A strong argument could be made for King Kong being the most influential movie ever made. Kong’s progeny includes Mighty Joe Young, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, Ray Harryhausen films, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, Avatar, many of the character-driven stop motion creations of the past ninety years, and dozens of authorized and unauthorized spin-offs, sequels, remakes, and rip-offs. The film inspired dozens, if not hundreds of directors, special effects artists, sound effects creators, composers, and film creators of all kinds, who have in turn inspired the next generation of filmmakers, and they the next. It is the first special-effects driven blockbuster of the sound era; a genre-crossing spectacular that introduced the world to some of cinema’s most iconic imagery and sound, the screen’s first true Scream Queen, and one of the all-time great gods and monsters of film history.
King Kong...
King Kong...
- 3/24/2023
- by Brian Keiper
- bloody-disgusting.com
A certain mutant send-off may have gotten the most global attention out of the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, but if one retracts their claws, some of the finest in major international cinema comes into focus. Ahead of our picks of the best of the festival, the jury has delivered their awards.
Led by Paul Verhoeven, the jury made up of Dora Bouchoucha Fourati, Olafur Eliasson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Jentsch, Diego Luna, and Wang Quan’an gave the Hungarian drama On Body and Soul the top prize of Golden Bear, while Aki Kaurismäki picked up Best Director for The Other Side of Hope and Kim Min-hee earned Best Actress for her latest Hong Sang-soo collaboration On The Beach At Night Alone.
Check out the winners below (with a hat tip to Deadline) along with links to reviews where available. One can also see our full coverage here.
Golden Bear for Best...
Led by Paul Verhoeven, the jury made up of Dora Bouchoucha Fourati, Olafur Eliasson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Jentsch, Diego Luna, and Wang Quan’an gave the Hungarian drama On Body and Soul the top prize of Golden Bear, while Aki Kaurismäki picked up Best Director for The Other Side of Hope and Kim Min-hee earned Best Actress for her latest Hong Sang-soo collaboration On The Beach At Night Alone.
Check out the winners below (with a hat tip to Deadline) along with links to reviews where available. One can also see our full coverage here.
Golden Bear for Best...
- 2/19/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– HBO has acquired the U.S. TV rights to “David Bowie: The Last Five Years,” directed and produced by Francis Whately. The film spotlights two critically acclaimed albums and the stage musical “Lazarus,” offering new insights into Bowie’s extraordinary creativity during the final five years of his life.
Featuring a wealth of rarely seen Bowie interviews, archival footage, audio from the recording sessions for “The Next Day” and “Blackstar,” and unprecedented access to Bowie’s closest friends and artistic collaborators, the film is a tribute to one of the greatest rock icons of all time.
Read More: Film Acquisitions Rundown: Sony Picks Up Tom Hanks’ ‘Greyhound,’ Lionsgate Acquires ‘Rally Car’ and More
– The Weinstein Company will...
– HBO has acquired the U.S. TV rights to “David Bowie: The Last Five Years,” directed and produced by Francis Whately. The film spotlights two critically acclaimed albums and the stage musical “Lazarus,” offering new insights into Bowie’s extraordinary creativity during the final five years of his life.
Featuring a wealth of rarely seen Bowie interviews, archival footage, audio from the recording sessions for “The Next Day” and “Blackstar,” and unprecedented access to Bowie’s closest friends and artistic collaborators, the film is a tribute to one of the greatest rock icons of all time.
Read More: Film Acquisitions Rundown: Sony Picks Up Tom Hanks’ ‘Greyhound,’ Lionsgate Acquires ‘Rally Car’ and More
– The Weinstein Company will...
- 2/17/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
A Tribute to King Kong takes place as part of the The St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, Nov. 6 beginning at 6:00pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The first film screened will be the new documentary Long Live The King, which explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars — both literally and figuratively — in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. Produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning “Beast Wishes,” the documentary devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes, even the Japanese versions by Toho Studios.
- 11/2/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A Tribute to King Kong takes place as part of the The St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, Nov. 6 beginning at 6:00pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The first film screened will be the new documentary Long Live The King, which explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars — both literally and figuratively — in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. Produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning “Beast Wishes,” the documentary devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes, even the Japanese versions by Toho Studios.
- 10/21/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Each weekend we highlight the best repertory programming that New York City has to offer, and it’s about to get even better. Opening on February 19th at 7 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side is Metrograph, the city’s newest indie movie theater. Sporting two screens, they’ve announced their first slate, which includes retrospectives for Fassbinder, Wiseman, Eustache, and more, special programs such as an ode to the moviegoing experience, and new independent features that we’ve admired on the festival circuit (including Afternoon, Office 3D, and Measure of a Man).
