New King Kong Movie Skull Island Gets Ready For 2016

On Saturday, Legendary announced a new King Kong movie called Skull Island. At the time, that was all we knew. But now, it looks like the studio isn't going to waste any time getting this out there.

When Legendary announced Godzilla at Comic-Con, it was two years before we actually got the movie. And they're following that template again: according to Deadline, Skull Island's set to be released November 6, 2016.

Not content to waste the positive buzz gained by being the only major film announcement of the weekend, Legendary's also getting moving quickly by offering Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) the directing gig.

No clue if Cornish will take the gig, he has other offers. But the last feature that Cornish signed on to do was in 2012 — the super-delayed adaptation of Snow Crash. This movie's a solid bet, so it would be a good idea for him to take it. Plus, we'd love to see Cornish take on the King Kong origin tale.

Also, Godzilla has atomic breath, thanks.

'Jurassic World' Writer Heads to 'Kong: Skull Island'

Derek Connolly is doing a little island hopping. Monster Island, that is.

Connolly, who is director Colin Trevorrow’s frequent writing partner, was a co-screenwriter on this summer’s Jurassic World, helping reboot the dinosaurs-run-amok-on-an-island franchise.

Now the scribe has been brought on to work on Kong: Skull Island, Legendary and Universal’s monster movie that is steeped in the lore of King Kong.

The scribe is doing some late minute work as the movie is deep in the casting stages and heading for a late October start in Hawaii. (The pic will also shoot in Iceland and Vietnam.)

Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Corey Hawkins are starring in the project, which is being directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and sees a team of explorers venture into the mysterious, creature-laden isle that is also the home of the king of the apes.

Max Borenstein (Godzilla), John Gatins (Flight) and Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) are among those that previously worked on the script.

Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing with Mary Parent.

The movie is scheduled for a March 10, 2017 release.

In addition to Jurassic, Connolly also wrote Trevorrow’s 2012 Sundance breakout, Safety Not Guaranteed. Other credits include Paramount’s Monster Trucks, directed by Chris Wedge and awaiting release, and has Intelligent Life set up at DreamWorks. The latter, a sc-fi love story, reunites him with Trevorrow.

He is repped by Verve and Ginsburg Daniels.

'Fantastic Four' Actor Toby Kebbell Joins Tom Hiddleston in 'Kong: Skull Island'

Toby Kebbell, who is coming off a villainous turn as Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four, is in negotiations to join the cast of Legendary and Universal’s monster movie, Kong: Skull Island.

Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Corey Hawkins are starring in the project, with Samuel L. Jackson and John C. Reilly circling the roll call.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts is sitting in the director’s chair to tell the tale of a team of explorers venture into the mysterious, creature-laden isle that is also the home of the king of the apes.

As The Hollywood Reporter reported Tuesday, screenwriter Derek Connolly has been brought on to work on the project as it heads towards a late October production start in Hawaii.

Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing with Mary Parent. The movie is scheduled for a March 10, 2017 release.

Legendary is already a fan of Kebbell’s, having hired him for it fantasy movie Warcraft. The actor is also one of the stars of MGM’s Ben-Hur and will appear in J.A. Bayona’s A Monster Calls.

He is repped by CAA and UK’s Independent Talent Group.

'Kong: Skull Island' to Move to Warner Bros. for Planned Monster Movie Universe

A Monster Universe is coming together.

Talks are underway between Legendary Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Universal to move Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island from Universal to Warner Bros., sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter.

The end game: to be able to combine classic screen monsters King Kong and Godzilla into one cinematic universe.

Godzilla was made by Legendary with Warner Bros. and grossed around $200 million. A sequel is in active development with an eye for a 2018 release.

At the same time, Legendary is making Skull Island, a King Kong movie that is just weeks away from shooting and will star Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson, among others.

When it became clear that all roads led to an eventual crossover with a series of movies on these so-called super species, talks began to move Skull Island. The dealmaking isn’t as complicated as one would think: Universal has no financial stake and was only to distribute the movie.

The move is good for Warner Bros. as it feeds the studio’s insatiable appetite for event movies and gives the studio another universe other than just the one based on the DC characters, which is just in the early stages of being made.

The eventual Kong-Godzilla pairing won’t be cinema’s first, however. The two titans squared off in 1962’s King Kong vs Godzilla.

Hollywood Gorilla Warfare: It’s Universal vs. Legendary Over ‘Kong: Skull Island’ (and Who Says "Thank You")

Universal Pictures' decision last week to let Thomas Tull's Legendary Pictures take its Kong: Skull Island project to Warner Bros. in the midst of a five-year production and financing deal is being read as a symptom of relationship trouble between the companies.

