Kong: Skull Island is absoultely f*cking bonkers. I mean that in the best possible way. It’s hard to craft an impossibly serious film where army guys get mushed in awesome fashion by an enormous superape and have it still be good. Bonkers works. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts recently shared with Empire that the original idea for the blockbuster’s opening scene was too crazy to make it to the screen.
Vogt-Roberts envisioned a big death kicking off the movie. And who would be getting the ol’ Drew Barrymore? Well, that’d be Kong himself. (Sorta.)
The alternate opening that I pitched to them, the studio said: “No. You’re crazy. You can’t do that. So it’s World War II. A full squad comes to this beach. They’re killing each other – and then suddenly, this giant monkey (that looks a lot like the monkey from the last King Kong movie) comes out of the jungle. And they just kill it. It’s dead. And you’re sitting there going, “wait, did they just kill King Kong? Did they kill the hero of this film?” And then you’d hear a roar and see a much bigger creature – the real King Kong. That was the crazy version of me wanting to send a message that this isn’t like other King Kong movies that you’ve seen. The studio were like: “you can’t do that.”
If it’s any consolation for Mr. Vogt-Roberts, folks have already sorted out that his take on Kong is a tad different than the ones that have come before it.
Speaking of visions, plans and unorthodox choices, John C. Reilly’s Kong scene stealer Hank Marlow has inspired some ideas about a prequel.
“I keep kind of joking that the movie I’m most interested in making is a prequel with John C. Reilly fighting monsters with Gunpei, the Japanese pilot, and the villagers,” offered Vogt-Roberts. “I’d love to make a $30million version of that. Something that’s weird and funny, in a Looper/District 9 sense.”
John C. Reilly: Swashbuckling Action Hero? Sounds great. Make it happen, Hollywood influence peddlers.
(Via Empire)
