Universal marks Kong footprint

Production DVD out with theatrical

By Scott Hettrick and Samantha Clark -- Video Business, 9/30/2005

SEPT. 30 | Fans inspired by the Dec. 14 theatrical remake of King Kong to immediately run out and buy the soundtrack, coffee table book and other related merchandise also will have the rare opportunity to purchase a DVD filled with 3½ hours of bonus features from the movie months earlier than usual.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will release an elaborately packaged two-disc collection of 54 of the Internet video production diaries from the set of the Peter Jackson film on Dec. 13 (prebook Nov. 8), just one day before the film opens in theaters.

The continuing video journals featuring Jackson and all the stars and crew at work on the movie, as well as early looks at the various incarnations of the giant ape have been posted regularly all year at fan web site KongIsKing.net. The shorts were produced by Lord of the Rings DVD production company Pellerin Multimedia Inc.

The DVD collection, expected to be priced at $39.98, features the journals from the first eight months of production ending with principal photography as well as original footage produced specifically for the DVD and a 50-page four-color book.

Sources say the entire collection through postproduction was to have been included as part of the first DVD of the movie next year, but a decision was made only recently to release the first 54 videos in conjunction with the theatrical release.

While shooting the movie and the Internet production diaries and creating the unique DVD release, Jackson and PMI’s Michael Pellerin also were producing bonus features for Warner Home Video’s Nov. 22 DVD release of the original 1933 RKO King Kong, including the recreation of a 45-second deleted and lost spider pit scene.

Universal, which would not confirm or comment on any of the information for this story, mounted a similar tie-in strategy involving an original DVD designed and timed to dovetail with a theatrical release in early summer 2004 when the studio distributed a couple of original 30-minute animated programs and limited bonus features relating to Van Helsing and The Chronicles of Riddick.

Additional reporting by Cheryl Cheng

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