'Godzilla vs. Kong' Finds Its Director With Adam Wingard (Exclusive)

Terry Rossio, best known for co-writing the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, led a writers room earlier in the spring.

Adam Wingard, who made a name for himself with low-budget horror thrillers such as You’re Next and The Guest, is going big for his next movie. Monstrously big.

The director has closed a deal to helm Godzilla vs. Kong, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ teaming of two of the big screen’s most popular movie monsters.

Legendary, with Warners, is in the middle of building their monster universe centered on classic silver screen creatures Godzilla and King Kong. Godzilla, released in 2014, was the first entry, and Kong: Skull Island, proved to be a giant hit earlier this year when it was released March 10 and grossed over $565 million worldwide. A sequel to Godzilla, titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, with Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown, is now in production.

In March, Legendary set a writers room to work on the script for Godzilla vs. Kong, with Terry Rossio, the veteran scribe best known for co-writing the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as its head. Other writers scribbling included the team of Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne (Star Trek Beyond), Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, Maze Runner movies writer T.S. Nowlin, Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.

Plot details are being kept hidden on a South Pacific atoll. The movie is scheduled to be released May 22, 2020.

Wingard has strong horror roots with movies such as A Horrible Way to Die and entries in anthologies V/H/S and The ABCs of Death. And he developed cult followings and strong notices for Guest, which starred Dan Stevens, while also upping his budgets.

He last directed a reboot of Blair Witch and recently wrapped Death Note, Netflix’s adaptation of the horror manga and his biggest production to date.

Wingard’s stock has been rising among the studio set, and he has been in the mix of some high-profile directing gigs, Sony's Venom among them, as execs and producers have become eager to work with him.

Wingard is said to be a massive creature-feature fan of both Godzilla and Kong movies and nabbing the project, one of the larger-budgeted franchises out there, should be a dream come true.

Wingard is repped by CAA, manager Jeremy Platt of Plattform and attorney Todd Rubenstein at Morris Yorn.