According to Deadline, King Kong may be joining Mickey Mouse, or at least the House of Mouse. Though it’s still in “early development,” Disney+ wants to move forward on a live-action serialized adventure bringing the giant ape into the modern world. This isn’t to be confused with Legendary Entertainment’s Monsterverse version of Kong, nor Universal Studios’ King Kong. Instead, it’s alleged to hearken back to Meriam C. Cooper’s original novel while drawing upon creator Joe DeVito’s recent comic books and novels. Those all fall under the umbrella of DeVito Artworks.
The series will be written by Stephany Folsom, adapter of Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s Paper Girls for Prime Video. She’ll executive produce alongside James Wan, whose Atomic Monster production company will bring Kong to life, or rather, television live-action for the first time. Somehow I’ve missed that Netflix has an anime series of Skull Island. And, of course, there was a classic 1960’s cartoon of King Kong. To the chagrin of Ric Bretschneider’s wife, he and I can both reflexively sing the theme song.
Because the history of who owns what rights are nebulous, each production company has changed the name. It seems that Universal claims King Kong, as they have an attraction based on Peter Jackson’s remake. Legendary has clearly left the “King” out, with Kong: Skull Island and later Godzilla vs. Kong. DeVito’s work refers to the big lug as King Kong OF Skull Island. And this is why they taught you parts of speech in middle school. Prepositions make good copyright preparation.
This story has big ramifications for a couple of reasons. Nobody’s better at a copyright fight than Disney. They managed to beat A.A. Milne’s estate over the rights to Winnie the Pooh, and Milne created the silly old bear. The silly old giant ape might be one of those the bigger they are, the easier they fall situations.
But also, this is Warner Bros.’ darling James Wan jumping over to Disney. Long before the current crap with Warner Bros. Discovery, the studio has been messing with Wan’s productions. They cut the series order on Swamp Thing before it had finished filming, then cancelled it quite literally on Day One. Wan started developing a horror spin-off from his successful Aquaman film, only for that to be cancelled a year later. And though it might be truly a move so as not to compete against Avatar: Way of the Water, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was just delayed until March of 2023. It’s not a good creator-friendly look. And suddenly Disney, which has had its share of issues with filmmakers, looks pretty good.
It’s interesting, that’s all. We know nothing, other than the name of King Kong. Oh, and he’s ten times as big as a man.
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