It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Remake Pt. 3

The rumbles started around 1974. In the forty-one years since it’s release, King Kong had graduated from box office hit to cinema classic to cultural icon. Revered, constantly referenced in pop culture, subjected to a quickie sequel, 1933’s Son Of Kong, an exquisite family-friendly retelling, Mighty Joe Young, a laughable-yet-beloved Toho mash-up, King Kong Vs. Godzilla, a late 60’s Saturday morning cartoon, King Kong, and that cartoon’s live-action spin-off, King Kong Escapes, not to mention a myriad of low –end rip offs like Konga, et al, King Kong had been sequelized and ripped off, but never matched.

But then, in 1972, 20th Century Fox released The Poseidon Adventure, which had an all-star cast crawling through the wreckage of an upside down luxury liner. The film turned Hollywood upside down and scored huge with the birth of a brand new genre, the all-star, mega-budget disaster film. The Poseidon Adventure was followed, in 1974, by The Towering Inferno. Both films produced by Irwin Allen for 20th Century Fox. In the wake of The Towering Inferno, every studio in Hollywood was looking for their mega-budget disaster film.

Around this time, according to Ray Morton’s extensively-researched book, King Kong, History Of A Movie Icon (Link below. It’s the source for this and the following piece. It’s a great book that goes deep, deep, deep. Highly recommended!), a meeting was arranged between Paramount Pictures and producer Dino DeLaurentiis. DeLaurentiis was a PLAYER. His IMDB page is astounding. Among the many, many films to his credit were such classics as La Strada, Nights Of Cabiria, The Valachi Papers and Serpico. But Paramount Pictures was looking for a disaster film. The conversation wended its way round to the concept of a giant monster movie. There are several versions of how they eventually landed on remaking the most famous giant monster movie of all time, but one can easily see a maverick like DeLaurentiis thinking, if you’re gonna swing, swing for the fences.

As things go, he was not the only person having that very same thought. Universal Studios, home of the monsters, was also interested. But neither studio had the rights. Although Universal had Frankenstein Dracula the Wolfman, et al, King Kong was made by RKO. RKO was now RKO-General, having been purchased by General Tele-Radio, which was owned by the General Tire and Rubber Company. Yep, Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and King Kong were all owned by a tire company.

DeLaurentiis had a relationship with the head of General Tire and Rubber (of course he did) who put him in touch with the dude in charge of licensing. This man informed DeLaurentiis that he was negotiating with another party for Kong’s rights as well (Universal), but that he was happy to negotiate with both parties simultaneously. May the best offer win. Both DeLaurentiis and Universal made offers, and both parties walked away thinking they had won the rights to make the movie. But DeLaurentiis was the only one with, as Charlie Brown would say, “a signed document.”

Release the lawyers! Universal promptly sued both RKO and DeLaurentiis. DeLaurentiis, in response, moved full steam ahead, hiring screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. (Three Days Of The Condor, Batman ’66) and took out a full page ad in the New York Times announcing the would be released for Christmas, 1976.

The Superior Court of Los Angeles dismissed Universal’s lawsuit, but The Black Tower (a nickname from the studio based on its dark glass executive building) was undeterred. If you recall, last week, in Part 1, when Edgar Wallace was hired to write the screenplay for the original King Kong, he was contracted to write both a script and its novelization. The novelization would eventually be written by Delos W. Lovelace (I want that name).

Now, listen to this move. Although RKO controlled the film rights to King Kong, the rights to the novelization of the film had lapsed, so Universal announced that it was making a movie based on the novelization of the movie that it couldn’t remake. They then promptly hired their own director and screenwriter and announced in the press that their King Kong would start production in April of 1976.

Soooooo, RKO, which had made a deal with DeLaurentiis that included a percentage of DeLaurentiis’ profits, and had a vested interest in that film’s success, sued Universal. Then Delaurentiis sued Universal and announced that his Kong would begin filming in January of 1976 (and then asked his crew if that was possible). As soon as DeLaurentiis announced the January start, Universal approached him about settling, but DeLaurentiis rejected their offer.

BUT, Paramount and Universal were partners in a European venture called the Cinema International Corporation, and Paramount did not want a long, protracted lawsuit with its business partner. Word was sent to DeLaurentiis to settle with Universal or they would pull out of the movie. DeLaurentiis was unhappy, but eventually a deal was struck giving Universal percentage of DeLaurentiis’ profits, some merchandise rights and – most importantly (ask Peter Jackson) the right to make their own remake at a later date. Sometime after that, the courts did rule that the rights to Kong’s novelization were indeed public domain, and that Universal could have proceeded with its film if they wanted.

Finally free of lawsuits, DeLaurentiis was free to remake King Kong. Now all he had to do, was figure out how to, you know, do King Kong.

Coming up next: “A giant robot gorilla won’t work! Yes it will! No it won’t!”

Ray Morton's excellent book King Kong - The History Of A Movie Icon. These articles just scratch the surface of this fascinating, crazy story.