A prequel for Kong

Spirit Pictures has picked up the rights to the book “Kong: King of Skull Island”, which is the prequel and sequel to the classic Kong.

How can a story be both prequel and sequel you might ask, well a brief description of the story might help you: In 1957, Carl Denham’s son Vincent wants to find out what happened to his father and Kong. Carl and Kong’s body mysteriously disappeared after Kong’s death. Vincent teams up with Jack Driscoll to find his Father and uncover the mysteries of the island. When Vincent is hurt in a horrible landing, island native the elder and her assistant Kara take care of Vince. The elder who is also the storyteller tales the tale of the island, King Kong, and the other creatures from a century ago. You can read the entire synopsis here.

Andy Briggs is currently working up a script for the movie. Briggs is a lesser known writer who has done some television work and upcoming movie WAR EAGLES also being developed by Spirit.

Spirit had to get permission from Merian C. Cooper’s family, who own the rights to Kong. Spirit’s Steve Iles wanted to stay true to the material, “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.”

The film will use motion capture technology in the vein of such films as THE POLAR EXPRESS and BEOWULF.

I really enjoyed KING KONG with Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody, but I think it’s a bit too soon to judge where this is going.