‘Jurassic World’ Co-Writer To Pen 'Pacific Rim: Maelstrom'

Hollywood is a funny place. Back in September, after months of Guillermo del Toro teasing script ideas and saying he was working on getting funding, it was announced that “Pacific Rim 2” was to be postponed indefinitely. A couple of months later, Legendary announced that the film was in pre-production, now under the title “Pacific Rim: Maelstrom” (because we gotta have that colon!), and that “Daredevil” showrunner Steven S. DeKnight was taking over the directing reigns.

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Now, Legendary has tapped Derek Connolly to write the screenplay, based on Travis Beacham’s story. Connolly is no stranger to screenplays in which giant creatures fight each other, having co-written the enormously successful “Jurassic World” and the upcoming “Kong: Skull Island.” Given that King Kong is set to face off against Godzilla and that these and the other properties all belong to Legendary, could they be gearing up an all-out monster brawl of dinosaurs, kaiju, Jaegars, and giant apes? With this current trend of interconnected cinematic universes, stranger things have happened.

There’s no word yet on a release date for “Pacific Rim: Maelstrom,” but “Kong: Skull Island” is set to hit theaters on March 10, 2017. [Variety]