Making Of Ape-Ocalypse Now

A Vietnam War movie with a 100ft gorilla? Total Film sits down with stars Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson, and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, to discover the crazed vision that is Kong: Skull Island…

- Jamie Graham

July 2016: Total Film is ensconced in the Hilton San Diego Bay front hotel with the main players of Kong: Skull Island, who’ve arrived fresh from a presentation in Comic-Con’s famous Hall H. They are, fair to say, jazzed by the riotous reception. Tom Hiddleston is all handshakes and backslaps; Brie Larson has a smile as big as Kong’s heart; and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who sports a magnificent ZZ Top beard, is in loquacious form.

“I used to go to the public library as a kid and they used to have these heavy books on movie monsters and creatures,” he starts. “As a kid, you’re not watching a black-and-white movie from the ’30s, but King Kong was this icon and this presence to me. My dad bought a 12-inch King Kong – it was on my dresser. King Kong had such incredible resonance just as an icon in pop culture. Later, when I really got into my film history phase and discovered the ’33 film, it kind of shattered me because there’s stuff in that film that you look at today, and you’re like, “Oh my God, how did they do that?” It’s such a beautiful film. There’s such life to the way that character is animated.”

Vogt-Roberts’ enthusiasm is infectious. Watching his eyes light up as he talks, it’s not hard to see why Warner Bros and Legendary handed him the $200m reboot that is Kong: Skull Island, despite the only movie on his CV being indie dramedy The Kings Of Summer. It is a risk, sure, but one that paid off handsomely when Monsters director Gareth Edwards was handed the Godzilla gig and Safety Not Guaranteed helmer Colin Trevorrow took on Jurassic World – both films that Legendary were involved in. And besides, Vogt-Roberts walked into their offices with a vision so striking it was impossible to ignore.