If you liked Gareth Edwards’ take on Godzilla, then you’re going to love Legendary’s new King Kong movie. The first full trailer for Kong: Skull Island dropped during the Warner Bros. panel in Hall H today, and it’s a lot of smoky battle scenes and thunderous music to underline that man cannot contend with ancient, powerful beasts.
This version of the story is set in the 1970s—all those helicopters give off a distinctly Apocalypse Now vibe—when a group of soldiers (including Tom Hiddleston), a war photographer (Brie Larson), and others on a "survey trip" come across King Kong’s territory. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings of Summer) has an embarrassment of actorly riches to work with, from Oscar-winner Larson, Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson to John Goodman, Toby Kebbell, and John C. Reilly—who goes unseen in the trailer, but gets the great voiceover line, “You don’t go into someone’s house unless you’re picking a fight.” Perhaps bust, it’s not yet another version bent on replicating classic Hollywood nostalgia for the giant lovestruck ape. The updated setting and star-studded cast are good enough reasons to get exited for when Skull Island hits theaters next March.
