And now, it has proved successful enough that the company has commissioned a spin-off, one that will revolve around Colonel Lee Shaw, the character played in his younger days by Wyatt Russell.
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The new series doesn’t yet have a title, but we do wonder if this means there won’t be any opportunity for the older version of Shaw –– played by Russell’s father, Kurt Russell –– to show up.
What’s the story of the new ‘Monarch’ spin-off series?
Wyatt Russell in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
The show will focus on Russell’s Colonel Shaw, an American operative who in 1984 went on a secret mission behind enemy lines in an attempt to stop the Soviets from unleashing a horrific new Titan big enough to destroy the U.S. and turn the tide of the Cold War.
‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Spin-off: the showrunner and studio speak
‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ coming soon to Apple TV+.
Here’s Joby Harold’s statement on the new show:
“I could not feel more privileged to be a part of building out this wildly iconic universe,” says Harold. “Apple and Legendary have been exemplary partners throughout this process, and we will continue to bring these Titans of cinematic history to audiences with the reverence they deserve.”
And this was the comment from Apple TV’s head of international development Morgan Wandell:
“Viewers around the world haven’t been able to get enough of ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ since its global debut, and we cannot wait to unleash the electrifying new stories that Joby and the entire cast and creative team have been working on. With Joby at the helm, and alongside our terrific partners at Legendary, this new spinoff will kick off an epic Monsterverse expansion that brings audiences even closer to their favorite Titans along with fantastic character-driven storytelling.”
When will the ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ spin-off series be on screen?
Wyatt Russell in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ now streaming on Apple TV+.
There has been no launch date reported for the new series, but the second season of ‘Monarch’ will arrive on Apple TV on February 27.
Godzilla and King Kong are cinematic characters that have thrilled audiences since they first appeared on the big screen back in 1956, and 1933, respectively.
Not to mention the excellent Apple TV+ series ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,’ which takes place within the MonsterVerse and premiered its first season last year.
In honor of ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s theatrical release, Moviefone is counting down the 12 best Godzilla and King Kong movies of all time, including the latest!
French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it’s spawn takes over the world.
2019’s ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Photo: Legendary Pictures.
Follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancient super-species, thought to be mere myths, rise again, they all vie for supremacy, leaving humanity’s very existence hanging in the balance.
Reporter Goro Maki (Akira Kubo) stumbles upon scientists conducting weather experiments on Sollgel Island in the South Seas. He discovers the island is inhabited by giant mantis and a woman named Saeko who’s been cast away since the death of her father. The pair soon find a helpless infant monster that Godzilla must adopt and learn to raise as one of his own.
Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe (Bryan Cranston). Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.
2021’s ‘Godzilla vs. Kong.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages.
This latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins, and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.
Naomi Watts in 2005’s ‘King Kong.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer (Jack Black) coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady (Naomi Watts).
1956’s ‘Godzilla, King of the Monsters!’ Photo: Toho Co., Ltd.
During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin (Raymond Burr) spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call ‘Godzilla’. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.
Adventurous filmmaker, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), sets out to produce a motion picture unlike anything the world has seen before. Alongside his leading lady Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and his first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), they arrive on an island and discover a legendary creature said to be neither beast nor man. Denham captures the monster to displayed on Broadway as Kong, the eighth wonder of the world.
While Legendary and Warner Bros.’ “Monsterverse” movies –– the series of connected films featuring giant beasts such as Godzilla and King Kong –– have seen mixed fortunes at the box office, they have enjoyed enough success that it is continuing.
Partly that’s thanks to 2021’s ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’, which saw the two headliners face off against each other (and another dangerous, more human-forged creature). The movie itself had to contend with a troublesome patch in the ongoing pandemic and a day-and-date release on HBO Max as well as theaters but managed to overcome both challenges to become the second film of the Covid era to cross the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, en route to $468 million globally.
Yes, it does sound a little bit like the two beasties are starting a fashion collab together, but in reality, it’s just the next big movie to feature them.
So, the next question of course, is…
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is in production right now and will be in theaters on March 15th next year. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures.
What’s the story of ‘Godzilla x Kong’?
Here’s the official synopsis…
This new movie follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence –– and our own.
The epic new story will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins, and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is in production right now and will be in theaters on March 15th next year. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures.
Wingard made his name with clever, low-budget horror, but has gone on to a varied genre career that also included a new ‘Blair Witch’ movie and manga adaptation ‘Death Note’ before he was hired to wrangle giant CG creatures.
