Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island is a 2017 film co-produced by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. that serves as an origin story for King Kong. It is the second entry in the MonsterVerse, following 2014's Godzilla, and will be followed by 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, before culminating with 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong.

Plot
In 1973, former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad is hired by government agent Bill Randa to guide an expedition to map out "Skull Island". Randa also recruits the Sky Devils, a helicopter squadron led by Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard and prominently made up of his right-hand, Major Jack Chapman and Captain Earl Cole to escort them to the island. The group is soon joined by pacifist photojournalist Mason Weaver, who plans to expose it believing it's a corrupt military op.

Arriving on Skull Island, Packard's men begin dropping explosives developed by seismologist Houston Brooks to determine if the ground is hollow, despite Conrad's objections. The helicopters are suddenly attacked by a 100 foot-tall and 158 ton gorilla known as "Kong", and many are destroyed, with the survivors split into two groups. In the midst of Kong's rampage, Packard stares up at Kong, interlocking eyes with him, filled with rage. The survivors' only hope for rescue is a resupply team that will meet them at the island's northern end in three days time. Randa reveals his affiliation to the secret government organization Monarch to Packard and the expedition's true purpose to acquire proof of the existence of forgotten monsters and the M.U.T.O

Packard and his remaining men bury their dead comrades and begin searching for the missing members of the expedition, including Chapman. Along the way, they overcome an attacking Mother Longlegs. In a river nearby, Chapman is washing and filling his water canteen, until Kong appears. Chapman flees, leaving Kong tending his wounds and drinking after his battle with the Sky Devils. He then kills and devours a Mire Squid, before leaving the river. Meanwhile, Conrad, Weaver, Brooks, biologist San Lin, soldier Reg Slivko and Landsat employee Victor Nieves, among others, run into the local Iwi natives and meet Hank Marlow, revealed to be a missing pilot who crash-landed on the island in 1944 with a Japanese pilot. Marlow explains that Kong is the island's guardian and is worshipped as a god by the natives for protecting them from the Skullcrawlers, reptilian underground monsters who have slaughtered Kong's ancestors, leaving him as the last of his kind. Marlow reveals Kong only attacked the helicopters to prevent the bombs from awakening the Queen of the Giant Skullcrawlers, the "Big One".

Weaver encounters one of the Sker Buffaloes, wounded from a fallen helicopter. Kong comes and saves the creature, before leaving Weaver. Conrad's group sets off down the river in a boat recovered by Marlow, where they are beset by Psychovultures killing Nieves. The survivors manage to connect with Packard, who insists on searching for Chapman, who - unbeknownst to them - has already been killed by a Skullcrawler (Major Crusher) after encountering a Spore Mantis. Marlow reluctantly leads both Conrad and Packard's team to the Forbidden Zone, a forgotten battleground between Kong's ancestors and Skullcrawlers. Major Crusher, the same Skullcrawler that ate Chapman attacks the group, devouring Randa and killing many soldiers before Weaver kills him by triggering an explosion. A vengeful Packard blames Kong for the deaths of his men and retrieves seismic explosives to lure Kong into a trap and kill him, while Conrad resolves to lead the non-military personnel back to the boat so they can rendezvous with the resupply team.

While scouting the path ahead, Conrad and Weaver encounter Kong up-close and personal, and resolve to save him, a sentiment that Marlow shares. Packard's trap incapacitates Kong, and he orders his men to set explosives around the fallen creature, but before he can finish the ape off, Conrad's group arrives and a standoff ensues. Conrad and Weaver convince the other soldiers to spare Kong, but Packard furiously refuses, now seeking vengeance for his fallen men. The group is suddenly attacked by the Big One, a female 225 ton Giant Skullcrawler, dubbed Ramarak. The group flees, while Packard tries to detonate the explosives, but Kong recovers and kills him. Injured, Kong is overpowered by Ramarak, which then chases the survivors as they race towards the shore. Cole is killed when his attempt on Ramarak fails, cornering the humans in the process. Kong returns to rescue them and, aided by the humans. Weaver is violently thrown into a river by the shake made by Ramarak while she was thrown, but is then rescued by Kong. Ramarak attacks Kong with Weaver in his hand, and she wrap her tongue around it for her to devours it whole. Kong uses this to his advantage, ripping out all of Ramarak's innards, avenging his parents and species. With Ramarak finally dead, Kong allows the surviving humans to leave. He beats his chest and roars at the helicopters, proving himself as the king of Skull Island.

Sometime afterward, Marlow returns home and is reunited with his wife and meets his son for the first time.

In a post-credits scene, Conrad and Weaver are detained by Monarch and informed that Kong is not the only monster to roam the world, and not the only king. They are then shown archive footage of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. As the screen fades to black, a roar is heard, belonging to Godzilla.

Monsters

 * King Kong
 * Skullcrawlers
 * Giant Skullcrawlers
 * Ramarak
 * Mother Longlegs
 * Sker Buffaloes
 * Psychovultures
 * Spore Mantis
 * Mire Squid
 * Godzilla (cameo)
 * Mothra (cameo)
 * Rodan (cameo)
 * King Ghidorah (cameo)
 * M.U.T.O. (mentioned only)

Production
The film's release date was originally set for November 4, 2016 at Comic-Con 2014, with Joe Cornish being offered to direct it. Pitched as a King Kong origin story, the original film's title was simply "Skull Island". The film's release date was later pushed back to March 6, 2017, while the movie was re titled to Kong: Skull Island. It was announced that Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson will star as the male and female lead. J. K. Simmons and Michael Keaton were originally going to star as well, but the two later left the film due to scheduling conflicts.

