I do find it curious that there are a few details about this FYE steelbook that suggest it could be more than a simple re-release of the current disc.
The cover art for this steelbook release reduces the size of the English title by half (or even a little more) from the previous DVD and blu-ray. On the steelbook the English title is not any more prominent than the Japanese title, both titles tend to catch the eye easily.
It likely means nothing at all, but I was checking out Universal's home video site last night (
http://www.uphe.com ) to see if they had any information online about the steelbook (nothing there unfortunately). But when you search for KKvG, then select "Blu-Ray" under BUY and then "F.Y.E." as the retailer it takes you to the steelbook release even though FYE does have the current blu-ray release available.
Also, why no steelbook for
King kong Escapes? Previously Universal released KKvG and KKE at the same time, but now only KKvG is getting the steelbook treatment. We know Criterion has rights for
Rodan and
War of the Gargantuas,
IF Criterion is prepping a second Toho Showa toku set it is assumed Rodan and WotG will be in it and KKE is a strong likelihood as well. If Criterion picked up KKE as well, Universal may have already secured Toho's original audio for the movie and intends to include it on a future KKE release of their own.
Criterion would have needed to license KKvG from Universal even when securing a copy of the original cut of the movie from Toho. It's possible that the licensing deal left Universal as the owner of the KKvG master Criterion received from Toho; or maybe Universal received a copy of the masters from Criterion or Universal potentially decided to get a copy direct from Toho themselves.
There's enough different surrounding this steelbook to make me wonder, and even a mite hopeful we'll see something new from Universal.