Several sources say there has been strain, in part because Tull kicked off the deal in 2014 with a couple of clunkers that he put through Universal's distribution system and then upset some at the studio who feel he has indulged a bad habit of wrapping himself in credit for hits that he merely helped finance. In this case, the film at issue was the biggest movie of the year to date, Jurassic World.

Known as a brash fanboy with a knack for raising big money, Tull, 43, brought potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in film financing to Universal after his relationship with Warners soured amid similar reports of tension over that studio's perception that he grabbed credit for Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and other hits on which he was a financing partner. (In a 2009 Wall Street Journal profile, for example, Tull said Legendary had made The Dark Knight.) "That will always be his biggest problem," says a source close to Warners. "Not just saying, 'Thank you.' " Legendary, Warners and Universal declined comment, but a source with ties to Tull notes that both studios "certainly decided to cash his checks."

In a twist, following Universal's decision to pass on Kong — with a budget north of $125 million — Warners is stepping in with a three-picture deal that kicks off with Kong; followed by a sequel to 2014's Godzilla, the biggest Warners hit originated by Legendary ($529 million worldwide); followed by a mashup that pits the ape against Godzilla. Warners is said to be kicking in 25 percent of budgets as well as marketing costs on the Kong films.

One industry veteran notes that the deal brings Tull "back to Warners, which was thrilled to see him leave." But a studio insider says a broader deal between Warners and Legendary won't happen in the foreseeable future because WB is happy with its financing partnership with James Packer and Brett Ratner's RatPac Entertainment.

It's still early days in the relationship between Legendary and Universal. But things got off to an inauspicious start as the deal required the studio to distribute two existing Legendary-backed films: Michael Mann's $70 million Blackhat, which was released in January and grossed a paltry $17.8 million worldwide, and Seventh Son, a $95 million-plus fantasy that reached only $111 million worldwide. (Universal lost no money on those films but spent manpower on releasing them didn't relish the association with them.)

Universal has invested in three Legendary projects: the $15 million horror movie Krampus (Dec. 4); the ambitious Warcraft, based on the video game (June 10); and The Great Wall, a Matt Damon sci-fi action film directed by Zhang Yimou for November 2016. (Tull shares "original story" credit on Great Wall.) Several sources say the latter two are seen as "problem movies" that have heightened concerns on the part of Universal studio chief Donna Langley.

Meanwhile, Legendary opted into two big Universal hits: It took 25 percent of Jurassic World, which was a smart bet because it has grossed $1.7 billion worldwide, and 50 percent of the moderately budgeted Straight Outta Compton, which has earned $181 million. Legendary also invested in Danny Boyle's awards hopeful Steve Jobs (Oct. 9).

Kong is not the first Legendary film in which Universal has declined to participate. This spring, the studio bowed out of paying for half of Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (Oct. 16). The studio had said it would share the cost only if the film got a PG-13 rating; a source says Langley believed the movie cost too much for an R rating. With del Toro now having delivered an R, Legendary is footing the whole bill.

Legendary wanted to produce a sequel to del Toro's Pacific Rim, which was made under the Warners deal and turned into one of those films that grosses a lot ($411 million worldwide) while being so costly that a follow-up isn't a sure thing. Sources say Legendary liked that the original performed exceptionally well in China, where the company is heavily invested, but for now the project — which had been ramping up to make a release date in August 2017 — has been halted indefinitely and will be pushed back (if it gets made at all).

Some industry insiders assumed King Kong was a Universal property, probably because of Peter Jackson's 2005 film and the theme park attraction, but the material is in the public domain. Tull wanted Universal to kick in 25 percent of the new film's budget, and sources say some at the studio were excited about the idea of a new Kong movie. But "when you're taking a big swing like that," says an insider, "you'd better have your shit together." And Universal was not convinced that such was the state of Legendary's project. But Legendary attorney Skip Brittenham says Tull has talked for years of making a movie that would matchup Kong and Godzilla and asked Universal to let the project go to Warners.

Now that Legendary has moved Kong, that settles a brewing argument over the script's references to Monarch, the secret government entity in Godzilla that employed the characters played by Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins. Obviously, the inclusion of Monarch in Kong is a move to tie the ape into a hoped-for Godzilla "universe." Warners, which held onto the right to participate in any Godzilla sequel, did not relish the idea of a Godzilla element in a Universal-backed Kong movie.

