Escapes (1967), based on The King Kong Show (1966–1969) from Rankin/Bass Productions and pitting Kong against Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis produced a modern remake of the original film directed by John Guillermin. A sequel, King Kong Lives, followed a decade later featuring a Lady Kong. Another remake of the original, this time set in 1933, was released in 2005 from filmmaker Peter Jackson. The second-most recent film, Kong: Skull Island (2017), is a reboot set in 1973 and is part of Legendary Entertainment's MonsterVerse, which began with Legendary's reboot of Godzilla in 2014 and continuing with Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019, in which Kong made multiple guest appearances, and a second crossover sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, released in 2021, once again pitted the characters against one another. History RKO period (1933) In 1933, RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. produced the original King Kong, which was followed by the sequel Son of Kong later the same year. The films were largely praised for effects artist Willis O'Brien's use of stop-motion effects. Both films star Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham. Ernest B. Schoedsack and Kong creator Merian C. Cooper co-directed and co-produced the first film, with Shoedsack performing those functions solo on the sequel. Toho period (Showa) (1962–1967) In 1962, the Japanese company Toho Co., Ltd. produced a successful crossover between King Kong and their own Godzilla franchise with King Kong vs. Godzilla, in which a larger version of Kong is pitted against Godzilla (both for their third film) and later released the stand-alone film King Kong Escapes in 1967 where Kong is instead put up against a robot version of himself called Mechani-Kong. The latter film was inspired by the Japanese-American animated King Kong TV series. De Laurentiis period (1976–1986) In 1976, Italian filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis produced a remake of the original film also titled King Kong, which follows the same basic plot. Though it was less well-received than the original film, it was a box office success and was followed by a 1986 sequel, King Kong Lives, in which Kong is resurrected and meets a female version of his own species and eventually forms a family. Animated musical film (1998) In 1998, Warner Bros. released the direct-to-video animated musical film The Mighty Kong based upon the plot of the original 1933 film. It features the voices of Jodi Benson as Ann Darrow and Dudley