Early last summer, it was announced that a brand new Stephen King adaptation was in the works – specifically a movie based on the super creepy short story "The Monkey." It was announced that writer/director Osgood Perkins would helm the film, James Wan would produce, and that Theo James would star. We haven't seen any reports about the project since then... but things have been going very well behind the scenes, as it's now being reported that Perkins' The Monkey has already wrapped production and added some stellar talent to join James on screen.
Deadline has the latest info about the project, saying that principal photography came to an end last week. And while there isn't much in the article about the various characters in the story, the excellent cast includes Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy. This will mark the first time that any of them have been in a Stephen King adaptation with the exception of O'Brien, who was in John Lee Hancock's Mr. Harrigan's Phone (based on the novella of the same name).
The trade report includes a logline description of the plot, which notably changes things a bit from the source material (hardly a surprise given the limited length of the short story, which was first published in the November 1980 issue of Gallery magazine before being included in the 1985 omnibus Skeleton Crew). The story centers on a pair of identical twin brothers – played as kids by Christian Convery and as adults by Theo James – who suffer quite a bit of trauma when they are younger after they discover their dad's old cymbal-banging monkey toy. Whenever the toy activates, a gruesome, personal death occurs, and the brothers have to figure out a way to destroy it. Over the years, the siblings grow apart, but when the familiar horror of the monkey reoccurs, they have to reunite to destroy the thing forever.
The Monkey is the fifth film from director Osgood Perkins, who made his feature debut with The Blackcoat's Daughter starring Emma Roberts in 2015 and has developed a strong reputation as a horror-centric filmmaker. His last movie to be released was 2020's Gretel & Hansel starring IT's Sophia Lillis, but the filmmaker has clearly been quite busy of late, as his latest feature, Longlegs starring Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe, will be in theaters on July 12.
While it's very exciting to know that The Monkey has completed filming, it's worth noting that there are now three upcoming Stephen King adaptations that are in post-production/have been completed and don't have specific release dates. It was recently announced that Gary Dauberman's Salem's Lot will be released as a Max exclusive at some point this year, but that's the extent of what we know about the release plans. Mike Flanagan's The Life Of Chuck wrapped principal photography last fall, but distribution plans are unknown. Updates will be (not so patiently) awaited.