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
- 1/20/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Read More: Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson Thriller 'Regression' to Open the 63rd San Sebastian Festival The 63rd San Sebastian Film Festival will honor filmmakers Merian C. Cooper (1893-1973) and Ernest B. Schoedsack (1893-1979) with a retrospective cycle dedicated to their films. The duo earned icon status as the directors of "King Kong" (1933), though their careers started earlier with documentaries such as "Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life" (1925) and "Chang" (1927), and fantasy adventure films like "The Four Feathers" (1929). After the success of "Kong," they would continue to explore special effects in epics like "Dr. Cyclops" (1940) and "Mighty Joe Young" (1949). The retrospective will be accompanied by the publication of a book dedicated to the two filmmakers, coordinated by Quim Casas. In addition the directors' retrospective, the festival has also announced the six films that will play in the...
- 8/20/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
“We’ll give him more than chains. He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear. We’re millionaires, boys. I’ll share it with all of you. Why, in a few months, it’ll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!”
King Kong screens at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143) Thursday, May 7th at 7pm. It is a benefit for Helping Kids Together
Doors open at 6:30pm. $6 suggested for the screening. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds. A bartender will be on hand to take care of you. “Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together (http://www.
King Kong screens at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143) Thursday, May 7th at 7pm. It is a benefit for Helping Kids Together
Doors open at 6:30pm. $6 suggested for the screening. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds. A bartender will be on hand to take care of you. “Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together (http://www.
- 4/24/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
First Best Actor Oscar winner Emil Jannings and first Best Actress Oscar winner Janet Gaynor on TCM (photo: Emil Jannings in 'The Last Command') First Best Actor Academy Award winner Emil Jannings in The Last Command, first Best Actress Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor in Sunrise, and sisters Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge are a few of the silent era performers featured this evening on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its Silent Monday presentations. Starting at 5 p.m. Pt / 8 p.m. Et on November 17, 2014, get ready to check out several of the biggest movie stars of the 1920s. Following the Jean Negulesco-directed 1943 musical short Hit Parade of the Gay Nineties -- believe me, even the most rabid anti-gay bigot will be able to enjoy this one -- TCM will be showing Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928) one of the two movies that earned...
- 11/18/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Browse all the sections of the 58th London Film Festival (Oct 8-18) including the galas, competition titles and individual sections.
Alphabetical list of titles by section including feature premiere status
Wp = Wp
Ep = European Premiere
IP = International Premiere
UK = UK Premiere
Opening Night
The Imitation Game (UK-us)
dir. Morten Tyldum
Closing Night
Fury (Us)
dir. David Ayer
GalasTitlePremFoxcatcher (Us)
dir. Bennett MillerUKWhiplash (Us)
dir. Damien ChazelleUKMen, Women And Children (Us)
dir. Jason ReitmanEPWild (Us)
dir. Jean-Marc ValleeEPTestament Of Youth (UK)
dir. James KentWPMr. Turner (UK)
dir. Mike LeighUKThe Battles Of Coronel And Falkland Islands (UK)
dir. Walter Summers Rosewater (Us)
dir. Jon StewartEPMommy (Can)
dir. Xavier DolanUKA Little Chaos (UK)
dir. Alan RickmanEPWild Tales (Arg)
dir. Damián SzifrónUKThe Salvation (Den)
dir. Kristian Levring The White Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdom (Chi)
dir. Jacob CheungIPWinter Sleep (Tur)
dir. Nuri Bilge CeylanUKBjork: Biophilia Live (UK)
dir. Nick Fenton, Peter StricklandUKSong Of The Sea (Ire)
dir. Tomm MooreEPOfficial...
Alphabetical list of titles by section including feature premiere status
Wp = Wp
Ep = European Premiere
IP = International Premiere
UK = UK Premiere
Opening Night
The Imitation Game (UK-us)
dir. Morten Tyldum
Closing Night
Fury (Us)
dir. David Ayer
GalasTitlePremFoxcatcher (Us)
dir. Bennett MillerUKWhiplash (Us)
dir. Damien ChazelleUKMen, Women And Children (Us)
dir. Jason ReitmanEPWild (Us)
dir. Jean-Marc ValleeEPTestament Of Youth (UK)
dir. James KentWPMr. Turner (UK)
dir. Mike LeighUKThe Battles Of Coronel And Falkland Islands (UK)
dir. Walter Summers Rosewater (Us)
dir. Jon StewartEPMommy (Can)
dir. Xavier DolanUKA Little Chaos (UK)
dir. Alan RickmanEPWild Tales (Arg)
dir. Damián SzifrónUKThe Salvation (Den)
dir. Kristian Levring The White Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdom (Chi)
dir. Jacob CheungIPWinter Sleep (Tur)
dir. Nuri Bilge CeylanUKBjork: Biophilia Live (UK)
dir. Nick Fenton, Peter StricklandUKSong Of The Sea (Ire)
dir. Tomm MooreEPOfficial...
