It’s hard to believe that Neil Marshall hasn’t done a monster movie yet, even though it seems right up this alley. The filmmaker has found horror in the unlikeliest places in films like “Dog Soldiers” and “The Descent,” while he’s shown an ample handling of blood and guts with his efforts behind camera in “Centurion” and episodes of “Game of Thrones.” But it looks like he’ll finally get his shot.
The Tracking Board reveals that Marshall is now attached to helm “Skull Island: Blood of the King,” which is another way of saying “King Kong 2.” Sort of. So how is this happening? Bad Ass Digest can take you through the knotty legal stuff, but essentially, in 2004 a graphic novel by Joe DeVito and Brad Strickland was published entitled “Kong: King of Skull Island,” and the movie will be based off that. It tells a whole new story set 25 years after the big bad ape destroyed New York City. Here’s the Amazon synopsis:
In 1933, American showman Carl Denham returned from a mysterious, hidden island with a priceless treasure. A treasure not gold or jewels, but the island’s barbaric god, a monstrous anthropoid called “Kong.” The savage giant escaped and wreaked havoc among the man-made canyons of Manhattan, but within hours of the giant ape’s death his body – and Carl Denham – disappeared. Twenty-five years later, the son of Carl Denham makes a shocking discovery that leads him back to the site of his father’s greatest adventure and to the answers that will unlock the century’s greatest mystery and history’s greatest miracle. Authorized by the Cooper Estate and based on the original novel that inspired the all-time classic film. This new novel acts as both prequel and sequel to the classic fantasy tale, King Kong. Acclaimed fantasy artist Joe DeVito and top fantasy and science-fiction writer Brad Strickland join forces to make for an interactive visual-narrative storytelling experience unlike any other.
All told, it looks like a fancy way to dance around the rights to King Kong by not actually featuring him in the movie, but living off that legacy or something. We’ll see how this develops for Marshall, who has lensed the pilot for the Michael Bay-produced pirate TV series “Black Sails” and recently signed up to helm the “Troll Hunter” remake.