Shawn Levy Offers Update on the Animated KING KONG Feature Film

20th Century Fox is currently pushing forward with a re-imagining of the long standing pop culture character is animated form. The latest news on the project reveals that it sill in the very early development stages.

King Kong, last seen in the 2005 live-action/CGI hybrid film by director Jackson, will get a revamp of sorts with a new animated film. The story will be told from Kong's point of view, and Fox Animation (Ice Age, Rio) has tapped relative unknowns Christian Magalhaes & Bob Snow to develop the screenplay based off an already written story from Mike Weber.

Producer Shawn Levy recently offered a few words concerning the project, stating that it is still in the early stages of conceptualization:

“It’s an animated movie for Fox Animation and it’s a retelling of Kong as a family animated comedy… It’s in script stage; so no it’s not yet at the point where you’re doing those animation tests.

"It’s moving forward in that Fox Animation really likes it, I really like it, I think that when Fox Animation gets it right, almost always through Blue Sky, they get it really right. I’ve got a couple with them, and that’s the one that I think I’m the most bullish on.”

The iconic character started on film with the 1933 classic and had two remakes with a 1975 version starring Jeff Bridges and the Jackson version. Along with those, some lower budgeted sequels and knockoffs plus a showdown with Godzilla in 1963 have kept the ape steady but not busy over the years.

The 2005 film starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody grossed over $550 million at the box office, becoming the fourth-highest grossing movie in Universal Pictures history, and won Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.