Global Creatures preps King Kong tuner

"King Kong -- Live on Stage" will bow in Melbourne in 2013.SYDNEY -- Global Creatures, the team behind the successful live adaptation of the BBC's "Walking with Dinosaurs" docu, has announced its King Kong theater musical will bow in Melbourne in 2013."King Kong -- Live on Stage" will feature a score by composer Marius de Vries ("Romeo + Juliet"), as well as recognizable standards from the 1930s.The musical has received the nod by the estate of original "King Kong" helmer Merian C. Cooper, though Global Creature producer Carmen Pavlovic says after much research they did not need permission."The history of the rights of 'King Kong' has a checkered past and lots of court cases, so getting to the bottom of who owns what from Universal, RKO and the Cooper estate was a bit of a journey for us," Pavlovic said. "We took about 12 months sorting it all out and, in the end, interestingly, the 1932 novel is in the public domain."But she said she was keen to get the stamp of approval from the Coopers."We approached the Cooper estate because regardless of the rights we wanted their blessing," she said.Using their skills learned in "Dinosaurs" the Global Creatures team is pushing the boundaries of its animatronic characters as Kong will have to interact, show emotion and to "beat his chest without putting a hole in it," and Pavlovic is hoping that a successful run in Down Under's Regent Theater in Melbourne will convince investors to take the show to Broadway."That is our hope, and our intention, because NY is the literal and spiritual home of King Kong," she said. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com