Despite this year being completely devoid of any and all surprise announcements, in the past, San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) has commonly been used by the studios as a place to make very big reveals about upcoming releases. At SDCC 2014, Universal and Legendary decided to end their panel with the surprise announcement that Skull Island, a new movie set in the King Kong universe, was in production and set to hit theaters in 2016. That reveal made waves at the time, but the road to filming has been tumultuous ever since. Originally, Attack the Block director Joe Cornish was rumored to be involved with the film, but the gig ended up going to Jordan Vogt-Roberts. After that, the cast was revealed, headlined by Tom Hiddleston, J.K. Simmons and Michael Keaton. That made people a little bit more excited, but unfortunately, Simmons and Keaton recently departed the project. Now, with only Hiddleston, Vogt-Roberts and a March 2017 release date in tow, Legendary has some casting work to do for Skull Island. Thankfully, Universal is getting off to a strong start with a pair of great actors to fill lead roles.
According to Deadline, Short Term 12 and 21 Jump Street star Brie Larson has snagged a major role in Kong: Skull Island (the official title for the film). She will be the female lead of the film alongside the aforementioned Hiddleston. Sources at Deadline and The Wrap also are reporting that Russell Crowe is in talks to join the cast and fill one of the roles left vacant by Keaton and Simmons. However, Mike Fleming at Deadline says that nothing official will come on that front until another draft of the script comes in. Regardless of whether or not Crowe pans out, casting Larson is a great move for Skull Island. Larson has great cred in the indie world thanks to appearances in films like The Spectacular Now, but has also done mainstream work, like The Gambler, Scott Pilgrim and the recently released Trainwreck. I've always enjoyed Larson's performances and I'm excited to see if she can bring some weight to Skull Island, which will debut on March 10, 2017.
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