A long way from her glamorous strolls down red carpets, the kinetic comedy shoot-em-up “Free Fire” required Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson to cover herself in grit and grime.
“We shot pretty much in order; at first we were clean,” she tells Made in Hollywood reporter Patrick Stinson. “And then as time went on we got dirtier and dirtier. Then by the end of it, part of getting ready for the day was showing up in that warehouse and all of us would roll around in the dirt to get dirty again.”
As the only woman among a group of men who clearly need guns to boost their fragile egos, Larson plays a woman named Justine in this hybrid film that infuses slapstick comedy into a brutal bloody gunfight in claustrophobic quarters.
The Best Actress winner for “Room,” another movie that takes place in a cramped space, Larson savored the challenge of the genre-bending “Free Fire.”
“Something that I’m so interested in exploring in film right now is: How could we talk about harder concepts things that are difficult and points of contention in our culture, but do it in a way that’s funny, in a way that makes us laugh in a room together and kind of think about things in a new way,” she says. “I think that making people cry is very effective. But I think making people laugh can sometimes be more effective.”
And the film offers Larson another strong character in the enigmatic Justine. “She’s sort of mysterious, which is the thing that I love about her,” Larson says. “When the film starts you’re like: Why is she here? Everybody else, it kind of makes sense. And you don’t really understand why she’s there.”
But as the film goes on her purpose becomes clear. “One interesting thing about her is that she’s trying to not be part of it,” says Larson. “She’s trying to kind of blend in, but it’s impossible to blend in when you’re the only woman with eight other dudes. They become hyper-aware that you’re there. Within that, when all of these egos are bouncing around and get inflamed, she’s trying to keep everything calm, which is kind of impossible because she’s one calm voice in a sea of not-so-calm voices.”
Not all movie adaptations of TV shows are created equal. Some of them fall flat, but some become instant classics. Case in point: “21 Jump Street.”
We were all a little skeptical about how this show would transfer to the big screen, though it turned out that Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum more than exceeded our comedic expectations.
Here are 9 reasons why “21 Jump Street” still makes us laugh our asses off.
It’s weird to think of King Kong as an underdog, but that’s what he was, going into this weekend’s box office brawl.
It was supposed to be a close fight between the mighty ape and another hairy hero, Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine. Given the strong word-of-mouth from last weekend’s smash opening, “Logan” was expected to lose just half of last week’s business and finish in the mid-$40M range, giving newcomer “Kong: Skull Island” a run for its money. It would also be competing against “Get Out,” another genre movie that’s shown strong staying power.
No one expected “Kong,” yet another in a long line of attempts to reboot the 1933 classic original version of “King Kong,” to open much higher than that, either. (Peter Jackson‘s “King Kong,” opened with $50.1 million back in 2005.)
When the fog finally cleared from the mysterious isle on Sunday, “Skull Island” had grossed an estimated $61 million. It earned a clear victory over “Logan,” which fell 57 percent to an estimated $37.9 million. Meanwhile, in its third weekend, “Get Out” dropped an amazing 25 percent of the previous weekend’s business and came in third with an estimated $21.1 million.
How did “Kong” beat the odds? Here are six ways.
1. Kong Is a Box Office Draw “You will have the tallest leading man in Hollywood,” is what “King Kong” creator Merian C. Cooper reportedly promised Fay Wray. More than eight decades later, Kong is still a towering star, one so iconic he continues to loom large in the public imagination no matter how many years pass between screen appearances. Not to slight Marvel regulars Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson, but the real star of “Kong: Skull Island,” and the movie’s biggest box office draw, is the simian special effect with his name in the title.
2. March Is the New Place for Summer Blockbusters As this column noted last week, March is the new May, with summer-worthy blockbusters coming out all month long.
From “Logan” to the upcoming “Beauty and the Beast,” “Power Rangers,” and “Ghost in the Shell,” Hollywood is poised to earn nearly ten percent of its 2017 revenue during a month when cold weather is usually still discouraging people from leaving their living rooms for the multiplex. Then again, there’s still spring break, which, for many students, coincided with the weekend of the new Kong movie’s release.
3. Lack of Competition You’d think all these March mega-movies would cannibalize each other; indeed, that was the logic behind the lowball predictions for the “Kong” premiere. But as we saw last week, the rising-tide-lifts-all-boats effect was in play, and the successful debut of “Logan” seemed to put moviegoers in the mood to hang out at the multiplex, where they also bought tickets for fellow new releases “The Shack” (above) and “Before I Fall.”
This weekend, “Kong” was fortunate not to have to compete against any other new wide releases, but genre movie fans still had a banquet of choices, thanks to holdovers “Logan” (which, despite its steep-ish slide, still made a ton of money this weekend, pushing its 10-day total to $152.7 million) and “Get Out” (whose strong third weekend came in part because it actually added another 205 screens, for a total of 3,143).
4. Male Audiences Love Monster Movies Casting “Room” Oscar-winner Brie Larson as the film’s heroine may have been an attempt to bring female audiences on board, but it didn’t quite work. Exit polling shows the movie drew an audience that was 56 percent male. (Some pundits think women are holding out on spending their ticket money until “Beauty” opens next weekend.)
Then again, that makes “Kong” smart counter-programming to the young-women-targeting “Before I Fall” (still No. 6 on the chart) and to “Get Out,” since horror tends to draw a predominantly female audience. And it’s a more even ratio than “Logan,” whose ticketbuyers have been 63 percent male.
