‘Kong: Skull Island’ will be part of Godzilla, King Kong mash-up trilogy (Report)

Last week brought the surprising and sudden news Thomas Tull’s Legendary Pictures was moving Kong: Skull Island to Warner Bros. in the hopes of creating a crossover with Warner Bros.’ Godzilla. Now, it’s being reported that the move is part of an ongoing dispute with Universal and that Skull Island could launch a monster movie trilogy.

As previously reported, Tull took Skull Island to Warner Bros. after developing at Universal for months. The decision was an easy one, since the Kong material is apparently in public domain.

Since Legendary also helped back last year’s Godzilla, it sounded like Tull was just trying to get all his monster movies under one roof. But The Hollywood Reporter revealed today that the decision was likely due to an ongoing dispute between Legendary and Universal, which doesn’t quite care for Tull claiming that he’s a big part of blockbusters when he’s not. Universal also didn’t see eye-to-eye with Tull on Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak and they have delayed Pacific Rim 2 indefinitely.

THR claims that the deal that brought Skull Island to Warner Bros. is part of a new three-picture deal between the studio and Legendary. After Skull Island, there will be Godzilla 2, then another film where Godzilla and King Kong will meet. Warner will put up 25 percent of the financing on the Kong movies.

Universal also didn’t like the fact that Skull Island’s early scripts continued to reference Monarch, a company that was a big part of Godzilla. This would be an issue for both Warner Bros. and Universal, because why would either studio want to make a blockbuster with references to a rival’s films?

Skull Island will star Tom Hiddleston and is scheduled for March 10, 2017. Kong and Godzilla actually faced off in a 1962 movie, but the 2014 Godzilla is much bigger than a hairy ape that has to climb up the Empire State Building.