Close Encounters is returning to cinemas for its… | Little White Lies

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Close Encoun­ters is return­ing to cin­e­mas for its 40th anniversary

26 Jul 2017

Words by Courteney Tan

Vibrant neon city lights on a curved, futuristic structure against a starry night sky.
Vibrant neon city lights on a curved, futuristic structure against a starry night sky.
Steven Spielberg’s clas­sic extrater­res­tri­al tale has been dig­i­tal­ly remas­tered in 4K.

“Have you recent­ly had a close encounter?” Well, you’re about to… Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi Close Encoun­ters of the Third Kind is return­ing to cin­e­mas 40 years after its orig­i­nal release.

The film stars Richard Drey­fus as Ray, an elec­tri­cal line­man who wit­ness­es UFOs soar­ing across the sky. Plagued with images of moun­tain-like objects, he begins to obsess over iden­ti­fy­ing what he saw, much to his wife’s frus­tra­tion. Mean­while, gov­ern­men­tal expert Lacombe (François Truf­faut) and his assis­tant Laugh­lin (Bob Bal­a­ban) inves­ti­gate bizarre alien-relat­ed hap­pen­ings across the world.

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Sony Pic­tures has dig­i­tal­ly remas­tered the director’s cut in 4K, and if that wasn’t excit­ing enough, the stu­dio has also put out a brand new poster and trail­er. To top it all off, a ​“We are still not alone” web­site has been launched, allow­ing the pub­lic to sign up to receive updates on UFO sightings.

What with so many reboots, pre­quels and sequels in the works, it’s great to see an orig­i­nal and beloved genre clas­sic receiv­ing a major reappraisal.

Close Encoun­ters will be back in the­atres for one week only begin­ning 1 Sep­tem­ber, 2017. We’re hop­ing for big things for its 50th…

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