5. Good Buzz “Kong” earned surprisingly strong reviews, scoring a 78 percent “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. To the extent that reviews still matter to older moviegoers, they helped a lot.
Indeed, even though “Kong” is rated PG-13, only 18 percent of its viewers were under the age of 18. Nearly half (48 percent) were over 35. Paying customers gave the film strong word-of-mouth, as measured by an overall B+ CinemaScore, but viewers over 25 liked it more than most, giving it an A grade.
6. The MonsterVerse Maybe not everybody knew, but “Skull Island” is set in the same kaiju-infested universe as Warner Bros.’ 2014 reboot of “Godzilla.” The studio calls this “The MonsterVerse.” It’s very likely that some fans stuck around through the closing credits, knowing that there would be a teaser for upcoming installments, including new battles featuring Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah, not to mention the ultimate showdown, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” due in 2020.
It’s not all rosy for the big gorilla. The movie cost a reported $185 million to make and (if the recent “Godzilla” is any guide) more than $100 million to market. A $75 million opening would have been a stronger sign that “Skull Island” can earn back its costs. (The radioactive lizard enjoyed a $93.2 million debut three years ago.)
Still, “Kong” did earn an estimated $81.6 million overseas, for a global total of $142.6 million. And it’s still two weeks away from opening in China, which could make all the difference. With any luck, world domination is at hand for the massive monkey and his fellow mega-monsters.
LOS ANGELES, March 12 (Variety.com) – “Kong: Skull Island” emerged victorious after a battle of the beasts that pitted the giant ape movie against Wolverine’s last stand. Cresting a wave of good reviews, “Kong” topped the domestic box office, racking up a mighty $61 million. That handily beat estimates, which had “Kong: Skull Island” debuting to between $45 million to $50 million.
King Kong’s roar didn’t totally drown out Wolverine’s berserker rage. In its second weekend, Fox’s “Logan” dropped 58% to $37.8 million, pushing its stateside total to $152.6 million. The R-rated comic book adventure is Hugh Jackman’s swan song as Wolverine after nearly two decades playing the X-Men team member.
“Skull Island” gets bragging rights for topping expectations, but the film isn’t out of the woods yet. It cost a hefty $185 million to produce, which means that it will need to be a hit overseas if Legendary and Warner Bros., the studios behind the film, want to make a profit. On the domestic front, “Kong: Skull Island” is also staring down Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” a live action fairy tale that is expected to premiere to as much as $120 million next weekend. That will likely suck up most of the oxygen in the multiplexes, making it difficult for other films to keep drawing in big crowds.
Legendary and Warner Bros. have grand ambitions for King Kong. The film is the second installment in a planned monster franchise. The first chapter, 2014’s “Godzilla,” opened to $93.2 million in the states before topping out at $529.1 million globally. The plan is for King Kong and Godzilla to meet in an epic showdown of primordial creatures in 2020.
“The movie is pure fun and that’s translating into the box office,” said Jeff Goldstein, domestic distribution chief at Warner Bros. He went on to predict that the film would benefit from rolling spring breaks that will see more than 20 percent of the nation’s schoolchildren on vacation and looking for something to occupy their time. The opening weekend crowd for the film was 56% male and 35% under the age of 25. Imax showings accounted for $7.5 million worth of ticket sales.
Because of its massive production and marketing costs, “Kong: Skull Island” will need to do roughly $500 million worldwide to be considered a success. To that end, the film debuted to $81.6 million in 65 foreign markets. A lot is riding on how the film performs in China, the world’s second-largest film market. “Kong: Skull Island” opens in the Middle Kingdom in two weeks. Set in the waning days of the Vietnam War, “Skull Island” exchanges embassy helicopter rescues for oversized primates looming large against a fog-encrusted jungle setting. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who made a splash with the Sundance favorite “Kings of Summer,” directs, with Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brie Larson heading up the ensemble cast. Critics embraced the decision to give an “Apocalypse Now” sheen to the oft-filmed story of King Kong, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman hailing it as “a rousing and smartly crafted primordial-beastie spectacular.”
With Wolvie and Kong duking it out for the top slot, Blumhouse and Universal’s “Get Out” snagged third place. The low-budget thriller about a black man whose visit to his white girlfriend’s hometown takes a sinister turn, picked up $21.1 million. It has earned $111 million in three weeks of release — a fantastic return on its $4.5 million budget.
The top five was rounded out by Lionsgate’s “The Shack” and Warner Bros.’ “The LEGO Batman Movie,” which earned $10.1 million and $7.8 million, respectively. “The Shack,” a faith-based drama, has grossed $32.3 million in two weeks of release. The latest LEGO movie has earned $159 million after five weeks in theaters.
Among limited releases, CBS Films’ “The Sense of an Ending,” an adaptation of Julian Barnes’s prize-winning novel, opened to $42,000 from four locations, while Focus World’s “Raw,” a horror film about a vegetarian student who turns to cannibalism, debuted to $25,230 from two theaters.
Ticket sales were up nearly 25% from the same weekend in 2016 — a period that overlapped with the second weekend of “Zootopia” and the debut of “10 Cloverfield Lane.” Revenues are up roughly 2% year-to-date, as the combination of “Logan,” “Get Out” and now “Kong: Skull Island” are translating into a busy time at the box office. Next weekend brings the release of “Beast,” which should expand 2017’s lead.
“This could be the biggest March on record,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “You don’t have to wait until May to release blockbusters any more.”
