September 1, 2017
Watch: ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ Gets the Trailer it Deserves for 2017
40 years later, we make contact again.
Steven Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind has been revisited and re-released multiple times. Columbia Pictures pushed back the film’s original release from summer 1977 to November 1977 because of production issues, but Spielberg reportedly wanted more time and a summer 1978 release date. Columbia needed a hit in 1977, so November it was. In 1980, Spielberg convinced Columbia to give him more financing to tweak the film, and the Special Edition was released theatrically with additional scenes (including the inside of the mothership, per Columbia Pictures’ re-release marketing request against Spielberg’s wishes) and some cuts to the original.
Sony has released a new 4K digital remastered version of Spielberg’s preferred cut into theatres across the U.S.
Source: NoFilmSchool