1933 King Kong in November (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Kevin M...

The Citizen Kane digital clean-up is now archaic technology pushed well beyond known logical limits. If LDI were to do this work today, we would have a quite different product.

RAH

 

[Jeff_HR]

Is there any chance it will be redone correctly?

 

[Joel Vardy]

Precisely the reason I decided to post my views. Whatever the timing or specifics the fact that we are going to be seeing this classic released in the best quality is enough for me .

Joel

 

[Kevin M]

Thank you Mr. Harris, I knew that Lowry Digital had said as much ("we were on a steep learning curve then, we would do it very differently today") I just wanted to hear it from someone who perhaps had seen some of the work being done on Kong.

 

[Jeff Newcomb]

It's almost certain that they will. Warner said in their last chat that Mighty Joe Young would be out in 2005, and it only makes sense to tie it in with Kong. Given Warner's recent propensity for boxed sets, I fully expect the 'Giant Monkey Collection' to be released late this year.

 

[PaulP]

I think for some reason mine and others' comments about general studios' practices of tying releases to certain events as being non-sensical were taken to mean we were attacking WB and its upcoming King Kong release. That's not the case at all, King Kong was just used as an example. I can think of numerous other examples, from different studios. Like the 90s Fantastic Four animated series that was just announced to coincided with the big-screen adaptation.

 

[RickER]

I cant wait for this movie myself. I always ask the young people i work with if they have seen an old movie, or know an actor from "the day". I just KNOW if i could make some of my co workers watch stuff like Kong they would see what they are missing. One thing i didnt see in the last 3 pages. Does anyone know if the wonderful Criterion laserdisc commentary will be on the DVD?

 

[Jeff_HR]

Having that would be too good to be true. I doubt it will be there. I don't believe that Criterion is in the habit of allowing other companies to use their commentaries & other extras. That is why I'll always keep my Criterion LD of "King Kong", even if it is the last one in my collection.

 

[Roger Rollins]

Given Criterion's business practices, it's virtually assured that the KK commentary on the LD will not be on Warner Bros. DVD.

That being said, who's to say that what WB will have won't be even better? Given their track record...I have a feeling it will be

 

[Colin Jacobson]

But Criterion have begun to license out their commentaries. Wasn't the track on the new Raging Bull DVD from the Criterion LD? And there have been a few Criterion commentaries on non-Criterion releases - the 2-DVD Boogie Nights had one, English Patient had one, and last summer's Trainspotting ported over a Criterion commentary and other Criterion materials.

So is it likely that King Kong will use the Criterion commentary? No, but it seems far from "virtually assured"...

 

[Damin J Toell]

Columbia, MGM, Disney, New Line, Image, and Anchor Bay have all licensed Criterion commentaries. It remains to be seen whether Warner proper will license such material.

DJ

 

[PaulP]

Criterion's King Kong commentary is, if I'm not mistaken, the first-ever commentary to a film. SO that in itself would be nice to hear.

 

[Jeff_HR]

That's correct. Fully loaded DVDs typically have multiple commentaries so who knows we may be lucky & get treated to the LD commentary on the DVD.

 

[John Hodson]

Little snippet from Ain't It Cool News, interesting for 'Kong' fans, and those that want a restored How The West Was Won too:

Warner Bros. Studios and HP breathe new life into classic motion pictures

Warner Bros. Studios and HP also announced that they have teamed to restore the 1933 classic motion picture "King Kong." One of the American Film Institute's 100 most beloved films and named to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, the original camera negative of "King Kong" has long been destroyed, leaving only elements and prints that have been deteriorating over the years.

Warner Bros. Studios has brought the best elements and prints from all over the world and has scanned them into a 4K digital file. Using HP's "dirt and scratch" technology, which was developed by HP Labs, the 72-year-old classic will be digitally restored to its 1933 brilliance. A new camera negative as well as new archival elements will be created so that the film will be saved for generations to come. This new, restored version of "King Kong," as it was originally released, will be screened theatrically and broadcast on television, as well as released on Warner Home Video.

HP has also invented a new film restoration process for Cinerama films that eliminates the "seams" visible from the old three panel Cinerama process as well as corrects the distortions in perspective that were inherent in the change from Cinerama's curved screen to a flat one. Tests have already begun on the classic MGM 1962 film "How The West Was Won," now part of the vast Warner Bros. Studios library.

Not sure about that last bit; do we, we home cinema fans, want to eradicate the Cinerama experience altogether?

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Wow, where to begin, John!

Great news about Kong. But who are this "HP" outfit? I thought that Lowry Digital Images were behind the 4K scanning and digital refurbishment of the elements, no?

The lines in Cinerama films can be bad for some of the films, especially if the projectors were not set up super-precisely. With a proper, patient set up, those Cinemrama presentations could often be amazing, with the seams practically invisable from a respectable distance from the screen. The main problem is the different levels of fading in each of the three 6-perf 35mm negatives and ancillary elements.

Digital softwares make correcting this much, much easier and cheaper than photo-chem work. However, tests were made on How the West a few years ago and the results were very good, so maybe the elements aren't in as poor condition as some of the other Cinerama films. Correcting the distortions that the curve-to-flat optical convertions introduced is a good thing; those weird kaleidoscopic images were never intended and need to be corrected.

The Smile-box process (click for info) is interesting and could be included as a second or third limited edition disc for hardcore Cinerama enthusiasts, but I can't see Warner going for it. As long as the image is uncropped (when flattened, the ratio for Cinerama is apparently between 2.59 and 2.65:1), I'll be satisfied.

It's great that Warner has the inclination and guts to do work like this and other Studios should take note.

Thanks for the info, John.

 

[John Hodson]

It's Hewlett-Packard - see the press release here:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/pr...5/050418a.html

I'd like to see the smile-box at least tried; and I want to see those panel lines; I've said it before, directors worked so hard to hide them; they are part of creative process surely?

 

[oscar_merkx]

Thanks John for the update about King Kong

 

[Patrick McCart]

The seam lines seem to be somewhat modest on the dye-transfer prints (at least from what I've seen on the American Widescreen Museum), but they're very obvious on the 70mm/35mm scope reductions.


As for smilebox, I don't think the Cinerama films should be shown in any other format. There is a huge amount of distortion without this adjustment. In my opinion, Warner would be wasting disc space by including a non-Smilebox version...

I wonder if this Cinerama digital process means that Warner is picking up rights to the Cinerama-owned 3-panel films... it would be a really nice opporunity to create a Cinerama boxed set with How the West Was Won, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, This is Cinerama, and Cinerama Adventure.


And I'm looking forward to King Kong... even the newer master shown on TCM isn't awful (nice photographic quality, if just a little too much dirt and scratch damage). 4K is a wise move, too... we don't need a bunch of "video" restorations when something can actually be used for 35mm.

 

[Stephen Brooks]

Does anyone know WHY Warner seems to have ditched Lowry Digital in favor of in-house restoration work? Was Lowry charging them too much, or were they just not pleased with the quality? They gave Lowry some of their first big breaks and now seem content just to do everything themselves (Ultra-Resolution, etc). Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be Lowry's biggest customers now.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that DTS purchased Lowry Digital, and Warner tends to shun DTS on its releases.

 

[Eric Emma]

I take a gander to say that it's cheaper to do it in-house since Warner releases a lot of catalogue titles, it's probably cheaper to do in the long run to do it this way. That's just a guess.

I'm interesting in special features on this release, I mean the movie is well over 70 years old what can you put on a disc like that? I take a guess that most of the cast and crew is dead, I believe Fay Wray died just last year :frowning: Then again if they could ever find the lost spider scene that'd be awesome