Legendary has been busy assembling a terrific cast for its King Kong franchise launcher Kong: Skull Island, which currently includes Tom Hiddleston, Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons, but outside of the given logline that the pic will follow explorers journeying into the jungles of the titular island, details on exactly what to expect from the film have been hazy. Recently, however, during an interview with MTV, Simmons let slip some details about the setting of the anticipated prequel.
On the Golden Globes carpet, Simmons was asked about his involvement in Kong: Skull Island and revealed that he was highly skeptical when the project first came across his desk:
“When it first came to my attention, ‘There’s interest in you for a new King Kong,’ I thought, ‘Okay, why?’…But I met with Jordan Vogt-Roberts who’s going to be directing it, and John Gatins who’s gonna be writing, and Tom [Hiddleston]—Jordan was just so passionate and so smart and there’s such an interesting new take on it, and it’s set in Detroit in 1971 which is where I grew up, and we’re gonna shoot in Detroit during baseball season and I’ll be able to go to Tigers games, so there’s a lot to like about this movie.”
Setting the film in the 1970s is a smart move on writer John Gatins’ part, distinguishing Kong: Skull Island from Peter Jackson’s 1930s-set take and also freeing the movie from some of the logistical problems that plagued Legendary’s Godzilla reboot (such as, with modern technology being what it is, how did giant monsters fly under the radar for as long as they did?). It should also be fun to watch Vogt-Roberts take on such a distinctive time period, particularly now that he has been handed Hiddleston, Keaton and Simmons.
Kong: Skull Island arrives in IMAX 3D on March 10th, 2017.
