News: METEOR (1979) Coming to Blu-Ray in September

On September 16th, Kino Lorber will be releasing the 1979 American-International disaster "epic," Meteor, on high-definition Blu-ray disc. This Ronald Neame-directed tale of death from above features an all-star cast, including Sean Connery (Zardoz), Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Martin Landau (Space: 1999), Trevor Howard, Karl Malden, and Brian Keith.

From the Kino's press release:

A brilliant scientist, Dr. Paul Bradley (Connery) is summoned to Washington by NASA chief Harold Sherwood (Malden), who informs him that a huge meteor will smash into earth in six days. The only chance to destroy the meteor is to work with the Soviets, revealing to them top secrets. But as the clock is ticking, fragments of the meteor split off and come crashing to earth, causing enormous damage. And as avalanches and tidal waves take a devastating toll, Bradley works against all odds to eliminate the greatest threat the world has ever known.

Despite a huge PR campaign and plenty of sci-fi elements, the relatively big-budget Meteor flopped at the box office, and took American-International pictures down with it, but I've always enjoyed it for what it was. It's not a great movie, by any means, but it's entertaining.

As I've noted here on the site before, for what was, essentially, just another Irwin Allen-styled disaster flick, the movie generated a lot of tie-in merchandise aimed at the adolescent Space: 1970 crowd: a Marvel Comics adaptation and Warren souvenir magazine, a Viewmaster reel, even an arcade pinball machine.

The Blu-ray is already available for pre-order online.

METEOR (1979) Tie-In Magazines

As I've noted before, American-International's 1979 release, Meteor, had a surprising number of tie-ins and merchandise, especially for what was, in essence, just another all-star disaster flick in the vein of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. Of course, there wasn't a Marvel Comics adaptation (or Viewmaster reel or pinball machine) done for those films, was there? So what was different about Meteor?

Space.

Two years after the box-office double-punch of Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, the kids (namely, us) were still buying the toys, comic books and other memorabilia those films had generated... and Hollywood was paying attention. In 1979, the same year as Meteor, we had Alien, The Black Hole, Star Trek - The Motion Picture, the theatrical version of Universal's Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, and Moonraker. Even James Bond knew that the gold was in outer space.

And while the action in Meteor was almost strictly Earthbound, and there were no robots, laser guns or even any action figure potential (Henry Fonda as The President... with button-pushing action!) it did have a great big rock... from space! Which is no doubt why American-International's PR and marketing division worked so hard to get coverage in fan mags like Starlog and Future Life.

So Meteor got itself an official Warren movie magazine, complete with behind-the-scenes photos, articles and cast interviews (and inevitable Captain Company ads in the back) and a Marvel Comics Super Special adaptation with a Frank Miller (and Peter Ledger) cover. Actually, it's a pretty fair comic book, all things considered, with nice art by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer.

Of course, the movie bombed and took American-International with it.  Maybe they should have put out a Sean Connery "Dr. Paul Bradley" action figure after all...

METEOR (1979) Press Kit Photos

Today we have a selection of press kit pix from American International's 1979 sci-fi disaster film (or "epic suspense drama" as the photo captions would have it), the all-star box office flop, Meteor!  If I recall correctly, these exact stills were in the photo section in the middle of the Meteor paperback novelization....

METEOR (1979) Pinball Machine

As I've mentioned before, the 1979 sci-fi disaster flick Meteor had a surprising amount of merchandising, from the expected tie-in novelization, comics & Warren magazine to View-Master reels... and this arcade pinball machine from Stern. I don't believe I ever saw this in person, but the flyer makes it look like it might have been a fun machine to drop a few quarters on.

I'm especially taken by the colorful, well-designed graphics; it looks like Meteor probably made a better pinball game than it did a movie! (Of course, you all know me - I actually kinda like the movie, too.)

Coming Attractions: METEOR (1979) Theatrical Trailer

One of the final films from venerable B-movie studio American-International Pictures was Meteor, a (reasonably) big-budget attempt to cash-in on both the Irwin Allen all-star disaster thrillers of the early 70s and the late-70s interest in space and science fiction. Loaded with name stars, including Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Brian Kieth, Martin Landau (Space: 1999), and Henry Fonda (among others), directed by Ronald Neame of The Poseidon Adventure, and supported by AIP's largest marketing blitz ever, Meteor ultimately crashed and burned at the box-office, unable to recoup its production and marketing costs; a disappointing reception that contributed significantly to the downfall of the studio.

The movie itself is cheesy, undemanding fun (and I normally don't like to use the adjective "cheesy," but it seems to apply here), with a few particularly enthusiastic (or maybe, "hammy") performances, and a script creaking under the weight of some astoundingly banal dialogue. The miniature effects are especially underwhelming (wobbly, under-detailed models, over-lit and lacking any convincing sense of scale), especially considering this was a post-Star Wars genre movie competing directly with big effects films like Moonraker, The Black Hole and Star Trek - The Motion Picture. That said, some of the scenes of terrestrial destruction aren't too bad, and many of the practical effects (including a climactic flood of mud) are quite well executed.

As mentioned above, Meteor was fairly heavily marketed with a tie-in paperback novel (which I still have around here somewhere, I think), a Warren Collectors' magazine, a Marvel Comics adaptation, an arcade pinball machine, and even a Viewmaster reel! Needless to say, I'll be posting more on this flick one of these days...