The big highlights of this year’s Legendary Pictures panel at San Diego Comic-Con were titles like Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Duncan Jones’ Warcraft and the found footage thriller As Above, So Below, but they also had some big surprises to announce. People: get ready for the return of King Kong back to the big screen in Skull Island.
The footage began on the ocean with crashing waves and crazy storms. The camera sweeps over the wild water and we begin to start seeing an island in the distance. A voice over then begins, reading a passage from Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness. The camera reaches the island and then goes over a giant wall that looks to be keeping something trapped inside. We see no humans around, but plenty of wildlife – a flock of birds fly out of the treetops and monkeys swing through the trees in groups. While we see huge rain clouds form over the island, the camera pans up to a mountain that looks a whole lot like a skull. Suddenly we see a giant ape – King Kong himself – emerge and roar into the camera. The title then came up on the screen – and the crowd in Hall H went absolutely nuts.
The tease actually reminded me a whole lot of Legendary’s past big Comic-Con announcements. Rather than just telling the audience what they have in the works, this is the third time that I’ve seen them put together a full tonal trailer that give us an early idea of what we can expect from the movie. They did it with Godzilla two years ago, they did it with Warcraft last year, and this year they accomplished a similar awesome feat with Skull Island.
Of course, this opens up a lot of other questions as well. Prior to showing the Skull Island preview, Legendary Pictures President Thomas Tull was on stage talking about potentially making a deal with Guillermo del Toro for either Hellboy 3 or even maybe At The Mountains of Madness (at least after Pacific Rim 2). But could he also wind up being the filmmaker put in charge of Skull Island? Legendary also happens to be the same company that owns the rights to Godzilla - so is it so impossible to believe that the King of the Monsters and King Kong could soon wind up on the big screen together once again?
Peter Jackson’s King Kong only came out nine years ago, but still the excitement for Skull Island in Hall H was definitely palpable. We don’t know when the movie might actually get made, but are you excited for the film to become a reality? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
