Hollywood has just set up a prize fight; the battle of biological beasts. Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures is moving their upcoming Kong: Skull Island film to Warner Bros. which paves the way for a future film starring both King Kong and Godzilla. Based on their temperaments we have to assume this will be a “vs” film and they’re not going to be allies in any meet up.
Legendary has worked with Warner before. In 2005 they signed a deal to co-produce and co-finance up to 40 films over 7 years. In 2014 they brokered a similar deal with Universal for the studio to co-finance and distribute all Legendary properties for five years. Though development for Skull Island was completed at Universal, apparently the deal left some wiggle room. Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. reported that the switch was made to bring both the Kong and Godzilla franchises under one studio, making a mashup film easier. Screenwriter Max Borenstein penned both Skull Island and the upcoming Godzilla 2 so, assuming he’s attached, there could be a lot of continuity on the film.
Skull Island was announced during the Legendary panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014. Here’s an early image:
Kong: Skull Island was a surprise announcement at SDCC 2014
Legendary acquired the rights for Godzilla from Tokyo-based Toho who have featured the lizard in 29 of their films. They also own the rights to Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Rodan. No word on whether the Kong vs. Godzilla story might feature any of the other monsters, though they are slated for Godzilla 2, which will hit screens in 2018. ScreenRant speculated on whether they’d size Kong up to be a better physical match for the 50-meter kaiju: Skull Island will bet set 40 years after the events of King Kong, in Detroit, so Kong may have continued growing.
This won’t be the first time the monsters have squared off: they met in Toho’s 1962 movie King Kong vs. Godzilla. Interestingly the original idea for that film was to pit Kong against a super-sized Frankenstein, but producers couldn’t find an American company to back them. Toho picked the film up and Godzilla was swapped in.
Here’s the trailer for that film. It’s amazing to see how much filmmaking has changed since then:
Production on Skull Island is scheduled for early 2016 and will feature Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and breakout stars Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell from Straight Outta’ Compton. Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly are also attached, with Kings of Summer director Jordan Vogt-Roberts at the helm. The film is slated for release March 10, 2017.
godzilla king kong kong: skull island universal warner bros