Skull Island

The San Diego Comic Con, the place where movies, shows, and all other forms of entertainment go to get hyped. It doesn’t appear that companies need to show much to grab headlines. For example, examine the Warcraft movie logo. I have attached it underneath. That is all that was shown off. Yes, there is a lot to get excited about there. They do know how to spell ‘Warcraft’ correctly.

Yet sometimes it is great to be teased. As a Godzilla fan, I was thrilled to hear much more on the sequel to the 2014 reboot. It seems like Toho is sending more of their monsters as at least Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah are joining the fight. Again, nothing was publicly shown but at least that is an announcement that gives a large clue as to what the second American Godzilla movie will be about. The monster news did not stop there, however. Legendary Pictures appeared keen to move on its other franchises as a new Pacific Rim and King Kong movie were also teased. Wait, what? Since when has Legendary owned the film rights to King Kong?

Since July 10th apparently.

Universal Pictures and Legendary have entered a five-year partnership. They will create films together and seek ways to create profitability with whatever large franchises they own. Franchises like Universal’s King Kong and Legendary’s Godzilla. The chips are falling to create a remake of epic proportions… and really it is a no brainer.

When the original King Kong vs. Godzilla debuted back in 1962, it was a smash hit. The film is the highest grossing Godzilla film of all time in Japan and earned over a million dollars at the U.S. Box Office (back when that really meant something – the film was distributed for only 200k). With the recent success of crossovers like The Avengers, Hollywood knows that there is money to be made in putting franchises together. All that is needed are solo films to build hype.

That would explain the Skull Island movie announcement. King Kong has not appeared in theaters since 2005… and that movie did not leave much room for a sequel. While Peter Jackson’s King Kong arguably had more to say than most monster movies, it clearly was not made to start a franchise. This new film will likely have nothing to do with 2005 remake and simply be aimed at reestablishing Kong as the Eighth Wonder of the World… and part of the same universe as Godzilla.

As for the currently dubbed Godzilla 2, many Godzilla fans (myself included) were surprised at the announcement of King Ghidorah. Anyone familiar with the series knows that Ghidorah is the grand enemy of Godzilla. He is to Godzilla as Joker is to Batman – the greatest of all the villains. Hollywood appears to operate under the model of escalation for their sequels: everything has to be bigger and better in the next one. That said: why Ghidorah so soon?

Legendary has already unveiled plans for at least three Godzilla movies so the decision to include Ghidorah in the second one comes across as a bit odd. After all, what monster could create more hype than Ghidorah? Oh wait:

Yes, move over Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (take your skinny Wonder Woman with you), Godzilla vs. King Kong looks to be coming to theaters soon.

“Legendary continues to prove that big ideas are relevant and profitable with our global moviegoing audience.”

-Universal Studios COO Ron Meyer

Oh, and by the way: they also own Pacific Rim. Imagine that crossover.