Peter Jackson's King Kong stampeded into theaters 10 years ago. In recent days, we've been hearing about casting for a prequel, Kong: Skull Island, which promises to explore the island where King Kong and other prehistoric creatures (i.e. dinosaurs) roam freely. Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Corey Hawkins are set to star, with Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Wilkinson, John C. Reilly and Jason Mitchell in various stages of talks to join the adventure.
But now comes word from Deadline that the movie, which is being produced by Legendary Pictures, is shifting distributors from Universal Pictures to Warner Bros., which opens up exciting new possibilities for more monster movies. That's because Legendary Pictures already has a deal set up for its franchise Godzilla property to be distributed through Warner Bros., with a sequel already on its way. The plan is to follow that with a movie pitting Kong Kong versus Godzilla.
King Kong first appeared in the classic 1933 movie bearing his name, released through RKO. The legal rights to the character were in dispute for many years, but Japanese company Toho, which made the original Godzilla, licensed the character from RKO and made King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962.
That was followed by King Kong Ecapes in 1967. Toho considered remaking King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1991 but ran into rights issues and abandoned the project. Over the years, Toho often matched Godzilla versus other monsters: Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Rodan and others.
Uniting both monsters could inspire multiple sequels and spin-offs, since it's also likely that more monsters will be developed and possibly showcased in the next couple of movies under consideration. We could easily imagine a new movie universe, one in which certain monsters become benefactors or protectors of mankind, fighting against other, more destructive monsters.
Production on Kong: Skull Island should get underway later this year or early in 2016 under the direction of Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer). Universal had scheduled it for release on March 10, 2017; we'll have to wait to see if that will change.
