Turner Broadcasting has secured the network premiere window for NBC Universal’s blockbuster King Kong, according to an announcement by Ken Schwab, senior vice president of programming for TBS and TNT. The film’s window on the Turner Broadcasting networks begins in 2008. Jonathan Katz, senior vice president of program planning and acquisitions for Turner Entertainment Group, negotiated the deal on behalf of Turner Broadcasting.
“King Kong is one of the most popular and critically praised movies of 2005, and we are proud to add it to our stable of top-notch movies airing on TBS and TNT,” said Schwab. “Obtaining this enormously popular title demonstrates Turner Broadcasting’s continuing commitment to provide our audiences with top-notch movie entertainment.”
King Kong is OscarÂ-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson‘s heart-pounding remake of and loving homage to the 1933 classic about a film crew that lands on an island only to find it inhabited by primitive natives who worship a legendary creature, a 30-foot-gorilla. The natives capture the film crew’s leading lady, Ann Darrow (Watts), sending director Carl Denham (Black) and screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Brody) on a daring rescue mission that eventually leads to the capture of the beast. Upon bringing him back to the states for exhibition, however, the arrogant Driscoll finds his dreams of glory shattered when Kong escapes, wreaking havoc on Manhattan and eventually climbing to the top of the Empire State Building for a memorable showdown.
Jackson, who credits the original version of the movie as the inspiration that led him to become a filmmaker, has crafted an enormously entertaining adventure story full of eye-popping special effects and a story that truly touches the heart. The movie opened Dec. 14, 2005, and has since raked in more than $215 million domestically, $538 million worldwide, and ranks as the fifth-biggest blockbuster of 2005. It recently earned Oscar nominations for its art direction, visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing, while Peter Jackson’s direction and James Newton Howard’s score earned Golden Globeâ nominations.
Turner Broadcasting has also licensed the network premiere windows for the NBC Universal movies Doom, starring The Rock; Two for the Money, starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey; and The Ice Harvest, with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, as well as the second window for the movie Prime, starring Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman.
