I recorded a commentary track discussing the cinematic history of Kong and the making of King Kong 1976 for this terrific new Collector’s Edition blu-ray from Shout! Factory.
The disc contains both the 1976 theatrical cut, the two-part extended network television version from 1978, a new audio interview with Academy Award-winning make-up artist, creature creator, and Kong-performer Rick Baker, and many other great extras.
Ray Morton’s King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon is the first book to chronicle the making of the first seven feature films in which the character of Kong has appeared.
Based on extensive research, the book contains interviews with many of the surviving members of each production and is generously illustrated with photographs, production art, and promotional material, much of it from the author’s extensive personal collection.
Since the beginning of time, mankind has looked to the heavens and dreamed of encountering life from beyond the stars.
Depicted first in myth and then in literature and finally on celluloid, many of these dreams were fearful ones in which potential visitors were characterized as invading monsters intent on conquest and destruction.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind used all of the power and the magic of cinema to tell a story of man’s first meeting with beings from another world — an event Spielberg boldly envisioned as a peaceful and even a spiritual one, full of hope and wondrous possibility.
In late 1963, The Beatles were the top musical act in the United Kingdom, but had yet to become worldwide superstars.
Music on Film: A Hard Day’s Night is the first book ever to tell the complete story of the making of the movie that film critic Andrew Sarris famously called “the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals”
Music on Film: Amadeus is the first book to chronicle the making of this wonderful motion picture.
Based on extensive research and new interviews with all of the film’s principal creators, it tells the complete story of Amadeus from the conception of the original idea through its various theatrical incarnations to its ultimate triumph on the silver screen.
Ray is a significant contributor to this comprehensive history of the Man of Steel by Edward Gross.
Hailed as possibly the most comprehensive oral history of Superman to be committed to print, Voices From Krypton combines over 85 years of Superman's legacy into a sweeping tale of how the champion of the oppressed became one of the world's most recognizable pop culture icons.
Ray is a primary contributor to this exciting new survey of the John Wick franchise.
There have been iconic moments in the action movie genre over the years, but nothing has come close to matching the kinetic, balletic gun-fu of the John Wick films.Bestselling authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross take you behind the scenes of (the) franchise...while exploring the action classics that led to John Wick as well as the films it inspired.
Ray is a primary contributor to this comprehensive history by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman.
For the first time ever...telling the entire story of this blockbuster franchise from...the original film through the latest sequels and the new televisions series.
The ultimate oral history of the only gentleman secret agent with a license to kill… and thrill…telling the incredible, uncensored true stories of the James Bond franchise and spy mania.
Ray is one of the primary contributors to this excellent oral history of the 007 films by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross.
The Quick Guide to Screenwriting is the ultimate reference manual to the art, craft, and business of writing for the movies.
Written in smart, reader-friendly prose, the book is chock-full of the vital information, helpful tips, and keen advice that will help you make your script the best it can be.
A Quick Guide to Film Directing provides the reader with a concise and comprehensive overview of this creative and exciting occupation.
Written in a fast-paced, easy-to-understand fashion, the book addresses such topics as what film direction is; the history of the profession; how to become a director; and the creative and practical duties and challenges of a film director in the three stages of making a movie.
A Quick Guide to Television Writing is the ultimate reference manual to the art, craft, and business of writing for the small screen.
In a series of brief but comprehensive segments, the book covers the entire process of creating a professional television script from conceiving the initial idea to polishing the final draft.
Ray has conributed a chapter on the 1976 version of King Kong to this new collection of essays on the work of the great Franco-British director John Guillermin, edited by John's widow Mary Guillermin.
“Yeah, I know what to do with the monkey”
With those words, John Guillermin undertook what became the highest profile——as well as one of the most challenging—films of his career: the 1976 remake of King Kong. That Guillermin would helm the redo may have been inevitable, since Kong `76’s producer Dino De Laurentiis was initially inspired to update the 1933 RKO-Radio Pictures classic by the success of Guillermin’s The Towering Inferno.
