Written By: Ken HulseySources: Bloody Disgusting / Avery Guerra
It seems that a rare print of the 1933 classic film "King Kong" has turned up in a rather unlikely place, buried in the wall of a London cinema.
During recent renovations to the Grosvenor Cinema, a worker named Ross McMillan was working on knocking down a partition wall in the projection room when he noticed something odd looking in the rubble. To his amazement he discovered that it was a copy of "King Kong." Not just any copy, mind you, a copy that has been missing from the vaults of RKO for more than seventy years. An original print, that may very well contain scenes cut out of the film, including the long-lost Lizard and Spider canyon sequences.
Mr McMillan said: “I didn’t know what it was at first, I hoped it was hidden treasure but when I realised it wasn’t I was about to throw it in the skip.
“One of the cinema staff stopped me and took it away to find out what it was.
“When I heard it was an original version of King Kong, one favourite movies as a kid, I couldn’t believe it.”
Interestingly enough, when the cinema's projectionist contacted Universal, the company that now owns the rights to the film, about the find, he was informed that since the movie wasn't returned on time, way back in 1934, there were some £43,000 in late fees. However, the studio was more and willing to waive the bill just to get the prized copy of "Kong" back into their collection.
As a special added bonus, the Grosvenor Café & Cinema will be able to screen the long lost print in celebration of it's renovation.
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