- 9/3/2014
- ScreenDaily
Article by Tom Stockman
The big guy once known as ‘The 8th Wonder of the World’ is celebrating his 80th birthday. A landmark accomplishment in cinema and fantasy, King Kong still holds the power to astonish and inspire, so in honor of its 80 years, here’s a look at the movie’s groundbreaking production and significant legacy.
Carl Denham, who brought Kong from Skull Island to New York, was an adventurous, globe-hopping filmmaker and the same was true of Merian C. Cooper, the mastermind behind the movie King Kong. Born in 1893, Cooper had been an aviator and hero in the First World War. He began his movie career in the mid-1920s at Paramount Pictures where he teamed up with Ernest B. Schoedsack, a pioneering motion picture photographer and news cameraman who would become his filmmaking partner. Their first successes were a pair of ambitious anthropological documentaries inspired by the...
The big guy once known as ‘The 8th Wonder of the World’ is celebrating his 80th birthday. A landmark accomplishment in cinema and fantasy, King Kong still holds the power to astonish and inspire, so in honor of its 80 years, here’s a look at the movie’s groundbreaking production and significant legacy.
Carl Denham, who brought Kong from Skull Island to New York, was an adventurous, globe-hopping filmmaker and the same was true of Merian C. Cooper, the mastermind behind the movie King Kong. Born in 1893, Cooper had been an aviator and hero in the First World War. He began his movie career in the mid-1920s at Paramount Pictures where he teamed up with Ernest B. Schoedsack, a pioneering motion picture photographer and news cameraman who would become his filmmaking partner. Their first successes were a pair of ambitious anthropological documentaries inspired by the...
- 9/26/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Because there aren't enough things to lament in the world of music, Amanda Bynes is planning to enter the rap game, with rapper Waka Flocka Flame at her side.
Waka tells TMZ that he and the troubled actress are working out a record deal with his Brick Squad Monopoly label and, though nothing's been signed, he's already begun hiring people to start writing tracks for Bynes, which is probably for the best. Can you imagine Bynes writing them on her own, with her limited insult vocabulary? (She seems to only know the word "ugly" when it's time to disparage someone on Twitter.)
Mr. Flame says he and Bynes FaceTime at least once a week and text every day. He says the album will be called "Shots," which sounds totally appropriate for a girl facing DUI charges. Of the album, Waka says he'll be featured on several songs, adding, "It's going to be crazy hot.
Waka tells TMZ that he and the troubled actress are working out a record deal with his Brick Squad Monopoly label and, though nothing's been signed, he's already begun hiring people to start writing tracks for Bynes, which is probably for the best. Can you imagine Bynes writing them on her own, with her limited insult vocabulary? (She seems to only know the word "ugly" when it's time to disparage someone on Twitter.)
Mr. Flame says he and Bynes FaceTime at least once a week and text every day. He says the album will be called "Shots," which sounds totally appropriate for a girl facing DUI charges. Of the album, Waka says he'll be featured on several songs, adding, "It's going to be crazy hot.
- 6/22/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Community closed out its fourth season Thursday with yet another finale the could very well serve as a satisfying series ender… if need be.
Through paintball shootouts, darkest timelines and a unique wedding of sorts, the Greendale gang — and their respective “evil” counterparts — finished out the school year. Here’s how it all went down:
Just like Donna Martin, Jeff Winger graduates! The Greendale Community College alpha male learns that he’s passed History, which means it’s time to receive a diploma. Added bonus: His old law firm buddy offers him a new job, which he graciously accepts. Excited and,...
Through paintball shootouts, darkest timelines and a unique wedding of sorts, the Greendale gang — and their respective “evil” counterparts — finished out the school year. Here’s how it all went down:
Just like Donna Martin, Jeff Winger graduates! The Greendale Community College alpha male learns that he’s passed History, which means it’s time to receive a diploma. Added bonus: His old law firm buddy offers him a new job, which he graciously accepts. Excited and,...