Brie Larson’s less-than-enthusiastic presentation of the Best Actor Oscar to Casey Affleck was noted immediately on social media. Larson did not clap while the audience gave the “Manchester By the Sea” actor a standing ovation.
Now, the actress is speaking out about her reaction. “I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself,” she told Vanity Fair at the premiere of her new movie “Kong: Skull Island.”
“I’ve said all that I need to say about that topic.”
Larson won an Oscar last year for portraying a sexual abuse victim and has been an advocate of sexual assault survivors. And Affleck was sued for sexual harassment by two female crew members during the filming of “I’m Still Here” (both suits were settled in 2010).
The allegations dogged him throughout awards season, though ultimately, did not prevent him from winning the Academy Award. Affleck did not address the issue until days after the ceremony.
“I believe that any kind of mistreatment of anyone for any reason is unacceptable and abhorrent, and everyone deserves to be treated with respect in the workplace and anywhere else,” he told the Boston Globe.
“There’s really nothing I can do about it other than live my life the way I know I live it and to speak to what my own values are and how I try to live by them all the time.”
King Kong roars and punches his way back into theaters with “Kong: Skull Island.” But don’t expect the same old story of “Girl meets Ape” this time around. The new and improved Kong is a very different beast, with lots of monsters that will become very acquainted with his fists.
So sit back and allow us to break down everything you need to know before watching “Skull Island.”
1. It’s a Reboot King Kong is one of the oldest characters in Hollywood, and he’s been rebooted quite a few times over the years. “Skull Island” is just his latest freshening-up. This new movie isn’t directly connected to any of the past Kongs, whether it’s the original 1933 “King Kong” or the 2005 remake. It’s a fresh start for both moviegoers and the giant ape himself.
2. You’ve Never Seen a Monster Movie Like This Before While “Skull Island” is rebooting the franchise again, it’s not simply recycling the same plot. Rather than culminating with Kong being dragged to New York and making his fateful skyscraper climb, this movie looks to be set almost exclusively on Skull Island. Fans will get a much closer look at the deadly Skull Island ecosystem and the various beasts Kong must battle to maintain his throne. So, if you like your fights of the ape-vs.-evil lizard thing variety, then Christmas comes early for you this year.
3. Think “Apocalypse Kong”See that poster above? The one that should be hanging on your wall right now? It’s a Kong-ified version of the iconic poster from the classic Vietnam film, “Apocalypse Now.” And that’s a hint to the level of action and direction of story on display here.
“Skull Island” shares one thing in common with 1976’s “King Kong” in that it takes place in the 1970’s Hopefully that’s all the two share in common…
The 1973 setting is crucial. It gives the main characters a leg-up in terms of the weapons and technology they’re able to bring to bear against Skull Island’s vicious inhabitants, but it’s not so far in the future that it’s impossible to believe there could still be a hidden island full of dinosaurs and giant apes. Plus, “Skull Island” is said to have (at times) a kind of psychedelic, very “Apocalypse Now”-inspired vibe.
4. It Stars Loki and Captain MarvelThe would-be blockbuster wisely upgrades the cast of human characters, too. Most of them are soldiers or scientists, rather than hapless tourists in search of fame and fortune.
Tom Hiddleston stars as James Conrad, a disillusioned Vietnam War vet who’s hired on as a hunter-tracker for the expedition. Samuel L. Jackson plays Preston Packard, the leader of a helicopter squadron known as the Black Devils. Brie Larson plays Mason Weaver, a war-time photographer, who ends up literally in Kong’s clutches — after developing a sort of respect for the beast.
The cast also includes John Goodman, as the member of shady agency MONARCH responsible for the expedition to Scary Monster Death Island, and John C. Reilly.
5. Kong Is Not a Bad Guy He may be a giant ape, but Kong has always been treated as more of a tragic, misunderstood hero than a true monster. That approach doesn’t appear to be changing here.
He’s being presented as the last survivor of a race of giant apes who were wiped out by Skull Island’s more bloodthirsty inhabitants. Over the course of the film, our heroes will come to learn that Kong is their ally, not a beast to be exploited.
6. Yes, it Shares a Universe With Godzilla Thanks to Marvel Studios, shared movie universes are all the rage. “Skull island” is not only rebooting the King Kong franchise, it’s also a crucial building block in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse.” It’s basically a big-budget commercial paving the way for Kong and the Big Guy (above) to share the screen. (There’s even an end-credits tag ensuring that.)
This shared universe was born with 2014’s “Godzilla.” Following the release of “Skull Island” and 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the MonsterVerse will culminate with 2020’s “Godzilla vs. King Kong.”
We don’t know what will cause these two titans to clash, but we fear for anyone caught in the middle of that brawl.
Whatever you think “Kong: Skull Island” will be, it’s not. It’s not the metaphorically minded adventure of the 1933 version or the emotional rollercoaster of Peter Jackson‘s 2005 remake. (It is also nothing like the two films from the ’70s or the movies that teamed Kong with Godzilla. The less said about those, the better.) Instead, “Kong: Skull Island,” is an all-out war movie. It never leaves the island, never brings Kong back to the mainland. It’s just a bunch of people, on Skull Island, having their asses handed to them. And it is awesome.
Part of what makes “Kong: Skull Island” so awesome is that it’s set immediately after the conclusion of the Vietnam war, when a shadowy government organization called Monarch (one of the things that connects this film to 2014’s “Godzilla” reboot) piggybacks on a Landsat expedition to map the island. That’s how a mercenary (Tom Hiddleston), a war photographer (Brie Larson), and an embattled soldier (Samuel L. Jackson) end up facing down King Kong and a host of Skull Island’s nastiest monster inhabitants. Oh, and John C. Reilly shows up as a pilot shot down on the island during World War II who has since learned to live with the natives. It’s all very cool.