A threshold problem is that Kong supposedly is much smaller than Godzilla. That fact was not lost on Universal. "There were funny comments about him having to be the size of the Empire State Building instead of hanging off of it," says a studio insider. But a source close to Tull says Legendary is confident it can come up with a rationale to explain how Kong and Godzilla can do battle — and possibly become allies.

Sources with ties to both Legendary and Universal point out that the deal between the two was engineered by NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke just before the ouster of Adam Fogelson as Universal's film chairman. Burke was said at the time to have been enamored with Tull's company and to have promised him nearly unfettered access to Universal projects (minus Fast & Furious, Minions movies and Ted). Universal had no major financing partner at the time, and though it was showing signs of life with Fast & Furious 6 and Identity Thief, it also had costly disappointments like R.I.P.D. and 47 Ronin.

But after Universal's record-setting year at the box office, says a person with knowledge of the situation from the studio's perspective, things have changed: "Donna Langley is ascendant and carrying far more weight with [Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman] Jeff Shell, Burke and [Comcast chairman and CEO] Brian Roberts than Thomas Tull. That was not Thomas Tull's plan." And given Universal's dazzling run, says another person close to the studio, "They have the right to be really selective. They're riding on top of the world right now."

Warner Bros., Legendary Date King Kong, Godzilla Trilogy

Legendary and Warner Bros. are officially mapping out their new cinematic franchise centered around Godzilla and King Kong.

"All-powerful monsters become towering heroes for a new generation, revealing a mythology that brings together Godzilla and Legendary’s King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new. Monarch, the human organization that uncovered Godzilla in the 2014 film, will expand their mission across multiple releases," stated a release from the studios.

The initial trio of films will kick off with Kong: Skull Island on March 10, 2017; Godzilla 2 on June 8, 2018 and then Godzilla vs. Kong, arriving in theaters in 2020. While Legendary maintains its new home at Universal Pictures, the Godzilla films remain in partnership with Warner Bros., who will now also distribute Kong as a part of this franchise. Kong: Skull begins production on Oct. 19.

"Audiences really responded to Godzilla," stated Legendary CEO Thomas Tull. "Today, I’m excited to reveal that film was only the beginning of an epic new entertainment universe. As a lifelong fan of these characters, I’ve always wanted to see the ultimate showdown, and today we’re pleased to be announcing that and more."

'Kong: Skull Island' to Shoot in Australia, Vietnam and Hawaii

Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.' Kong: Skull Island will shoot in Australia, Vietnam and Hawaii.

The news comes one week after the announcement that Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok and Fox’s Ridley Scott-directed Alien project would shoot Down Under.

The Skull Island plans were revealed by Annastacia Palaszczuk, premier of the state of Queensland, where the film will take up residence at the Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. Pre-production is getting underway this month and filming will begin in early 2016.

Gold Coast Bulletin separately reported that Skull Island also will shoot in Hawaii, while sources close to the production tell THR that Vietnam will serve as a third substantial shooting location.

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Skull Island stars Tom Hiddleston, Sam Jackson, Brie Larson, and John Goodman. The story will take audiences into the "mysterious and dangerous home of the king of the apes."

Palaszczuk said Skull Island will spend at least $10.9 million (AUD$15 million) in Queensland, which is the minimum to access the local government's 16.5 percent location offset incentive. She didn't specify whether Australia is kicking in additional direct subsidy, as it did to secure the Thor and Alien shoots — a total of $34.3 million between the two.

The Australian dollar has plummeted some 30 percent over the past 2.5 years, making the territory much more attractive to large-scale productions.

Disney's Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales recently finished shooting at Village Roadshow Studios, and two other foreign films are planning to land in Queensland soon, China/Oz co-production The Nest 3D with Li Bingbing and Sony's The Shallows starring Blake Lively.

A Monster Universe is coming together.

Jackson's King Kong cost $207m (only production, no telling on marketing), and earned $218m (domestic).

Godzilla 2014 cost $160m, and earned $200m.

Those aren't bombs at all, but they aren't Universe-building numbers either.

And the closest recent analog to "Giant Monsters Fighting" would be Pacific Rim, which actually lost nearly $90m, so....apparently Warner Brothers doesn't learn from their mistakes all that well.

Pacific Rim took in $407 million on a $190 million budget. I'd say they did OK.

As Jay said, internationally, it's a different, disproportionate picture. Overseas, audiences loves them some giant monsters. Here? We prefer giant robots for some reason.

In order to build a "universe", though, you need something that appeals domestically, first. If it sells like gangbusters in China, all the better.