KONG: SKULL ISLAND Moves to Warner Bros., Setting Up Showdown With GODZILLA

Forget clash of the titans — Legendary Pictures is ready to pit King Kong against Godzilla. Deadline reported on Thursday that the studio is in the process of moving Kong: Skull Island, its upcoming King King prequel, from Universal Pictures to Warner Bros. The latter studio is already home to Legendary's Godzilla franchise.

Let's look at the pieces to this puzzle. Legendary rebooted Godzilla, partnering with Warner Bros. for the 2014 movie. Gareth Edwards directed the film and is on board to return for the sequel after he finishes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. That sequel is expected to hit theaters on June 8, 2018. Godzilla grossed $200.7 million domestically and $529.1 million overall.

Legendary has been working on Kong: Skull Island for awhile now, announcing the project during 2014's Comic-Con. JK Simmons told MTV News that the movie will partially take place in Detroit in 1971. Simmons has since left the project, as did Michael Keaton. The movie has rounded out its cast with Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John C. Reilly, Tom Wilkinson and Toby Kebbell, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts directing. Kong: Skull Island is set for a March 10, 2017, release.

Interestingly, Max Borenstein not only wrote the script for Godzilla but is also the man behind the scripts for Godzilla 2 and Kong: Skull Island. If the two franchises are heading toward a crossover, it's pretty convenient that Borenstein is already penning both parts.

I'm curious to see how Legendary plans on pitting King Kong against Godzilla. In 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, they cheated and made the two monsters the same height. Unless Kong: Skull Island plans on dramatically scaling up King Kong's size, he won't be a challenge for Godzilla. The recent Godzilla movie delivered the biggest version of monster in history, making him 355 feet tall. The 2005 King Kong was roughly 25 feet tall. Quite the height gap there ...