And it was all the brainchild of Jordan Vogt-Roberts, a young filmmaker best known for the Sundance sensation “Kings of Summer.” I got to chat with the director when he was in town promoting “Kong: Skull Island,” and we talked about John C. Reilly’s jacket, the design of the creatures (and natives), the Hayao Miyazaki influence on the film, and whether or not his big-screen version of beloved video game “Metal Gear Solid” is still coming.
Right off the bat let’s talk about Easter eggs. John C. Reilly has “for your health” written on the back of his jacket. Is that a reference to Steve Brule? Can you confirm?
[Laughs] Ironically, it is a Steve Brule Easter egg but it was originally designed as a reference to “Akira” and the jacket they wear in “Akira.” It just happened to brilliantly coincide with the “For Your Health” Steve Brule reference. I remember when I showed the jacket to John he said, “You know that’s a Steve Brule thing, too?” And I said, “Yeah and it’s also an ‘Akira’ thing.” So he said, “All right, well people are going to go nutty for this.” I said, “All right.” In a normal world, my instinct would have been, Ah,that’s too close. But I thought, No, this is perfect. The fact that the original “Akira” reference lines up with this thing in John C. Reilly’s life is too good to pass up.
And the insignia on the front of his jacket looks like the monsters on the island. I’m assuming that’s intentional?
That is intentional. And it’s a reference also to “Taxi Driver.” If you look at the patch that Travis Bickle wears on his jacket in “Taxi Driver,” it says “King Kong Company.” If you side-by-side the two images you see the similarity.I would love to spend this entire interview talking about John C. Reilly’s jacket, but we should talk about other things, too. It was your decision to set the film in 1973, right? Can you talk about what the project was when you got it and how it evolved?
When I got it, they came to me and said they were going to do a new “King Kong” movie and my first response was, “That’s awesome, I love ‘King Kong.’” And then my second response was, “Why?” They had a script that took place in 1917 that was a very cool script by Max Bornstein, who’s a very talented writer. But it just didn’t make sense why it should get made. And Kong was barely in the script. It was originally conceived as a “Jurassic Park” movie, and Kong is like the T. Rex. Like, it’s not necessarily his movie. Max is amazing and that script is super cool; it just didn’t make sense for me to be like, “Oh, I can direct this movie.” So they said, “What movie would you direct? How would you make it relevant?”
I went away for the weekend and thought about it and started doing research and looking into different time periods. I saw that, in the early ’70s, NASA started launching satellites that were mapping the Earth. They called it the Landsat Program. I was really obsessed with that as an incredible way of discovering something in a time when you believed things could still be discovered. I immediately upon thinking about the ’70s started thinking about choppers and napalm and Hendrix playing and “Apocalypse Now” with King Kong. It’s a Vietnam movie with monsters. I thought, I would watch the sh*t out of that movie. My friends would watch the sh*t out of that movie. There were so many thematic reasons that were bigger answers to that as to why it was the ’70s, too.
So I went back to Legendary and pitched this Vietnam creature feature, and I thought I was going to get laughed out of the room. I thought they were going to say, “What? No!” And the cool thing about Legendary and Warner Bros. was they said, “Let’s do that!”
The movie is very political and it’s very stylized. Were you surprised at how much you were able to squeeze into what is obviously a big tent pole movie?
Well that was all a long process. From the beginning, it was very important to me that if we were going to play around with the imagery of Vietnam, we had to have a message. We had to have a comment on the war. Not everyone necessarily agreed with that, but I was like, “We cannot play with imagery that is this charged just to make a popcorn movie. There needs to be a message here as well.”
As far as style goes, I was very surprised, but I can sit here and say that my style and my voice is in this film and I’m super proud of that. I think the thing that’s missing from big popcorn movies is that they don’t have a soul and they don’t have a voice. And I think audiences want a point of view. I think that’s the one way that films can truly separate themselves from TV and all the other noise and all the other content being created. That’s the one thing movies really have, that when they excel a movie with a voice that suddenly feels different, you think, Wow, that’s a revelation.
So I’m really proud of how much of it is in there. Luckily I had great producers who ultimately backed me on that, but it wasn’t an easy process necessarily. You’ve really got to run through the gauntlet and just stick to your guns.Was it hard maintaining that voice while also being a part of this larger ecosystem of movies that King Kong is a part of?
Yes, it was difficult to maintain that, but, like I said, I ultimately had great people who backed me. There’s a lot of things in the movie and a lot of people’s favorite moments that I think are people’s favorite moments because they’re left of center or subversive or off-kilter, and anytime you do something like that you’re stepping outside the box and there are a lot of people you have to make comfortable with that as you go. So it was not an easy, “Oh, yes, of course all this weird humor is going to be in here and all this style is going to be in here.” If I was ever going to do a Director’s Cut, there’d be 10% more style in the movie. I’m super proud of the movie but it is what it is at times.
And Legendary and Warner Bros. were really great because I said to them, “I feel like people are very cautious and weary of all of this franchise stuff.” So many of these movies have scenes in the middle of the movie that have nothing to do with the movie you’re watching and they only exist to set up some larger franchise. And that’s a shame because you’re diluting your own movie. There’s a lot of people who will go to this movie and have no idea it connects to “Godzilla.” And Kong is an icon. He is film history. He deserves to be treated as his own standalone film. They were great about hearing that, saying, “Let’s tell the best version of this story so that when King Kong and Godzilla fight, you give a sh*t about him because you love that movie.”
