

 

[EricSchulz]

Shortly after posting that last post, I ran accross this in a thread about "I Love Lucy", which I think drives my point home...

 

[SteveJKo]

We must not lose sight of the fact the spider sequence was cut NOT because of censorship and NOT because of an artistic decision by some "higher up". It was cut by Merian C. Cooper himself, who felt it was not only a show stopper, but it took too much focus off of Kong and his actions (dumping men off a log to their deaths).

Images of natives being eaten and stepped on, as well as the stripping of Fay Wray, HAD been cut due to censorship (at later re-releases). Hopefully all of THESE scenes have been restored.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

www.dvdtimes.co.uk shows these as rumoured release dates for R2 :

24th October 2005

Kong: King of Atlantis (not sure what this is)

21st November 2005

King Kong SE

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ...

ROFL

Wonder if Jackson's film'll lead in to it

 

[Anthony Neilson]

Ah.Right.

That doesn't look too good.

 

[Steve...O]

Per a post on the classic horrors board, USA Today contacted Warners and asked about the spider rumors. Warners said it hasn't been found.

That's about as close to the source as you can get.

Still gonna be a great DVD though.

Steve