He has several returning cast members, including Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews, Brian Tyree Henry as fan-favorite Bernie Hayes and Kaylee Hottle as young human Kong friend Jia.
The screenplay is by Simon Barrett, a regular colleague of Wingard’s, who is building on work from Jeremy Slater and Terry Rossio.
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is in production right now and will be in theaters on March 15th next year.
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ is in production right now and will be in theaters on March 15th next year. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures.
Movies Similar to ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire:’
Is there any character that Disney won’t try to bring under its huge, ever-expanding franchise umbrella? Apparently not. The company is now developing a ‘King Kong’ series to run on streaming service Disney+.
“Hang on,” we hear you asking, “aren’t the rights to Kong stories currently held by Legendary and Warner Bros., with movies and Netflix/Apple TV+ series already in production?” And you’d be right! Legendary in particular holds many of the rights to the giant ape and some other associated monster.
Warner Bros. is still proceeding with its “MonsterVerse” movies – ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ director Adam Wingard is at this very moment at work on the sequel to that monster match-up. He has Dan Stevens starring in a story that will see the big beasts once again face off – or more likely team up to battle a worse threat.
Then there is Apple TV+. Chris Black and ‘Hawkeye’ comics writer Matt Fraction have been shooting a new show, which will follow the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real. The series explores one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.
And finally Netflix has a ‘Skull Island’ anime series working its way to the streaming service.
The lesson here, then, is that Kong rights are spread everywhere, like a city block after the super-sized simian has stomped his way through.
‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ director James Wan at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau.
As for Disney+, it has James Wan producing its show through his Atomic Monster company, while Stephany Folsom, who adapted comic book ‘Paper Girls’ for Prime Video, is writing.
Per Deadline, the new take on Kong “brings the classic monster story into the modern age, with a return to Skull Island and the dawn of a new Kong. The series will explore the mythology of King Kong’s origin story and the supernatural mysteries of his home.” It’s based on the rights to Merian C. Cooper’s original books and more recent ‘King Kong’ novelizations by Joe DeVito.
They’re the same source material that Mar Vista Entertainment and IM Global Television were looking to adapt roughly five years ago without success.
And in case you were still wondering about the rights and how the character is used, it’s worth noting that Warner Bros./Legendary only ever use “Kong” in their titles, since they don’t apparently have the rights to the “King” bit.
Wan, of course, is no stranger to creatures given his horror credentials and his superhero work on ‘Aquaman’, whose sequel ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘ is due in theaters on March 17th next year. Folsom has also has experience with big canvases, since she also wrote on Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’, launching next week.
Before he became the motion-capture king behind King Kong, Gollum and Caesar the ape, Andy Serkis was an Emmy and BAFTA-nominated character actor. Here’s some of his best non-digital work.
Smeagol – ‘Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)
New Line
Serkis’s performance as Gollum is so impressive, it’s easy to forget he briefly appears as the rather Hobbit-like Sméagol before the Ring gave him “unnatural long life.” As Sméagol he goes in an instant from a fairly amiable fisherman (although the way he baits that worm is a bit off) to a murderer when his cousin finds the Ring while fishing.
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Mr. Alley – ‘The Prestige’ (2006)
Warner Bros./Disney
Serkis unveils a flawless American accent (and a wink of mischief) as Nikola Tesla (David Bowie)’s assistant in Christopher Nolan‘s grim drama about rival magicians.
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Lumpy – ‘King Kong’ (2005)
Universal Pictures
Not only did Serkis perform the part of Kong in Peter Jackson‘s epic, he also played doomed cook Lumpy, who is attacked and eaten by giant worms. Would have been smarter if he hadn’t wasted all his ammo on harmless (but giant) insects.
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William Hare – ‘Burke & Hare’ (2010)
IFC Films
If anyone can make grave-robbing and trading in corpses funny, it’s Serkis, Simon Pegg and John Landis.
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Richard Kneeland – ’13 Going on 30′ (2004)
Columbia Pictures
When Jenna (Jennifer Garner) busts out with “Thriller,” everyone is reluctant to join in. But soon, even her too-cool boss (Serkis) is on the dance floor. And who’s the only one moonwalking? That’s right, Andy Serkis.
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John D’Auban – ‘Topsy-Turvy’ (1999)
Pathé Distribution
Serkis steals the show as the disapproving choreographer of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, “The Mikado.” He takes issue with all of Gilbert (Jim Broadbent)’s directions to the cast, muttering. “I haven’t laughed so much since my tights caught fire in ‘Harlequin Meets Itchity Witch and the Snitch.’”
