Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis quickly acquired the film rights from RKO-General and subsequently hired television writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. to write the script.

Before the film's release, Universal Pictures sued De Laurentiis and RKO-General alleging breach of contract, and attempted to develop their own remake of King Kong.

In the 1970s, Fred Wilson, an executive of the Petrox Oil Company, forms an expedition based on infrared imagery which reveals a previously undiscovered Indian Ocean island hidden by a permanent cloud bank.

Jack Prescott, a primate paleontologist, sneaks onto the expedition's vessel and attempts to warn the team against traveling to the island, citing an ominous final message about "the roar of the greatest beast" from previous doomed explorers.

Upon arriving at the island, the team discovers a primitive tribe of indigenous people who live within the confines of a gigantic wall, built to protect them from a mysterious god known as Kong.

He pitched the idea to Barry Diller, the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, who then enlisted veteran producer Dino De Laurentiis to work on the project.

Later, De Laurentiis and company executive Frederic Sidewater entered formal negotiations with Daniel O'Shea, a semi-retired attorney for RKO-General, who requested a percentage of the film's gross.

After moving his production company to Beverly Hills, De Laurentiis first met with screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr., who at the time was writing Three Days of the Condor.

Inspired by the then-ongoing energy crisis and a suggestion from his friend Jerry Brick, Semple changed the expedition to being mounted by Petrox Corporation, a giant petroleum conglomerate which suspected that Kong's island has unrefined oil reserves.

[13] Within a month, the 140-page first draft incorporated the character of Dwan (who according to the script was originally named Dawn until she switched the two middle letters to make it more memorable), the updated rendition of Ann Darrow from the 1933 film.

[25] Italian special effect artist Carlo Rambaldi designed and built the mechanical Kong, which was 40 ft (12.2 m) tall and weighed 6⁠1/2⁠ tons;[26] he would later compare building it to "the United States space program" during the race to the moon.

[25] Rambaldi had also to devise separate mechanical hands with working fingers, which could be used to scoop up Jessica Lange in close-ups, and a man-sized ape suit for long shots.

[29] Despite months of preparation, the final device proved to be impossible to operate convincingly, and during the August 1976 filming of Kong's escape in New York, a hydraulic pipe inside the gorilla burst.

Baker's design and Rambaldi's cable work combined to give Kong's face a wide range of expression that was responsible for much of the film's emotional impact.

Although the crowd was well behaved, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (owner of the World Trade Center complex) became concerned that the weight of so many people would cause the plaza to collapse, and ordered the producers to shut down the filming.

When King Kong made its television debut over two nights in September 1978, around 60 minutes of extra footage was inserted to make the film longer, and it had some added or replaced music cues.

[35] Additionally, to obtain a lower, family-friendly TV rating, overtly violent or sexual scenes in the theatrical version were trimmed down or replaced with less explicit takes, and all swearing or potentially offensive language was removed.

"[48] Richard Schickel from Time wrote that "The special effects are marvelous, the good-humored script is comic-bookish without being excessively campy, and there are two excellent performances" from Charles Grodin and Kong.

Faithful in substantial degree not only to the letter but also the spirit of the 1933 classic for RKO, this new version neatly balances superb special effects with solid dramatic credibility.

"[50] Vincent Canby, reviewing for The New York Times, claimed the movie was "inoffensive, uncomplicated fun, as well as a dazzling display of what special-effects people can do when commissioned to construct a 40-foot-tall ape who can walk, make fondling gestures, and smiles a lot."

However, he was critical of the use of the World Trade Center instead of the Empire State Building during the climax, but he praised the performances by Bridges and Grodin and the special effects creation of Kong.

[51] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "a spectacular film" that "for all its monumental scale retains the essential, sincere and simple charm of the beauty and the beast story.

"[53] Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the remake "moves along reasonably well as a half-jokey, half-serious contemporary 'reading' of its predecessor; as an accomplishment in horror and fantasy adventure, it does not measure up to even the small toe of the original.

The critical consensus reads that "King Kong represents a significant visual upgrade over the original, but falls short of its classic predecessor in virtually every other respect.

A short time later, Universal decided to purchase the property as an opportunity to showcase its new sound system technology, Sensurround, which had debuted with the disaster film Earthquake, for Kong's roars.

"[6] A few days later, Universal filed suit against De Laurentiis and RKO-General in Los Angeles Superior Court for $25 million on charges of breach of contract, fraud, and intentional interference with advantageous business relations.

In October 1975, Universal, which was in pre-production with its own remake with Hunt Stromberg, Jr. as producer and Joseph Sargent as director, filed suit in a federal district court arguing that the story's "basic ingredients" were public domain.

[8] Universal had claimed that its remake was based on the two-part serialization by Edgar Wallace and a novelization by Delos W. Lovelace adapted from the screenplay that had been published shortly before the film's release in 1933.

[61] On November 20, RKO-General countersued Universal for $5 million alleging that The Legend of King Kong was an infringement on their copyright, and asked the court to prevent any "announcements, representations, and statements" on their proposed film.

[63][64] In September 1976, a federal judge ruled in favor of Universal that Lovelace's novelization had fallen into public domain, which cleared the studio to produce a remake.