StudioCanal 4K Ultra HD Film Review

King Kong (1976) • 4K Ultra HD [StudioCanal]

A petroleum exploration expedition comes to an isolated island and encounters a colossal gorilla.

The original King Kong (1933) is so old that 1976’s “modernised remake” itself has become a relic, rapidly approaching its own 50th anniversary. Since John Guillermin’s big-budget update arrived we’ve had a version from Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) in 2005 that made use of advancements in digital VFX, while the giant ape now appears in the so-called ‘Monsterverse’ movies — such as Kong: Skull Island (2017) — that started with a 2014 American remake of Godzilla.

Renowned producer Dino De Laurentiis claimed he decided to remake the iconic monster movie after seeing its poster in his daughter’s bedroom, although ABC executive Michael Eisner is adamant he saw the 1933 movie on television and contacted Barry Diller, the CEO of Paramount Pictures, with the brainwave of redoing this classic concept. Whatever its true origin, De Laurentiis hired screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. (Three Days of the Condor) to write the film, with only…