- 5/10/2013
- by Megan Masters
- TVLine.com
That’s the way Derek Chang, DirecTV‘s Evp Content, Strategy and Development, characterizes the state of play after last night when his 20M customers lost Viacom’s 17 channels including Nickelodeon, MTV, and Comedy Central. Negotiators spoke this morning, and “we’re making slow progress,” he tells me. The exec says his company hasn’t decided whether customers might receive a discount or rebate for the loss of so many popular services if the contract dispute drags on. “We’re going to do what we can to keep them happy. How we deal with that specifically will depend on what happens here.” Related: Does Viacom Have More At Risk Than DirecTV Does In Programming Standoff? Price remains the core issue. Chang says that Viacom wants DirecTV’s payment for the channels to increase by more than 30% in the first year of a new contract followed by “annual escalators well in excess of normal inflators.
- 7/11/2012
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
- Deadline TV
DirecTV’s 20M customers lost Viacom’s 17 channels — including Nickelodeon, MTV, and Comedy Central — at about 11:50 Pm Et. Now the finger-pointing is underway. Derek Chang, the satellite company’s Evp Content, Strategy and Development, says that Viacom ”sent us a letter last night that outlined our obligations to remove the channels by midnight or face legal action just as they were falsely telling viewers DirecTV was responsible. Let’s be clear, Viacom took these channels away from DirecTV viewers.” But Viacom says “DirecTV dropped the channels without giving Viacom advanced warning.” They last spoke at 11 Am on Tuesday, the company says. The big issue is price: DirecTV says that Viacom is demanding 30% more for its channels — equal to about $1B. It isn’t justified, Chang says, due to “the fact that the ratings for many of their main networks have plummeted and much of Viacom’s programming can be seen for free online.
- 7/11/2012
- by DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor
- Deadline TV
This is a Recap of Top Chef All-Stars (Season 8), Episode 3, entitled “New York’s Finest”, originally airing December 15th, 2010. Shockingly, they do not have to cook any dishes based on New York Police Precincts – that’ll be next week, in the episode “Seriously Though We Mean Cops”. Quickfire time! First, Padma picks the teams by saying “You walked in here in a random order, and that’s how we’re gonna split these teams up.” What?? Where’s the 4-minute montage of people opening up Russian nesting dolls to find skeleton keys that open cobwebbed treasure chests that contain the names of U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and the teams are based on which vegetable those secretaries subsidized the most during their tenure? Top Chef, I don’t even know you anymore. The chefs get the chance to rave about their teammates, and Fabio is pumped, even though “Angelo wears...
- 12/16/2010
- by Dan Hopper
- BestWeekEver
Chicago – With the release of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” there is a reminder of all the films in cinema history that dared to challenge something, within an existence that sometimes has trouble getting out of bed. Here are ten such films, filling in the holes of and taking on the mantle of (Blank) vs. (Blank).
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures
This weeper did take on some pretty lofty issues in a post feminist society where gender roles – while loosening up considerably – were still pretty rigid. Meryl Streep does her usual scene stealing as Joanna Kramer, a frustrated wife and mother who shakes up circumstances by leaving her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) and their young boy Billy (Justin Henry).
Ted is forced to care for a child he’s barely known, and goes through a transition of his own. This Academy Award winning Best Picture...
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures
This weeper did take on some pretty lofty issues in a post feminist society where gender roles – while loosening up considerably – were still pretty rigid. Meryl Streep does her usual scene stealing as Joanna Kramer, a frustrated wife and mother who shakes up circumstances by leaving her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) and their young boy Billy (Justin Henry).
Ted is forced to care for a child he’s barely known, and goes through a transition of his own. This Academy Award winning Best Picture...
- 8/23/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Admitting his pleasure at having been invited by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (Sfsff) to introduce Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927), Mark Cotta Vaz--author of Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong--extolled the Castro Theatre as "the greatest living movie theater in the world" and the seed of inspiration for his authoring Living Dangerously.
...
...
- 12/16/2009
- Screen Anarchy
Chang by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack (top); J’accuse! by Abel Gance (middle); Lon Chaney in Tod Browning’s West of Zanzibar (bottom) Abel Gance’s 1919 anti-war drama J’accuse! is the centerpiece of this winter’s edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, to be held on Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Castro Theater. The 162-minute, recently restored J’accuse!, which is having its Us big-screen premiere at the festival, focuses on a love triangle set in World War I Europe, a time when men were slaughtering one another for some great cause or other. (That depends on which side you were fighting.) Actual soldiers took part in the film, and in one scene the dead return to life [...]...
- 12/11/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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