When are they ever going to release this movie on DVD? I've been waiting years for the 1933 version of King Kong. Is it tied up in legal/copyright problems or something like that?

dunno, maybe theyre holding out to coincide the release with peter jacksons version? hopefully not, i dont wanna wait till decemeber....

They'll probably release it earlier than December. Oct. or Nov. seems likely to drum up some advance interest.

my guess is they will have some tie-in with the peter jackson version. i have been debating to pickup one of the overseas versions of king kong. i just don't want to double-dip.

Actually it is because of no demand. A study was done and it said only 278 people in America would buy the DVD. I'm betting the majority are on this board. With only 278 people interested in this stop-motion snorefest, the studio just doesn't see a way to turn a profit. So unless the 278 people are willing to pay over $1000 for each DVD, the King Kong DVD will remain elusive as a grown woman in Michael Jackson's bed alone with Jacko.

the digital bits has this up in the upcoming cover art section on the last page...the forbidden planet cover art came from the same place...



I believe it was on that same site that i had read about the remastering of king kong. They said something to extent that it was painstakingly cleaned up frame by frame....if anyone can provide a link i would love to read it again...I can't find it in a quick look throught the archives and the site does not provide a search function. I think it was in the classic coming attractions, though I am at a loss. If i find it I will make sure to post it.

I hope they release King Kong:SE & King Kong vs Godzilla:SE
But yeah this release is long overdue... As is a SE of KKvG

No offense Cameron, but that cover art has been up on thedigialbits.com site for about a year now, the same with the Forbidden Planet art. DB has a tendency to not keep their cover art section up to date, especially the art under the TBA section. If you notice, they have art for the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and for So Dear to My Heart, neither of which have been talkd about for ages.

What I'm getting at is don't expect that to resemble the final cover art by any means.

I don't...The forbidden planet one i can see since warner has been sticking with original poster art with a banner here and there...so dear to my heart still has the now defunct Disney Golden Edition Banner. To Look at the page yourself Click this

no offense taken, just wanting to provide whats out there. This is my all time favorite movie and Number one on my want list.

As a side note...PBS History Detectives did a piece on an original camera that was used on King Kong...it talked a little about the death of RKO and the loss of many of the King Kong Archives.

My only hope is, that the longer we wait the better chance someone finds that deleted footage that is floating around....Still pictures abound but the actual film has been lost for going on 20 years.

Maybe they can include it as a bonus disc when the Peter Jackson remake comes out on dvd next year.

NUTS TO THAT!!! I want a WB 2 disc on this title....way to important to the history of film to lump it in with a movie that is unseen and unproven....I hope to God PJ's new movie is good, but would not accept this at all..

I would like to see a link to this study that claimed less than 300 people would buy it...I would assume more than 300 on this board would purchase it...and no doubt when that new movie starts making rumblings with trailers and commercials people will be asking about this one.

I would also like to see how many people have asked amazon to e mail them when it comes available.....Or the ratings for it when it appeared on TCM earlier this month.

Well, only 278 people interested in this.....if that study's true, a 2-disc treatment for this title would be a pipe dream.

Mind you, they'll probably release it anyway in time for the remake.

I want this, and I don't mind waiting longer as long as it's restored as described above. I would assume the region 2 version is a crappy public domain copy? eh.

Can we please get some sort of proof of this 278 people 'statistic' ? And no one asked me, so I guess that makes 279...

sounds like it

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/review...=962&User=1240

King Kong is presented in black and white and in a 4:3 ratio. The picture quality is probably the worst I’ve seen on DVD at this time. I know the original film being 60 years old is going to have some major problems but at least they could of cleaned the picture up a bit. Criterion have been cleaning up old classics with advanced computer restoration for years, removing nicks and scratches so the transfer is the cleanest possible. So why not with Kong? Money? Probably, Universal probably couldn’t find justification in completely restoring Kong which is a real shame as people will miss out on this classic in the future. The picture features extensive grain throughout, and has very bad contrast and black levels. Dirt and scratches are everywhere and as the picture is so soft there is no detail whatsoever.
Oh dear. The picture occasionally flickers in that old film kind of way and well, what can I say. The only redeeming feature is the superb stopmotion and sets which try and take your mind off how bad the picture quality is. The only thing to do is to get engrossed with Kong’s exploits and dream of a time when Kong was not covered in white flecks of crap.

another review I read said a lot of the original negative may have been lost so perhaps the delay is so they can find copies of the print, of course a tie-in to the Peter Jackson film is possible

Incidentally a very recent survey indicated that only 4 people in the United States gave any credence to the study showing that only 278 people were interested in owning this movie on DVD.

You all realize that the "278" statistic is a joke, right? Hence the smiley at the end of his post?

Warner has said time and again that they will not release King Kong until it had been restored, and it needed extensive restoration. I gather that the restoration has been done, so my guess is they're holding out until the Jackson remake hits theaters.

I'm also pretty sure I remember reading that Warner has intended this to be a 2-disc SE, along the lines of Citizen Kane.

Warner REALLY dragged their feet on this release. It could have easily been restored and released as a high quality product a while ago. But, since they waiting this long to release it, it only makes sense that they wait a little longer and build some buzz from Peter Jackson's remake.

The holdup is Peter Jackson's King Kong release. I really hope there's a free ticket inside to see the new King Kong, although I doubt that's gonna happen since they only give away free tickets to crappy movies.

My friend's grandfather was the head taxidermist in creating the "big hairy hand" in the original King Kong. OT, I know, just interesting...... This came on TCM or AMC a few months ago......

It was on AMC a few weeks ago... the picture quality was pretty bad but its not the worst ive seen. Hopefully it will get a full restoration this year or at least next year when PJ's KK hits DVD.

I believe that the last year or two, the hold-up has been the remake. However, all the time before that? That's a long time to overlook this one.

Looks like resinrats is learning bad habits from Groucho.

Is King Kong actually in the public domain, in the UK or anywhere else? There only seems to be one UK release (from Universal) and there's no U.S. DVD releases; a movie as well-known as Kong would have 10,000 crappy DVD releases by now if it was actually public domain. Is it only the character of King Kong that's in the public domain, or is it something else?