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Why Legendary Pictures Moved KONG: SKULL ISLAND To Warner Bros.

Legendary

Why Legendary’s Thomas Tull had to move Kong: Skull Island from Universal to Warner Bros. One of the biggest news stories last week was when Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull decided to take Kong: Skull Island and move it to Warner Bros. as the movie’s new distributor. This resulted in a roar of excitement among fans, many believing that this would conclude in an epic crossover with King Kong and another giant monster from Legendary and Warner Bros., Godzilla.

There are some that would look at this situation and ask: “Why has all of this happened?”

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The answer lies in the behavior of Tull. Before all this happened, Tull’s company was in good standing with Universal. This year though, two films that they partly financed, Jurassic World and Straight Outta Compton, ended up being major hits, and some believe the success went to Tull’s head. So much so that Legendary Pictures decided to take a large portion of the credit for making those films. This behavior stressed the relationship between Legendary and Universal.

This was not the first time Legendary boasted about their successes. They apparently annoyed Warner Bros. several years ago when they crowed with pride over Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and other films when they became successful.

When fracture erupted between Legendary and Universal, Warner Bros. came into the picture to make a three-movie deal for Kong: Skull Island,  then it would be the Godzilla sequel, then finally, the ultimate crossover. Apparently, this was a plan that Tull wanted to do for years, according to Legendary attorney Skip Brittenham.

Just because of this Warner Bros. deal, that doesn’t mean that Legendary is completely out of Universal’s hair. Universal will be distributing the Christmas horror film Krampus on December 15, 2015, the video game adaptation Warcraft on June 10, 2016, and the Matt Damon sci-fi action film The Great Wall in November 2016.

There is one major consequence of the Legendary / Universal kerfuffle that has upset some people. Because of this whole feud, Guillermo del Toro’s anticipated Pacific Rim 2: Maelstrom has been put on hold and will be pushed back from its August 2017 release date. Some say that the project might not even happen at all.

So there you have it, an entire story of business madness that all lead to the future grouping of King Kong and Godzilla. Only time will tell if Legendary or Universal regrets their separation.

Leave your thoughts on why Legendary Pictures moves Warner Bros. and the moves repercussions (via Hollywoodreporter) below in the comments section. For more Legendary Pictures’ news, please visit our Legendary Pictures Page, our Movie News Page, our Movie News Google+ Page, our Movie News Facebook Page, and consider subscribing to us by Email, “following” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or “liking” us on Facebook for quick updates.

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Mathieu Brunet

My name is Mathieu Brunet (it's French) and I have been an independent film critic for the past 5 years. My passion is animation and I've been writing and making my own video reviews of animated features on my YouTube channel (ElectricDragon505), which now has about 55,000 subscribers, housing videos with total views over 20,000,000. I am the creator of Electric Dragon Productions which includes AniMat's Reviews and AniMat's Classic Reviews.
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