Let’s talk about the design of Kong for a second, because what’s so interesting is that he’s much more of a man-in-suit design. Can you talk about getting away from the more primate look and embracing something more stylized?
One of the very first things I did when I got signed on was say that I wanted to make him a biped again, like the ’33 version. I wanted to make him a movie monster again, where he has exaggerated proportions and was not just a big ape or monkey or gorilla but had his own, almost cartoony proportions. I wanted to take him out of the biped that walks like a simian and more like one that is a god. I wanted to make him more upright and this combination of a man and a beast and a god. So he would carry himself with a nobility and a pride and a sense of being regal but there’s a sadness because he’s the lonely protector of this place.
Another fascinating design aspect is the natives of Skull Island. You shied away from the primal man we saw in the most recent “King Kong,” and I wanted to know where the face-paint came from. It almost looks like a circuit board.
It took a long, long, long time to nail the design of that stuff. It was really important for me because a lot of the Kong films do have these racist stereotypes of what these villagers are. I wanted to completely flip that on its head. And I’m also a child of 8-bit video games and circuit boards and things like that. Because as soon as you give soft edges to this paint it just felt very traditionally tribal and like you’d seen it before. I liked the idea of it feeling anachronistic and futuristic. Because I wanted the villagers to feel more evolved than us. They had a better understanding of themselves and their symbiosis with the island. I loved the idea of the paint because for me it wasn’t just decorative but also served as a form of language. It also served as a form of camouflage. I loved the idea that it served these multi-purposes.Some of the creatures on the island, like the giant ox, feel very Miyazaki-y. Was that on purpose?
Yes, absolutely. It took a long time and we had thousands of drawings of creatures. We knew where we wanted to go with Kong, but we didn’t want to do dinosaurs on the island. Peter did such a good job with dinosaurs and the ’33 one did that and “Jurassic World” did that. I felt like we’d seen it before. I went through so many designs with so many artists and that creature was the design that really broke it open for us. Suddenly Miyazaki and “Princess Mononoke” and this sense of beauty and spirituality and this slightly heightened mythical feel was created. That broke open the door for the design of what these other creatures should be. If Kong is the god of the island then these other creatures are the gods of their own domain. And I loved that. I loved that idea and I love Miyazaki and I think there’s a lot of “Princess Mononoke” in this movie.
Is “Metal Gear Solid” still brewing, or have you moved on to other things?
“Metal Gear Solid” is absolutely still brewing. We’re working on the script and that is one of the most special, idiosyncratic properties on the planet for me. There’s not another franchise on this Earth that I would rather shepherd into existence because Kojima’s voice is so special and pure and it would be so easy for Hollywood to misinterpret what that property is. Luckily, we have great producers on that. Nailing the walking philosophies as these characters exist and nailing the feeling of tension and dread you get as you’re caught and every step you take you go further and further into the belly of the beast as you’re sneaking around. You’re nailing the feelings that that game makes you feel and putting that in a movie is so exciting to me. That is still on. We need to get the script right and we need to get the script right in a way that honors what the game is and honors Kojima’s voice and breaks the curse of video game movies.
“Kong: Skull Island” is out everywhere this Friday.
You won’t see “Kong: Skull Island” stars Brie Larson and John Goodman one-on-one in the movie, so we gave them a chance to sit, chat, and go “Unscripted.” Among the topics discussed: Skull Island pets, eating rotisserie chicken like corn-on-the-cob, and winning over a very intimidating Samuel L. Jackson.
“Kong: Skull Island” roars into theaters March 10th.
For a movie so shrouded in mystery, the cast of “Kong: Skull Island” sure was chatty.
That’s what we learned when Moviefone, along with a small group of reporters, was invited to the Hawaii set of “Skull Island” back in December 2015. (Although, nowadays, you could say the gargantuan gorilla flick is “formerly shrouded in mystery,” since our eyes have since been exposed to a number of jaw-dropping trailers and TV spots.)
Still, thanks to the ample access we were granted to the movie’s stars and filmmakers on the set of “Kong: Skull Island,” we were able to compile more than a few revealing details about the simeon spectacle that have, until now, remained under lock and key.
In quick, convenient asked-and-answered style, here are 15 very important questions we got answered on the set of Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “Kong: Skull Island.”
1. What is “Kong: Skull Island” about?
Remember Peter Jackson’s 2005 “King Kong“? Remember how the only part of the movie you really remember is the time they spent on the island finding Kong, encountering all types of dangerous, awesome creatures? Remember how you wished they’d never made it back to New York and the whole movie was spent on that island? Well, they heard you, and they made a movie for you.
More specifically, “Skull Island” is about a team of scientists, soldiers, and assorted explorer types who seek to survey an uncharted Pacific island in 1972. Each person on the team is venturing to the island for different reasons — some well-intentioned, some nefarious. Once they reach the island, however, all hell breaks loose (in this case, hell’s name is “Kong,” and he puts the smackdown on their helicopters), and the team’s mission of exploration turns into one of “we need to get off of this island before it kills us.” Need more clarity? Watch the trailer.Clear enough? Let’s move on.
