From kids' book to blockbuster: the epic history of King Kong

This week, the latest King Kong movie is being released. But how much do you know about the history of the great ape from Skull Island? Check out this primate-heavy timeline.

1899: At six years old, King Kong creator Merian C. Cooper receives a book from his uncle called Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, and becomes fascinated by gorillas.

1928: In his 20s, Cooper travels to Africa for a film and encounters baboons, which inspires him to make a movie featuring a giant primate. He comes up with the ending first: a massive ape on a New York skyscraper fending off airplanes.

1930: After the film gets the green light, Cooper writes, "This is a monster with the strength of a hundred men. But more terrifying is the head — a nightmare head with bloodshot eyes and jagged teeth set under a thick mat of hair, a face half-beast half-human." After seeing artwork depicting the half man/half beast look, Cooper decides to make Kong all ape. The first draft is titled The Beast.

1933: The original King Kong film is released to broad acclaim. In the original film, Kong lives on Skull Island in the Indian Ocean with other oversized animals, including dinosaurs — until an American film crew captures him and brings him to America to be presented as the "eighth wonder of the world."

1933: A little-known sequel to King Kong called Son of Kong is released nine months later, and picks up the story of Carl Denham — the filmmaker character who captured Kong — a month after the original film's dramatic finale. The film takes viewers back to Skull island, where there's tribal warfare and a dinosaur stampede. It made a profit of $133,000.

1962: The Japanese film King Kong vs. Godzilla — the first of two featuring the dueling ape — is released, and marks the first time both characters appear in colour and on widescreen. It becomes the most popular of all the Godzilla movies — and the King Kong suit is widely considered one of the worst in movie history.

1967: King Kong Escapes, the second of the two Ishirō Honda-directed King Kong films, is released. In it, Mechani-Kong, a robotic version of King Kong, is sent to dig for radioactive Element X at the North Pole — but its brain melts, so the mad scientist Dr. Who captures the real King Kong to finish the job.

1976: The first American remake of King Kong is released. Directed by John Guillermin, the film features Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange in her first film role. It is the fifth highest grossing film of 1977; it's also nominated for three Oscars and wins one, for best visual effects. In it, Kong is shot down from the World Trade Centre's twin towers.

1986: Also directed by John Guillermin, the sequel King Kong Lives is released. In it, King Kong is in a coma but kept alive by doctors who transplant his heart with an artificial one. He loses so much blood that he needs a transfusion, so they go to Borneo and find Lady Kong. The film is panned; to this day it has a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an audience score of 15 per cent.

2005: Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson writes, produces and directs an epic remake, also titled King Kong, starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. It costs a whopping $207 million to make, but ends up raking in more than $550 million and lands on many year-end top 10 lists. The film also wins three Oscars for sound and visual effects.

2017: Kong: Skull Island is out March 10, and stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and Brie Larson. The film travels back to Skull Island, where Kong is battling for dominion over the island against predators nicknamed Skull Crawlers.

2010: In Godzilla vs. Kong, the legendary monsters are slated to once again reunite.

— Jennifer Van Evra, q digital staff