In July, Brie Larson had been cast in the film to play the female lead, and later in August 2015, Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell joined the cast, with several other actors being reportedly considered, including Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, and Toby Kebbell. The film will be directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts with the screenplay to be written by Max Borenstein, John Gatins and Derek Connolly. Simmons told MTV that the film will take place in Detroit in 1971.

On September 10, 2015, it was reported that Legendary Pictures had moved production of the film from Universal Pictures, with whom it currently held a distribution deal, to its former partner Warner Bros., with whom it had an agreement to distribute the sequels to 2014's Godzilla in the future, supposedly in order to keep both properties under the same distributor. This immediately spawned rumors that Legendary planned to eventually produce a remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla with Warner Bros., although neither studio provided a statement. On September 16, multiple sources reported that Thomas Tull had wanted to set up a film featuring both Kong and Godzilla for years and planned to include references to Monarch, the monster-studying organization from Godzilla, in the script for Kong: Skull Island. However, Warner Bros. was reportedly uncomfortable with including references to one of their films in a Universal project, so Legendary moved the entire project to Warner Bros. None of these reports were confirmed by any of the studios, and no official statement was made about the possibility of a King Kong and Godzilla crossover film for nearly a month. Guillermo Del Toro made a statement the next day confirming that Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to Legendary and WB's 2013 film Pacific Rim, had been indefinitely delayed due to the shuffling of the King Kong and Godzilla properties, but was not at all cancelled and was still being actively worked on.

On October 14, 2015, Legendary Pictures officially confirmed the production of Godzilla vs. Kong for 2020, after both Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla 2 have been released.

In an interview conducted with Entertainment Weekly, actor Toby Kebbell clarified his role in the film. Kebbell plays an Air Force major named Chapman, who spends most of his time in the film with Samuel L. Jackson's character. It had been widely speculated that Kebbell would have been portraying Kong through motion capture, due to his portrayal of the ape character Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes through motion capture alongside Andy Serkis, who had portrayed Kong in the 2005 film. Kebbell revealed that in Kong: Skull Island, Kong will be primarily portrayed by motion capture actor Terry Notary, although Kebbell did assist Notary in the motion capture process and provided reference for some of the character's facial animations.

In April of 2016, it was reported that artist Joe DeVito had sued Legendary for a breach of contract. He claimed both companies allegedly "stole" his pitch ideas and developed them into a feature film without his permission or any due credit. He was seeking $3.5 million general and punitive damages.

On January 19, 2017, a slew of TV spots were released, depicting more of the movie's cast, Skull Island, Kong, and even the Skullcrawlers.

On February 20, a large batch of high quality images from the cast on the set of Skull Island were revealed, alongside images of the movie's antagonistic Skullcrawlers, and of Kong himself, showing him in never before seen detail.

In the two days following, it was revealed that Expedia had partnered with the film's production company to bring an "immersive experience for the film". A link provided on the corresponding Twitter post takes viewers to a test, where winners of said test would receive two tickets to Skull Island.

Four days later, a teaser for the film's presumably final trailer was shown, alongside a Twitter post reading: "The story of Kong is too big to ignore. Tomorrow: Don't miss the new trailer for #kongskullisland. #KongIsKing"

- Twitter post

The video posted alongside the tweet depicted Kong battling Skullcrawlers in a two on one fight.

February 27 opened up with the final official trailer for the film being released. It featured new footage, including that of a Skullcrawler preying on a Sker Buffalo, and an extended peek at the fight involving Kong and multiple Skullcrawlers.



On the same day, a VR Skull Island teaser was released. It offered some character dialogue with Preston Packard, and lead into an action segment where Kong takes down the helicopter the viewer's in, before picking it up, and looking at them to let out a loud roar.



Theatrical releases

 * Belgium - March 8, 2017
 * Egypt - March 8, 2017
 * France - March 8, 2017
 * Argentina - March 9, 2017
 * Austria - March 9, 2017
 * Brazil - March 9, 2017
 * Chile - March 9, 2017
 * Czech Republic - March 9, 2017
 * Germany - March 9, 2017
 * Denmark - March 9, 2017
 * Georgia - March 9, 2017
 * Greece - March 9, 2017
 * Croatia - March 9, 2017
 * Hungary - March 9, 2017
 * Israel - March 9, 2017
 * South Korea - March 9, 2017
 * Kazakhstan - March 9, 2017
 * Netherlands - March 9, 2017
 * Philippines - March 9, 2017
 * Portugal - March 9, 2017
 * Russia - March 9, 2017
 * Singapore - March 9, 2017
 * Slovakia - March 9, 2017
 * Australia - March 10, 2017
 * Bulgaria - March 10, 2017
 * Canada - March 10, 2017
 * Estonia - March 10, 2017
 * Spain - March 10, 2017
 * Finland - March 10, 2017
 * United Kingdom - March 10, 2017
 * Hong Kong - March 10, 2017
 * Ireland - March 10, 2017
 * Combodia - March 10, 2017
 * Lithuania - March 10, 2017
 * Norway - March 10, 2017
 * New Zealand - March 10, 2017
 * Poland - March 10, 2017
 * Romania - March 10, 2017
 * Sweden - March 10, 2017
 * Turkey - March 10, 2017
 * Taiwan - March 10, 2017
 * United States of America - March 10, 2017
 * Vietnam - March 10, 2017
 * South Africa - March 10, 2017
 * China - March 24, 2017
 * Japan - March 25, 2017