While everyone complains over and over about remakes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween and countless others, nobody seems to mind that classic Universal Monsters and other iconic characters have been on the big screen more times than I can count on 60 hands. One of the most legendary is King Kong, who will once again return to theaters in the prequel Kong: King of Skull Island, a book that came out around the same time as Peter jackson's mega-budget remake. Read on for the skinny.
Spirit Pictures is looking to breathe new life into King Kong and a project initially developed by effects legend Ray Harryhausen, reports Variety.
Producers at the shingle have picked up the rights to the book "Kong: King of Skull Island," a prequel to the well-known tale of the big ape.
Penned by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, book focuses on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there. It introduces other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.
The book was published at the same time Peter Jackson was producing his remake of "King Kong."
Rights to make the movie were brokered with the Merian C. Cooper family, who own the Kong property. Cooper co-directed the original "Kong," released in 1933.
"We're very concerned with honoring Merian C. Cooper's legacy in Hollywood. We want to make sure that whatever we deliver will honor his memory," said Spirit's Steve Iles, who worked on videogames for the "Star Wars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchises through his Pocket Studios game company.
The plan is to produce the film using motion-capture technology such as Robert Zemeckis used to make "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and the upcoming "A Christmas Carol." Spirit's own facility would produce the CG work.
Spirit also is developing "War Eagles," a project Cooper and Harryhausen had developed together and were nearly set to produce before the outbreak of WWII. The period actioner is set in 1939 and revolves around an ace fighter-pilot who tests a new jet and winds up crash-landing in the arctic, where he encounters a lost civilization that's been thriving there for centuries.
"It's one of those films that a certain level of the industry is aware of," said Arnold Kunert, producer on both "Kong" and "Eagles." "It's a combination of all the things that have worked in adventure films for the last 70 or 80 years."
Andy Briggs is working on the scripts for both films, with Spirit also developing offshoots like graphic novels, videogames and toys.
Iles and Kunert will produce both pics through Spirit, which is still seeking production partners on the projects.
What? Wait. What? This is pointless. It's Son Of Kong all over again. Without the creative team that created the bloated, yet beautiful, new original, it's a dumb idea.
So sick of people hating. The only reason people hate remakes is because they are stuck in past. Simple, if you dont like the idea of a remake then dont watch the movie. But you know you will, so why bitch?
R rated i want a R rated kong... LOL that would be stellar.
And that would be so sick if they make this into a really scary movie. Because come on it can be scary. I would shit in my pant's if I saw a huge ass gorrilla.
Yea screw king kong anyways Bring back godzilla and make him look the way he is supposed to and dont let japan do anything to it. But if you decide to put someone in a suit I suggest jackie earle haley lol.
I loved the Peter Jackson "King Kong" remake, so if this has nothing to do with it, then I'm skeptical. It's only been a few years since it came out, why release a "prequel" that's completely unrelated? Bad idea.
There isn't enough Giant Monster films being made these days, so right now, I'm looking forward to it. As for Godzilla, the last time Toho let an American studio give him a try, they fucked it up ROYALLY.
I'm not impressed. This strikes me as similar to Universal developing a remake to Bride of Frankenstein with no plans for a Frankenstein movie (save for the strangely unrelated and far-off Del Toro movie).
Um... why? Oh, yeah, because lord knows how everyone LOVED Peter Jackson's remake (which actually wasn't that bad if you trimmed like... an hour and 10 minutes off of it...).
Please no more King Kong enough with giant chimps..Lol
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