Spirit Pictures is looking to breathe new life into King Kong and a project initially developed by effects legend Ray Harryhausen according to Variety.Producers at the shingle have picked up the rights to the book "Kong: King of Skull Island," a prequel to the well-known tale of the big ape.
Penned by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland, book focuses on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there. It introduces other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.
The book was published at the same time Peter Jackson was producing his remake of "King Kong."
Rights to make the movie were brokered with the Merian C. Cooper family, who own the Kong property. Cooper co-directed the original "Kong," released in 1933.
"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," said Spirit's Steve Iles, who worked on videogames for the "Star Wars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchises through his Pocket Studios game company.
The plan is to produce the film using motion-capture technology such as Robert Zemeckis used to make "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and the upcoming "A Christmas Carol." Spirit's own facility would produce the CG work.
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