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Colleoni – ‘Brighton Rock’ (2010)
Optimum Releasing
Serkis is a smooth, well-connected gangster facing off with a teenage upstart (Sam Riley) in this adaptation of the Graham Greene novel.
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Capricorn – ‘Inkheart’ (2008)
New Line Cinema
If you’re a British character actor, you’re going to play more than your share of villains, including this heartless, rather campy bad guy who just loves duct tape.
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Martin Hannett – ’24 Hour Party People’ (2002)
United Artists
In this look back at the Manchester music scene that gave rise to bands like Joy Division, Serkis is the world’s most demanding sound engineer. He demands that the band’s drummer play “faster, but slower.” He’s not satisfied until the drum kit is rebuilt … on the roof of the studio.
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Bill Sikes – ‘Oliver Twist’ (1999)
ITV
Taking on one of literature’s most notorious villains, Serkis steps into the nefarious character’s shoes with visible delight.
Ulysses Klaue – ‘Black Panther’ (2018)
Marvel
He first appeared in the Marvel movie “Age of Ultron,” but this one-armed South African mercenary is one of the highlights of “Black Panther.” Whether gleefully spilling all the tea about Wakanda or shooting up a casino, he’s having the time of his rotten life.
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Rigaud – ‘Little Dorrit’ (2008)
BBC/WGBH
Serkis received an Emmy nomination for his role as a Dickensian murderer with a multitude of aliases.
Ian Dury – ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’ (2010)
Lipsync Productions
In his first lead role, Serkis earned Best Actor nominations from BAFTA and the British Independent Film Awards for his audacious portrayal of the British punk/new wave musician. He even did his own vocals!
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Watch Andy Serkis’ latest movie as director ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ in theaters on Oct 1st, 2021.
If you’re curious as to what new movie this week might be best for you, Moviefone is here to help you find it and watch it. This week’s selection of movies features freaky ghosts, freaky monsters, and all kinds of grieving. Here are the movies we’re suggesting this week:
Godzilla vs. Kong (In Theaters and on HBO Max)
A scene from ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’
For what feels like ages, fans have been watching Kong and Godzilla’s solo movies and waiting ever-so-patiently for the inevitable matchup. Now, the prehistoric predators are reunited, complete with the Monarch corporation watching their every move. Questions arose in the previous films about whether these big guys were friend or foe of the humans, and as they face off, none of it matters because they’re FIGHTING YOU GUYS FOR REAL OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT?!
Watch It If: You just want to watch an old-fashioned monster slug fest where some people talk occasionally. Also, if you feel comfortable enjoying this in a theater, it is definitely a big screen experience.
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The Unholy (In Theaters)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan in ‘The Unholy’
Jeffrey Dean Morgan (‘The Walking Dead’) is a broke-down journalist who fell from grace for pushing fake news. But wouldn’t ya know, while on assignment to cook up a cheap hacky ghost story, he stumbles on a real one. Alice (played by newcomer Cricket Brown) is a hearing impaired teen living with her priest uncle (William Sadler). She is drawn to the twisted, lone tree on their property and claims to have heard the voice of The Virgin Mary. She begins healing Mary’s believers…but the question remains, who are they really praying to?
Watch It If: You need some Morgan without Lucille, his ‘Walking Dead’ barbwire bat, and if you want to see Cary Elwes in priest robes. Which, trust me, you totally do.
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Concrete Cowboy (Netflix)
Idris Elba and Caleb McLaughlin in ‘Concrete Cowboy’
In Philadelphia, there is an organization called The Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club that invites young people in the neighborhood to care for horses and learn responsibility and harmony with nature. In this drama, Harp (Idris Elba) is one of the adults doing great things in the neighborhood with the organization, but clashing with his own son Cole (Caleb McLaughlin of ‘Stranger Things’). Will the two men learn the same kind of harmony with each other?
Watch It If: You’d like to learn more about an amazing real-life organization you’ve never heard of (but should), and if father-son dramas get you right in the chest.
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Shiva Baby (In select theaters and VOD)
Rachel Sennott in ‘Shiva Baby’
Rachel Sennott plays Danielle, a complicated modern young woman. When she attends a Jewish funeral with her parents, she runs into not only her sugar daddy, but also her gorgeous Barbie doll-esque ex-girlfriend. It seems as though with each conversation, the situation gets deliciously more complicated and hilarious. You know, on top of the mourning.
