It's been 40 years since Close Encounters Of The Third Kind has been in movie theaters. Friday, Sept. 1, it returns to Wyoming for an anniversary showing.

Select theaters in Wyoming will be showing the movie to several who were not even born yet when it originally appeared in theaters. For others, it will be a chance to see it again as they first saw it all those years ago.

To those who are familiar with the Northeast Wyoming landscape they will be able to tell that they did not shoot the Gillette, Wyoming scenes in Gillette. They actually shot the scenes in Bay Minette, Alabama because they had a better looking train depot. There is a highway scene near the town of Moorcroft but closer to the town of Pinedale. But the thrill of having places you know or have lived mentioned in one of he biggest hit movies ever made is still a thrill.

If you would like a tour of the top locations in the movie there is a very interesting YouTube video where a fan of the movie drives out to locations featured in the movie and compares what they look like today versus back then.

Since its release, the movie has earned $303 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. That small budget is nothing by today's standards, but was $20 million was huge back then. It was nominated for eight Oscars and won best cinematography and a special achievement award for sound effects editing.

The studio released an anniversary movie trailer that is a bit different and updated from the original. The original movie has been digitally remastered so you can expect the old effects to be much more brilliant than what we saw back in 1977.

Find a local theater. Come, lets see it together.

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