King Kong Movies That Never Happened

"The Eighth Wonder of the World" has been in nine live-action movies since he first stomped out of Skull Island to snatch a hapless Ann Darrow from her sacrificial stand. King Kong was instantly i-Kong-ic. Beyond influencing the giant monster movie genre and all cinematic fantasy films since, Kong's climactic showdown against the biplanes atop the Empire State Building is one of the most famous scenes of all time. The tale of a giant ape with a crush on blondes who fights dinosaurs on a hidden island is a triumph of the imagination, so it's no surprise Kong's "official" sequels got pretty wild. From fighting Godzilla (twice!) and taking on his robotic twin to even getting a heart transplant(?!), King Kong has done a lot in his nearly 90 years, and that's not even including the rip-offs! 

But as wild as it has been, the King Kong series could've been much crazier. The reason? Well, the question of who owns King Kong has been a complicated one, and the character has hopped back and forth between Universal and Warner Brothers. And over the decades, lot of major filmmakers have tried to make a King Kong movie. While their would-be films never saw the light of day, many of their stories are recounted in John LeMay's Kong Unmade: The Lost Films of Skull Island and by intrepid internet reporters. What adventures did we almost see from the world's most famous simian movie star? Here are King Kong movies that never happened!

Before he battled Godzilla, King Kong was set to take on another famous movie creature — Frankenstein's monster. Or at least he would have if King Kong sculptor Willis O'Brien had gotten his way. According to Tales from the Video Store, stop-motion maestro O'Brien was having trouble making ends meet, so he thought he'd go back to the character that made him famous, King Kong, and pit him against Mary Shelley's "Modern Prometheus." O'Brien's pitch, written by Them! screenwriter George Worthing Yates, finds Dr. Frankenstein's grandson, Karl, creating a bigger Frankenstein monster and developing a stage show for him. Because that's what people go to the theatre for, right? To see a monster made of reanimated corpses? 

Inspired by Frankenstein's success, Kong showman Carl Denham returns to Skull Island to capture another Kong and bring him back to fight the Frankenstein monster in San Francisco. Vince McMahon would be proud. However, O'Brien couldn't get the money to make his monkey vs. corpse matchup, so he went to shady producer John Beck, who went behind O'Brien's back and sold his concept to Japanese studio Toho on one condition — replace Frankenstein with Godzilla. Supposedly, O'Brien found out about it when he saw the trailer. While King Kong vs. Frankenstein would've been pretty cool, King Kong vs. Godzilla was a much bigger deal. So for everybody not named Willis O'Brien, this all-too-familiar Hollywood story had a happy ending.

Sequels today typically have a two to three year turnaround. Any longer and you risk the audience forgetting the first film. For example, the five-year gap between 2014's Godzilla and 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a half-decade span in which a lot of pop culture happened (three Avengers movies, two Jurassic World movies, four Star Wars movies, and the Game of Thrones finale). Back in the 1930s, that kind of lengthy gap was unheard of. If there were signs of life in a series, studios would churn out movies until the audience stopped showing up. For example, take Son of Kong, which came out just nine months after King Kong. 

Despite Son of Kong's mediocre performance, Kong creator Merian C. Cooper planned another follow-up, The New Adventures of King Kong. According to Big Jack Films, the proposed "in-between-quel" answered one of the original King Kong's biggest questions — what happened to the big ape on his journey to the Big Apple? Turns out that Kong and crew would dock on a Malaysian archipelago on the big guy's fatal journey to New York. When they're attacked by giant monsters, the crew releases Kong to save them. Carl Denham actor Robert Armstrong was back on board, and Cooper was even willing to spend his own money, but with Ann Darrow actress Fay Wray out and RKO apathetic, the project lost steam, and Cooper focused on producing other pictures instead.

If you've seen Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, you've seen Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah ... just with, y'know, King Kong instead of Godzilla. (Awesome title, by the way.) Following the success of King Kong vs. Godzilla, Toho was eager to get back into the King Kong business and was working with Rankin/Bass, the animation studio behind the cartoon The King Kong Show, to make it happen. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa conceived of a story where King Kong battles the giant shrimp, Ebirah, on an island where the fascist Red Bamboo organization exploits the native population until Mothra saves the day. 

Toho loved the project ... but Rankin/Bass, not so much. Toho planned to put newcomer Jun Fukuda in the director's chair, but Rankin/Bass wanted Ishiro Honda, director of 1954's Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and other kaiju classics. Rankin/Bass got their way, and Honda directed a Kong movie, 1967's King Kong Escapes. Meanwhile, Toho got their way, and Fukuda directed the giant shrimp movie but with Godzilla in the title role. The story barely changed, just Kong switched with Godzilla, which explains why Godzilla gets supercharged by lightning (like Kong did in King Kong vs. Godzilla) and also thirsted after a young woman, as Kong was prone to do.

Despite being a simple concept, King Kong is "Kong-plicated." Or at least, his legal squabbles have been. According to The Kaijuologist, producer Dino De Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures got a signed contract from RKO to make a King Kong remake in 1970s. However, Universal also was planning a remake, citing an oral agreement with RKO, which RKO denied. Universal began pre-production on their own film to pressure Paramount to abandon Kong, and the studio also sued RKO and Paramount. There were suits and countersuits, creating one of the biggest legal battles in Hollywood history. 

According to Big Jack Films, Universal's script was The Legend of King Kong, based on the original film's novelization (which was in the public domain since Merian C. Cooper never renewed the copyright) by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest screenwriter Bo Goldman. It was set in the 1930s, and it was rumored to star Peter Falk as Carl Denham and Robert Redford as Jack Driscoll. Alas, a judge ruled against Universal, so the studio abandoned the project ... temporarily. That may be for the best, as Universal was considering making Kong a human-ape hybrid ... what? Universal lost the battle but won the war, as the judge said RKO had the rights to the 1933 film but Cooper's son held the rights to the character, which he sold to Universal. Yes, very complicated. Universal finally got their remake four decades later — Peter Jackson's King Kong.

Peter Jackson's fanboy fantasy came true with 2005's King Kong, which was actually his second stab at Kong, as Jackson's first attempt died a decade before. In 1996, Jackson was a cult horror director working on his first studio movie, The Frighteners. Universal was impressed with the dailies and offered Jackson the chance to remake either The Creature from the Black Lagoon or King Kong. Naturally, Jackson chose Kong. However, Jackson was busy. Besides filming The Frighteners, he was also developing a Planet of the Apes sequel for Fox and The Lord of the Rings for Miramax. 

Jackson's original vision for Kong wasn't a faithful adaptation like his 2005 film but more of an old-school adventure, which Jackson said was "very Hollywood." As he explained, "It had the same tone as The Mummy," adding, "We were desperately trying to write an Indiana Jones type of film." Jack Driscoll was an ace World War I pilot, Ann Darrow was an archaeologist, and Carl Denham was an arch-villain. Alas, beauty didn't kill this beast — the box office did. The Frighteners bombed after Universal moved it from October to summer. Meanwhile, Sony announced Godzilla, and Disney announced Mighty Joe Young, so Universal didn't want to be late to the monster party. Jackson had to say goodbye to his dream project, but after The Lord of the Rings became a legendary success, Jackson had a blank check to do whatever he wanted. Naturally, he went home to Skull Island.