Watch It If: You’ve ever felt trapped at a family function, desperately wanting to pay your respects and leave with a couple of hors d’oeuvres in your pocket.
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This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (VOD)
Mary Twala in ‘This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection’
Lesotho, a South African country, declared independence 55 years ago and presented this film as its first-ever Oscar entry this year. It features an 80-year-old widow named Mantoa (Mary Twala, in her last film before her death) whose village is being resettled by the government, so they can flood the land and bring water to the landlocked nation. In a series of vivid images showing both Mantoa’s real life and her dreams, the film shares a mother’s rage and pain over the death of her son, and how far she will go to be buried with her family. As she feels ready to shuffle off this mortal coil, she has nothing left to lose.
Watch It If: You’re hungry for gorgeous cinematography and rich colors, as well as a performance from an actor you’re sure to remember for a long time coming.
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Love it or hate it, 2014’s moody “Godzilla” reboot did a wonderful job of setting the table. It introduced the clandestine organization Monarch, which had been tasked with tracking and monitoring a plethora of giant monsters and established a grittier (but not humorless) atmosphere that gave realism and weight to a potentially hilarious concept. (2017’s “Kong: Skull Island,” recounting a post-Vietnam mission by Monarch to the mysterious island that served as King Kong’s home, maintained many of these core concepts.) So, with the table neatly set, this week’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” does an excellent job on following through; and if you thought there wasn’t enough giant monster action in the 2014 film, well, this movie is for you.
Taking place five years after the events of the first film, this new entry in Legendary Pictures’ burgeoning Monster-Verse, follows a pair of separated Monarch scientists (Kyle Chandler and Vera Farmiga), who lost a son during the Godzilla rampage depicted in the 2014 film. He has isolated himself from his family, while she has chosen to bring their young daughter (Millie Bobby Brown, in her first big screen role) further into the monster-filled fold. After some eco-terrorists (led by a smarmy Charles Dance) break into Farmiga’s lab, steal some cutting-edge tech and kidnap her daughter, well, all hell breaks loose. And this is before a number of iconic monsters (including Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah) break out from Monarch facilities and start causing havoc. It’s wild.
So obviously we were thrilled to get to chat with “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” director/co-writer Michael Dougherty about the challenges of creature design, what was left over from the original version of the sequel, and where he could see the franchise (excuse me, Monster-Verse) going in the future.
When the film was announced a few years ago, when Gareth was set to return as director, it was announced that Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah would be a part of the sequel. Were there any other guidelines in place for you when you took over the project?
Michael Dougherty: No, there weren’t any set guidelines. Legendary had done a really great job since the 2014 film and during “Kong: Skull Island” to flesh out their internal bible and creature mythology. So they had a lot of really cool ideas about where the additional film could go. But there weren’t mandates. Luckily a lot of the groundwork that they had been playing with was great, focusing on Monarch an aspirational secret organization instead of a nefarious one, which tends to be the case with science fiction movies like these, and really tapping into sort of the mythological aspect of the creatures. It was a really great team effort to continue building out this monster-verse.
But there weren’t any additional suggestions about what to include or anything?
There were suggestions but they were good ones. Well they had already licensed the additional creatures — Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah from Toho. Even then, it wasn’t a mandate to use them. It was just an idea, a suggestion. They said, “We have them if you want them.” And so of course I was going to say yes! How could I say no to that quartet.
In that spirit of collaboration, you had a writer’s room on this one. How that was for you and what came out of that writer’s room?
I loved it. It was definitely one of my most favorite parts of the process because I’d never done a writer’s room before. What happened was, shortly after Legendary offered the job to me, I went and typed up a very rough outline/treatment for what I thought the movie could be. Just totally bare bones. And that became the springboard for the writer’s room. What I really loved about it was that we brought in such a diverse group of writers that everyone got to approach it from a different angle, some were “Godzilla” fans, many weren’t and were newer to the character. You got to hear the points of views of fans, and nonfans, male, female, just different additions made by so many different talented writers. And it was just fun. It just, every day felt like a really good group hangout instead of work.
Do you remember what your like initial pitch was and how that differed from what ended up in the movie?
Honestly, what was in the initial pitch is still in the movie. It’s still the backbone for the film. I’ve still got the document somewhere, but it’s all there. The idea of exploring Monarch more, focusing on a broken family in the aftermath of the events of the 2014 film. The idea a group of ecoterrorists who have very particular plans for the creatures, the device which could potentially communicate with them, the bones were all there.
