With all of its casting news floating around (read here, here and here), it looks as though Kong: Skull Island‘s sequel could be grabbing all the headlines.
Deadline are reporting that Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull is moving Kong: Skull Island away from Universal’s distribution to Warner Bros. as they have had a very fruitful working relationship in the past. However, the real reason for this move is because Warner Bros. and Japanese studio Toho are keen to reboot the 1962 monster rumble classic King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Gareth Edwards will be directing Godzilla 2 once he has finished working on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the movie is rumoured to feature classic kaiju King Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan. So if today’s report is true, we won’t be seeing King Kong and Godzilla tearing each other apart until Godzilla 3.
The third movie released with The King of the Monsters, King Kong vs. Godzilla was one of the most successful movies in the franchise’s history. Originally designed to be a satire on the business landscape of Japan, the movie was drastically changed when it was brought over to North America. Many scenes were cut from the film and replaced with United Nations reporter Eric Carter providing exposition from his studio in outer space. There were even stories printed that the American and Japanese cuts of the movie had different endings – although that rumour has since been debunked.
Kong: Skull Island is set for release on March 10th, 2017 and is directed by Jordon Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer) with a cast that includes om Hiddleston (The Avengers), Brie Larson (Short Term 12), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) and Tom Wilkinson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
Originally published September 11, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