2. How does “Skull Island” start?
While on the set, we were shown some stunning concept art, one of which featured Kong, larger than life (naturally), looming over two WWII soldiers standing on a cliff. One of the film’s producers, Alex Garcia, keyed in on this specific image, and used it to paint a vivid picture of the film’s opening sequence.
“We open on the aftermath of a World War II dogfight,” he revealed. “A pilot crash lands on this island. A U.S. pilot, you know, crawling, stands up, sees another plane crash. It’s the plane he’s been fighting with. A Japanese pilot starts running at him. They get into a death duel running through the jungle. You know, two mortal enemies going to kill each other until they’re interrupted by this seemingly impossible much larger force that literally — they’re on a cliff face here — that literally plants his hands down and comes up and everything of their world — the warring factions, the whole war, all of that — is instantly nullified by this guy. We cut out of that and come into the ’70s.”
Hooked? Yeah, that’s the point.
3. When is “Skull Island” set?
As previously mentioned, the film is set in 1972, during the Vietnam War, and there’s a very specific, rather ingenious reason as to why they set the movie during this very tumultuous time. Producer Garcia delivered this insightful bit of backstory:
“[Director] Jordan [Vogt-Roberts] came in with this idea of setting the movie in the early 1970s, at the dawn of the Landsat program,” he revealed. “The Landsat program is a real program that was formed to start utilizing satellites to map the surface of the Earth. It’s the first time we ever did that, and, in that mapping, they discover a previously uncharted island that is surrounded by weather patterns, storm systems — it’s incredibly difficult to reach, and incredibly difficult to even ascertain its existence because of the storm systems and weather abnormalities and all of that.”
Sound like the perfect setting (and set-up) for a monster movie.
4. Where is “Skull Island” set?Well, the answer to this one is in the name of the movie: the “previously uncharted” Skull Island, which is located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean — seemingly somewhere in Southeast Asia, but maybe not. As Garcia explained, Skull Island isn’t just uncharted, it’s a world unto itself — one with the kinds of flora and fauna scientists have only dreamed about.
“It’s an entirely unique ecosystem,” he told us. “A team of people come together to go and survey this island. We will discover, through the course of the movie, that some of them may have had more knowledge than others. They may have actually understood that something was there, even if they didn’t know exactly what. The movie essentially becomes, thematically, about the collision of the modern world and myth. Science is now debunking all myth, but what if some myth actually was true?”
For those worried that “Skull Island” is going to be mired by long sequences of exposition and scientific explanations, Garcia says you have nothing to worry about: “It’s an adventure movie at its core, about this group of people who are confronted with the seemingly impossible on this island and have to survive it.”
5. Why do they go to Skull Island?On the face of it, the team is going to “survey the island,” but there wouldn’t be much of a movie if that were true. Pretty much every member of the team has a different reason for going — some noble, some not.
Garcia commented briefly on the mixed makeup of the team: “This group is led by Conrad, who’s played by Tom Hiddleston. Conrad is a tracker out of the war — British tracker, S.A.S. [Special Air Service], who’s brought in by … a team of Monarch operatives, which is the organization in ‘Godzilla,’ who are kind of a shadowy presence in the movie, who sort of jumpstart this expedition. It’s a Landsat expedition officially, but John Goodman, who plays the guy from Monarch [Bill Randa], is sort of pulling the strings in the background. We come to realize, obviously, that they knew much more than they let on, initially.”
Oscar-winner Brie Larson also forces her way onto the trip, and, as Garcia pointed out, she’s got a motive all her own.
“Brie Larson plays a photographer who sort of convinces her way onto the expedition because she believes that there’s something else going on,” he revealed. “She thinks it’s some military thing related to, probably, the war. She has conspiratorial notions of it. She has no suspicion that it’s what it actually ends up becoming, but when she hears there’s an expedition going with military support she weasels her way onto it in order to get a story — and gets the story of a lifetime, obviously.”
Let’s hope she — and her camera — survive the trip.
6. How much Kong are we going to get in “Skull Island”?From what we gathered, a lot — both in terms of size and screen time.
“Unlike Godzilla, we meet Kong pretty quickly in our movie,” producer Garcia divulged. “They start the survey, they’re coming over the island — very quickly — and they’re dropping these seismic survey instruments that function almost like charges. They land, and rumble, and create waves that they then measure, and they disturb the peace, quite frankly. The sheriff of the island, Kong, rises up and has a whole confrontation with the choppers.”
Essentially, Kong is the giant, destructive gorilla equivalent of your 80-year old neighbor yelling “Get off my lawn!”
7. Are there monsters/creatures other than Kong on Skull Island?Um, hell yes.
As you’ve likely seen in the trailers and TV spots, Kong is not alone on Skull Island. While we popped our peepers on concept art for a number of creatures (some far more dangerous than Kong), director Vogt-Roberts and producer Garcia only spoke about a few (hey, they’ve gotta leave some surprises), but what both emphasized was the importance of each creature feeling native to the environment rather than simply being scary or awe-inspiring.
“If Kong is the god of this island, we wanted each of the creatures to feel like individual gods of their own domain,” Vogt-Roberts explained. “[Hayao] Miyazaki‘s ‘Princess Mononoke’ was actually a big reference in the way that the spirit creatures sort of have their own domains and fit within that. So a big thing was sort of trying to design creatures that felt realistic and could exist in an ecosystem that feels sort of wild and out there, and then also design things that simultaneously felt beautiful and horrifying at the same time.”
