Live-Action ‘King Kong’ Series In Development At Disney+
‘King Kong’ could be about to appear in your home, as it is revealed Disney+ are working on a tv series based around the popular giant monster.
The series would come from Stephany Folsom (‘Paper Girls’) and is described as a “serialized action-adventure drama” bringing the classic monster story into the modern age, with a return to Skull Island and the dawn of a new Kong. The drama would delve into the mythology of King Kong’s origin story and the supernatural mysteries of his home.
The project is not attached to any of the more recent movie versions but would go back to the original IP from Merian C. Cooper’s books, and the new novelisations by Joe DeVito. Folsom would exec produce alongside James Wan (‘Aquaman’), Michael Clear and Rob Hackett for Atomic Monster, with Dannie Festa and Marc Manus for World Builder Entertainment.
Kong was first conceived by Cooper in 1929, however, the rights to the character have been through the wringer over its 90-year history, ever since the character was first licensed to appear on screen in RKO’s classic 1933 ‘King Kong’ movie. The long and tangled web of licensing means that Warner Bros. Discovery, Universal and Paramount all have various film rights to the character. In this case, the Merian C. Cooper Estate still owns the rights to the original books and new novelisations, which is why Disney has done a deal to use that as the basis for the tv series. That means nearly every major Hollywood studio has some part of Kong in its catalogue somewhere.
Stephany Folsom adapted the comic book ‘Paper Girls’ for Amazon and also served as showrunner on the series. She previously served as a writer and consulting producer on the highly anticipated series ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. This is not her first outing for Disney, having been a writer on the animated series ‘Star Wars Resistance’, and co-wrote the story for ‘Toy Story 4’.
The ‘King Kong’ series is still classed as “in development” at Disney+ so we’ll let you know if and when we hear more news.
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