Warner Bros/Legendary
One of the things that is fascinating about this film is it’s implied that there are more monsters beyond the ones we see in the film. Did you ever design or shoot anything with those extra monsters that we don’t see?
No. All the time and attention we had went into the monsters that we do see. As much as I would love to have featured all 17 of the creatures in one form or another, you only have so much time and money. I liked the idea hinting that these creatures, in some ways can be more powerful. Just knowing that in addition to the group that we do get to depict on screen, there were others out there that we haven’t. There’s something more potent and mysterious about what you don’t see versus what you do. And it also leaves room for future filmmakers to take the idea of a whole ecosystem of these monsters and continue to build it out. We did name all the creatures. So all of the additional creatures have names, locations as to where they’re hibernating and sort of mini-biographies, which are connected to their names. All their names are drawn from a different world myths.
What’s the woolly mammoth called?
That’s Behemoth. The behemoth is a creature that appears in the Bible.
Can you talk about your approach to visual effects and creature design?
I love these creatures. I love, every incarnation of them. I don’t think it’s a secret that they’ve become icons that are almost as well recognizable as Godzilla himself. I really love the approach that Gareth took with the “Godzilla” redesign in 2014, with the idea of making him feel very real and making him feel like something that could have risen up out of the ocean. They used a lot of textures and details and color palettes taken from nature. And we so took the same approach with the other creatures. We looked at their long evolution, looked at all the different traits that they’ve embodied from one incarnation to the next and tried to distill down, what are those essential traits? King Ghidorah has always had two tails, three heads and this really impressive wingspan and golden scales. Mothra has these multicolored, beautiful wings covered in a layer of fur. And then Rodan is almost always is a crimson, dark maroon red and he has strong ties to volcanoes and fire. So it made sense to just take the basics that have already been established in the classic films and just update them, modernize them, and try to make them feel as real as possible. And it was a blast.
Was it a long process?
It was a long but extremely enjoyable process. I could design creatures all day long. And the really fun part for me was that I got to work with so many different talented artists that simply love Godzilla and these creatures as much as I do. I think every animator, visual effects guy, creature designer was in some way inspired by the older films. So they put just as much love and intention into the fine details of these creatures as I would.
Warner Bros/Legendary
I know that you have worked on the ”Godzilla vs. Kong” script, but is this a universe that you would like to further explore in subsequent films?
Oh sure. I could live in the universe for the rest of my career as far as I’m concerned. I definitely need a break, but, um, what I think is so fascinating is that, you know, of course we can explore additional Godzilla and call them movies on the big screen, but I think there’s additional stories that could be told on the small screen as well. Maybe you focus less on giant monsters rampaging, in TV and you do get to focus a little bit more on the humans as long as you’re focusing on stories that depict how the humans are affected by a world where giant monsters exist. Obviously giant monsters entering our ecosystem would have vast ripple effects on everyday life — every industry and every aspect of our culture. So how would life change?
“Godzilla: King of the Monsters” stops into theaters nationwide tonight.
In the new film “Long Shot,” Seth Rogen plays an unemployed journalist who decides to woo his former babysitter, who is now United States Secretary of State. Skillfully directed by Jonathan Levine (whose work we’ll revisit below), the film relies on the pairing of scruffy charmer Rogen and knockout megastar Charlize Theron. But the film honors an enduring legacy of movies where two characters film themselves drawn to one another despite disparate goals, points of view, personalities or lifestyles. To commemorate the film , we’ve assembled a shortlist of notable odd-couple pairings that have changed and inspired the way we look at relationships on the silver screen and in our daily lives.
United Artists
“Some Like It Hot” (1959) – Billy Wilder directed this raucous comedy about two musicians who hide out in an all-girl band to avoid a vindictive mobster. But while Tony Curtis’ saxophonist woos a ditzy bombshell played by Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon fends off (and eventually kinda-sorta succumbs to) the advances of a millionaire too blinded by love to care that he isn’t a she.
Embassy Pictures
“The Graduate” (1967) – This generational touchstone elevates a story of two young people in love by complicating their romance when aimless graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) embarks of an affair with his would-be girlfriend’s mother (Anne Bancroft). The movie eventually arrives at the realization that neither relationship is probably destined to last, but at least acknowledges that Benjamin’s tryst with Mrs. Robinson is much more interesting than his courtship of her daughter (Katharine Ross).