Secondary to the creatures’ environmental authenticity was their originality, as Vogt-Roberts expressed: “My biggest qualm with a lot of movies that I watch is, I feel like I’ve seen it before. So we just really wanted to go out of our way to, especially with the other creatures, design things that felt sort of unique to our movie and can exist on the island.”
A great example of what Vogt-Roberts was going for was delivered by Garcia, who described a sequence in the movie (briefly revealed in the trailer), in which the explorers accidentally incite a battle with some of the island’s longest-legged residents: “It’s a bamboo forest they go through, and we’re with them in the bamboo and they’re hacking their way through it — and then we discover that, actually, in and amongst the bamboo, are these giant daddy long leg-like spiders whose legs look like bamboo and they are hiding in it, camouflaged. The guys inadvertently start chopping their legs, and the spiders start attacking, and there’s a big gunfight with them.”
8. So, who does Samuel L. Jackson play?Samuel L. Jackson plays Lt. Colonel Packard, who, Garcia said, “is the colonel who leads the helicopter squadron, which is one of the most illustrious squadrons out of the war. He’s never lost a man, which is why, when Kong bangs down those choppers, to him it’s soul-crushing.”
It isn’t long before Packard makes destroying Kong his life’s mission, which Jackson likened to a very familiar literary character:
“It’s a drive. It’s very akin to Ahab and the whale,” Jackson explained. “At a certain point, you gotta stand up to this thing that has done so much destruction to you and your people, and he has this idea that this thing is not what’s going to save humanity, ’cause that’s what everybody else’s idea is. This is the thing that’s standing between us and these other things that are a threat to humanity. We’ve evolved to the point that we’re the line in the sand. This thing’s not the line in the sand — we are. If us in our infinite, advanced technology, and mental state can’t stop a mindless, gigantic ape — then our evolution has been for naught.”
In summary, Jackson is playing the movie’s chief (human) antagonist.
9. How big of a deal is Tom Hiddleston’s character?As mentioned above, Hiddleston plays Captain James Conrad, a S.A.S. Operative who trained with American forces in Cambodia. He’s also a survivalist and a tracker.
As Hiddleston put it, “he’s the guy you send in to find missing persons if a plane or a helicopter has crashed in the jungle because he has a special tracking ability.”
Conrad is also a man in search of a mission. When Goodman’s character comes along and offers Conrad a job, he can’t resist, as Hiddleston explained: “Bill Randa, who works for Monarch, comes to find him in a back alley somewhere, and he says ‘We need you on this mission.’ [Conrad] says, ‘What’s the mission?’ [Randa] says, ‘Well, you know, we’re making a map of an island in the South Pacific and we need someone with survival skills. We need someone with your ability.’ And he’s like, ‘That sounds sufficiently shady.’”
Money is money, so Conrad comes onboard. “He’s there kinda skeptical, and he takes the money and then they get to the island and there’s a huge prehistoric ape on the island,” Hiddleston continued. “I think that’s where, suddenly, Conrad’s been kind of spiritually asleep or sleepwalking. He wakes up and, suddenly, his very unique and special skill kicks in and he becomes indispensable to the team.”
If you want to see Tom Hiddleston play an action hero, “Kong: Skull Island” is for you.
10. And Brie Larson, what’s her character’s deal?Brie Larson plays Weaver (just Weaver), a photojournalist with an activist streak.
“I play a journalist,” Larson told us. “A photographer who ends up joining this cast of characters. I have my own sort of motive as to why I’m here. That’s the interesting thing about this movie. It’s a group of misfits that are all coming from different angles looking at the same thing. So I come in as kind of a background person, one who’s just there to take photos. And, as it progresses, I have to get a little bit more hands on.”
From the perspective of Packard, Jackson’s character, Weaver is a threat. If the island’s monsters don’t get Weaver, Packard will. Or he’ll try, maybe.
“Brie, to me, is a photojournalistic Jane Fonda,” Jackson grumbled. “She’s sort of responsible for the image that goes back home that causes people to have specific reactions to those soldiers, so [she’s] not so favorable with me.”
11. What about John C. Reilly’s character?
John C. Reilly plays Marlow, the American soldier seen in the aforementioned opening to the movie (he didn’t want to go to the island; he’s stranded there). He’s made friends — or, at the very least, has a positive relationship — with Skull Island’s natives, which has clearly helped him survive for as long as he has. Also, as producer Garcia revealed to us, he ended up befriending his Japanese foe, Gunpei, who, by the time the survey team arrives, has already been “killed by another creature on the island.”
12. What role does Monarch play?Goodman’s Bill Randa is the driving force behind the expedition. The filmmakers were tight-lipped about the larger role Monarch plays in “Skull Island,” and even tighter-lipped about how the events of the story are tied to other Monarch-entrenched movies.
Garcia did go as far to say the filmmakers ensured that the events of “Skull Island” in no way “conflict or directly negate” anything in 2014’s “Godzilla,” in which Monarch plays a heavy role.
13. Who else is in the cast?
“Kong: Skull Island” boasts a very strong ensemble cast. In addition to the previously mentioned Hiddleston, Larson, Jackson, Goodman, and Reilly, the movie also stars Jing Tian, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, and Thomas Mann, many of whom we saw either roaming around the set or filming. Oh, also monsters — but we didn’t see any of those.
14. Who dies?
Probably a lot of people. The crazy weather patterns surrounding Skull Island and the destructive nature of its inhabitants aren’t exactly conducive to survival.
15. Does anyone make it off Skull Island?
Who knows?! The only clue we have is that producer Garcia isn’t ruling out a sequel.
