Kong ain't gone for long...

File this one under "I'm not sure how I feel about this" and not in the drawer right next to it "I'm so mad I could stomp a squirrel to death," (just kidding PETA, I really don't have a file that says that and I am in no way fast enough to catch one if I wanted to). Anyhoodle, back to the point at hand, which involves a giant banana chomper (insert off-color jokes here). On the one hand, Peter Jackson's passionate kiss (with tongue) that was King Kong was really effin' good. On the other, it contained almost nothing "new." I'm not talking merely in terms of story, I'm talking in terms of visuals. Nothing it was "ohmygod" breathtaking (other than Naomi Watts in that slip/dress thingie), and most of it felt like a really well done retread of things we've seen over and over and over again. I think that's why everyone just kind of enjoyed it and then never thought about it again. To be sure, there are still those out there who love giant honkin' monkeys, especially ones that fight dinosaurs...which is why Variety's report that Spirit pictures has bought the rights to "Kong: King of Skull Island" is so interesting. Reportedly, the book focuses on the backstory of Skull Island, the coolest place on earth that the white man didn't steal. It goes through the story of how Kong got there, how he became "King," and why there's, you know, DINOSAURS there. Now, I'd really like to see Ray Harryhausen's take on this, complete with stop-motion glory, but instead we're getting motion-capture, a la Robert Zemeckis' new addiction (seriously, dude...it's not that cool...in fact, it's kind of terrifying). The release from Variety also mentions War Eagles, another project that Harryhausen had developed about a fighter pilot who crashes in he arctic and discovers a lost civilization. I love that. It's just such an old-school idea, having some "undiscovered part of the world," when we live in an age where you could just Google Earth the locale and see some Yettis humping. I'm not sure how this will all come together (or if it will), but let's face facts: (1) Giant monkeys are cool, (2) Giant dinosaurs are cool, (3) Giant dinosaur-fighting giant monkeys are really cool, and (4) Ray Harryhausen was really cool. These things I know.