Paramount
“Harold and Maude” (1971) – In Hal Ashby’s wild, bleak comedy, Bud Cort plays an eccentric young man who falls in love with a free-spirited septuagenarian (Ruth Gordon) who teaches him to forget about his obsession with death and just enjoy life.
Buena Vista
“Splash” (1984) – Ron Howard directed this comedy about a man (Tom Hanks) and a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) who reunite as adults after falling in love as children. The culture-shock jokes for the former bottom-dweller prove less affecting than the tender romance that blossoms between the two despite a scientist’s (Eugene Levy) determination to uncover her true identity.
Universal
“Howard the Duck” (1986) – As awful as this movie is, it did manage to break new ground as the first known depiction on screen of canoodling between a foul-mouthed, anthropomorphic duck and a human woman (Lea Thompson).
Columbia Pictures
“Roxanne” (1987) – Steve Martin is hilarious and a little heartbreaking as Charlie, a small town fire chief who falls head over heels for a comely astronomy grad student (“Splash”’s Daryl Hannah) only to find himself writing overtures on behalf of hunky dimwit Chris (Rick Rossovitch).
Buena Vista
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988) – You won’t see a more devoted pair than goofball rabbit Roger (Charles Fleischer) and his hourglass-shaped spouse Jessica (Kathleen Turner), whose marriage is tested when Roger becomes a murder suspect.
20th Century Fox
“Edward Scissorhands” (1990) – Tim Burton established a careerlong pedigree as purveyor of unconventional love stories starting with this film about an artificial young man (Johnny Depp), a high school cheerleader (Winona Ryder) and the weaponized hands that come between them.
Columbia Pictures
“The Professional” (1994) – Luc Besson wrote and directed this film about a hit man (Jean Reno) and the teenage girl (Natalie Portman) he reluctantly agrees to care for – and who in return shows him a few things about life – after he rescues her from a ruthless policeman (Gary Oldman) trying to cover up the trail of his corruption.
TriStar Pictures
“As Good As It Gets” (1997) – James L. Brooks turns oil and water into cinematic gold with this comedy about an obnoxious, obsessive-compulsive author (Jack Nicholson) who falls for a pragmatic waitress (Helen Hunt), resulting in love and some important life lessons for both of them.
Columbia Pictures
“Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) – Paul Thomas Anderson rebounded from the operatic “Magnolia” with this short and very sweet story about a novelty goods salesman (Adam Sandler) with seven sisters who falls into a delicate courtship with a woman (Emily Watson) without any siblings, finding the perfect balance together.
Lionsgate
“Secretary” (2002) – Maggie Gyllenhaal stars in this oddball romance between an aimless young woman and the businessman (James Spader) who quite literally whips her into shape.
Universal
“King Kong” (2005) – Peter Jackson’s remake of the 1933 classic builds a tender love story into its death defying adventures as Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) comes to care deeply for Kong (Andy Serkis) as he slowly changes from her captor to her protector.
MGM
“Lars and the Real Girl” (2007) – Ryan Gosling stars in this unusual story about a socially-awkward young man who finds an unlikely but perfect companion in a life-size female doll he orders from an adult website.
Warner Bros.
“Her” (2013) – Spike Jonze explores the bonds and barriers of technology with this story about a writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who becomes involved with a computer program (Scarlett Johansson) in order to process his residual feelings about the end of his previous relationship with an actual woman (Rooney Mara).
Summit
“Warm Bodies” (2013) Summit Entertainment “Long Shot” director Jonathan Levin also helmed this adaptation of Isaac Marion’s book about a zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) whose appetite for human flesh is unexpectedly abated after he encounters a young woman (Teresa Palmer) who quite literally teaches him how to live again.
The latest installment in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s Monsterverse series, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” has officially started production, and has also revealed its full cast list and film synopsis.
The flick, which will unite the two titular beasts for an epic showdown, has actually been in the works for several years, and is set to be a follow-up to last year’s “Kong: Skull Island” and next year’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Two stars of that latter film, Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler, are the only returning actors from either movie who will be appearing in “Godzilla vs. Kong.” (Is that considered a bit of a “King of Monsters” spoiler?)
In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages. As Monarch embarks on a perilous mission into uncharted terrain and unearths clues to the Titans’ origins, a human conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever.
“Godzilla vs. Kong,” directed by Adam Wingard (“You’re Next,” “Death Notice”), is due in theaters on May 22, 2020.
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.
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 “