John Beck

John Beck was the American producer who facilitated the production of the original King Kong vs Godzilla 1962 which he released in a heavily edited form in the United States in 1963 as King Kong vs Godzilla 1963 Becks other claims to fame are producing the 1950 James Stewart film Harvey and his involvement in the 1946 merger between Universal Pictures and International Pictures Stopmotion animator Willis OBrien had contacted Beck with a film treatment for King Kong vs Frankenstein which they made a handshake deal to work on Beck recruited scifi screenwriter George Worthing Yates to write the script which became King Kong vs Prometheus After failing to pitched it to several American studios Beck did not further contact with OBrien Instead he found a buyer in Japan Toho who substituted Godzilla for Frankenstein and started from scratch Beck having secured the rights to the film in the United States Canada United Kingdom and Israel sold them to Universal for 200000 He also produced the Englishlanguage version of the film which was extensively recut and featured new scenes in a United Nations newsroom directed by Thomas Montgomery After learning of King Kong vs Godzilla OBrien contemplated suing Beck but he didnt have enough money and passed away shortly thereafter Beck himself died of cancer at the age of 83 on July 18 1993