Movie News After Dark
The day’s top headlines in bite-size portions.
We start off tonight with some monstrous news in the form of our first look at the titular creature from the upcoming film Kong: Skull Island. It’s been 11 years since we last saw the great ape in Peter Jackson’s take on the story, and this time around he looks to be a little less bulky and a little more wild-eyed and toothy, kind of like the lean warrior simians of the revamped Planet of the Apes franchise. EW had the exclusive photo:
See what I mean? Jackson’s Kong was a little meatier, a little more primal, not near as sleek as this latest iteration. In case it’s been a while since you saw the 2005 version, here’s that guy:
In the article that accompanied the photo, EW talked with director Jordan Vogt-Roberts about his inspiration for this Kong, and he said the redesign was intentioned to differ from a more realistic depiction:
“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.”
You’ll have to wait a while longer to see the big guy in motion, but with a release date of March 10th, 2017, a trailer can’t be far off. Kong: Skull Island stars Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman.
“The palest man, the darkest suit. Quicker than the tallest brute. Fear the man, the Slenderman. For he can do what no one can.”
What’s likely to be America’s next true-crime sensation dropped its first trailer today. The project is Beware the Slenderman from HBO documentaries and it takes as its focus the internet meme that’s inspired countless creepy stories and at least one real-life vicious murder. In December 2014, two 12-year-old girls from Wisconsin killed another in what they freely admitted was an attempt to “appease” the mythical figure. The film traces the resulting trial and its impact on the community and the culture at large, and it looks like it’s going to keep many of us up many a night. Check out the trailer if you dare. The film releases on HBO January 23rd, 2017.
And lastly, speaking of trailers a couple of tentpole sci-fi peeks dropped today, one for Luc Besson’s long-gestating Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and the other an international trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Check out both of them as well as our thoughts at the links.
Related Topics: Star Wars