“If we pull off this island feeling like a really distinct and unique place, absolutely it could be revisited later in the timeline, for sure.”
To find out who makes it off the island (if anyone), “Kong: Skull Island” hits theaters March 10th.
Entertainment Weekly unveiled the first image of the humongous titular ape in “Kong: Skull Island,” a reboot/origin story set in the ’70s starring Tom Hiddleston. He plays a British special forces vet who, along with Brie Larson’s war photographer, discover the fearsome Kong while exploring Skull Island. Here’s your first look:Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts explained to EW his vision of the gigantic ape for this movie — a callback to the “classic movie monster.”
“A big part of our Kong was I wanted to make something that gave the impression that he was a lonely God, he was a morose figure, lumbering around this island,” he said.
“We sort of went back to the 1933 version in the sense that he’s a bipedal creature that walks in an upright position, as opposed to the anthropomorphic, anatomically correct silverback gorilla that walks on all fours. Our Kong was intended to say, like, this isn’t just a big gorilla or a big monkey. This is something that is its own species. It has its own set of rules, so we can do what we want and we really wanted to pay homage to what came before … and yet do something completely different.”
Not all movie adaptations of TV shows are created equal. Some of them fall flat, but some become instant classics. Case in point: “
It’s weird to think of King Kong as an underdog, but that’s what he was, going into this weekend’s box office brawl.
“You will have the tallest leading man in Hollywood,” is what “King Kong” creator 
As this column noted 
You’d think all these March mega-movies would cannibalize each other; indeed, that was the logic behind the lowball predictions for the “Kong” premiere. But as we saw last week, the rising-tide-lifts-all-boats effect was in play, and the successful debut of “Logan” seemed to put moviegoers in the mood to hang out at the multiplex, where they also bought tickets for fellow new releases “
Casting “
“Kong” earned surprisingly strong reviews, scoring a 78 percent “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. To the extent that reviews still matter to older moviegoers, they helped a lot.
Maybe not everybody knew, but “Skull Island” is set in the same kaiju-infested universe as Warner Bros.’ 2014 reboot of “
By Brent Lang
On the domestic front, “Kong: Skull Island” is also staring down Disney’s “
Set in the waning days of the Vietnam War, “Skull Island” exchanges embassy helicopter rescues for oversized primates looming large against a fog-encrusted jungle setting. 
King Kong roars and punches his way back into theaters with “
King Kong is one of the oldest characters in Hollywood, and he’s been rebooted quite a few times over the years. “Skull Island” is just his latest freshening-up. This new movie isn’t directly connected to any of the past Kongs, whether it’s the original 1933 “King Kong” or the 2005 remake. It’s a fresh start for both moviegoers and the giant ape himself.
While “Skull Island” is rebooting the franchise again, it’s not simply recycling the same plot. Rather than culminating with Kong being dragged to New York and making his fateful skyscraper climb, this movie looks to be set almost exclusively on Skull Island. Fans will get a much closer look at the deadly Skull Island ecosystem and the various beasts Kong must battle to maintain his throne. So, if you like your fights of the ape-vs.-evil lizard thing variety, then Christmas comes early for you this year. 
See that poster above? The one that should be hanging on your wall right now? It’s a Kong-ified version of the iconic poster from the classic Vietnam film, “Apocalypse Now.” And that’s a hint to the level of action and direction of story on display here.
The would-be blockbuster wisely upgrades the cast of human characters, too. Most of them are soldiers or scientists, rather than hapless tourists in search of fame and fortune.
He may be a giant ape, but Kong has always been treated as more of a tragic, misunderstood hero than a true monster. That approach doesn’t appear to be changing here.
Thanks to Marvel Studios, shared movie universes are all the rage. “Skull island” is not only rebooting the King Kong franchise, it’s also a crucial building block in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “MonsterVerse.” It’s basically a big-budget commercial paving the way for Kong and the Big Guy (above) to share the screen. (There’s even an end-credits tag ensuring that.)
Whatever you think “
I would love to spend this entire interview talking about John C. Reilly’s jacket, but we should talk about other things, too. It was your decision to set the film in 1973, right? Can you talk about what the project was when you got it and how it evolved?
Was it hard maintaining that voice while also being a part of this larger ecosystem of movies that King Kong is a part of?
Some of the creatures on the island, like the giant ox, feel very Miyazaki-y. Was that on purpose?
For a movie so shrouded in mystery, the cast of “
Well, the answer to this one is in the name of the movie: the “previously uncharted” Skull Island, which is located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean — seemingly somewhere in Southeast Asia, but maybe not. As Garcia explained, Skull Island isn’t just uncharted, it’s a world unto itself — one with the kinds of flora and fauna scientists have only dreamed about.
On the face of it, the team is going to “survey the island,” but there wouldn’t be much of a movie if that were true. Pretty much every member of the team has a different reason for going — some noble, some not.
From what we gathered, a lot — both in terms of size and screen time.
Um, hell yes.
As mentioned above, Hiddleston plays Captain James Conrad, a S.A.S. Operative who trained with American forces in Cambodia. He’s also a survivalist and a tracker.
Brie Larson plays Weaver (just Weaver), a photojournalist with an activist streak.
Goodman’s Bill Randa is the driving force behind the expedition. The filmmakers were tight-lipped about the larger role Monarch plays in “Skull Island,” and even tighter-lipped about how the events of the story are tied to other Monarch-entrenched movies.
Bow down to the new King — the new King Kong.
Director