As Legendary expands its “Godzilla” and “King Kong” universe, the banner looks to have found a friendly face to steer the ship for the sequel to 2014’s “Godzilla.”
Sources tell Variety that Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields, who wrote “Krampus” for Legendary, are on board to pen the script for the next installment in the “Godzilla” franchise.
Sources have also indicated Legendary might be preparing to set up a writers room to help create the upcoming Godzilla-King Kong universe the company has planned since sending the distribution rights for “Kong: Skull Island” back to Warner Bros. after originally setting pic up at Universal.
Alex Garcia will oversee the project for Legendary.
In October 2015, Legendary and Warner Bros. made a joint announcement that all future “King Kong” and “Godzilla” films would be developed by Legendary and distributed by Warner Bros. starting with “Kong: Skull Island” next March. Legendary currently holds a distribution deal with Universal but in order to re-team “Godzilla” and “King Kong,” Legendary decided to send the rights back over to Warner Bros. in order to create this new “ecosystem” of giant super-species, both classic and new, as described in its original joint statement.
As of now, it looks as if Dougherty and Shields will just pen the script “Godzilla 2,” but this draft could be the starting point for a possible writers room.
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“Godzilla 2” is currently dated for Mar. 22, 2019 with “Godzilla vs. Kong” movie for May 29, 2020.
Dougherty has strong ties to Legendary, having written and directed “Trick ‘r Treat”, one of Legendary’s first productions that has become a cult hit and horror perennial. He then teamed with Shields on the recent Christmas horror pic “Krampus,” which Dougherty directed and co-wrote with Shields.
Dougherty also co-wrote “X2” and “Superman Returns.”
Dougherty is repped by WME and Circle Confusion and Shields is repped by WME and LBI Entertainment.
