More than 12 years after his last appearance in theaters, KING KONG will return to the silver screen in KONG: Skull Island in 2017!
I'm actually a fan of the 2005 Peter Jackson film, set in the 1920s (like the original it pays homage to). It has some exciting sequences with all manner of monsters. And the battle atop the Empire State Building takes the original concept to an unprecedented level. But it's also slow as shit, especially in the beginning.
KONG: Skull Island, from the producers of the latest Godzilla effort, looks AH-MA-ZING, by comparison with it's Apocalypse Now-meets-monster-movie approach to the story.
Set during the Vietnam war, a group of soldiers is tasked with mapping an uncharted and mysterious island in the South Pacific (the eponymous scrap of land from the title). The best way to do this? Drop bombs on it! I love movies that just lean in to their ridiculous premises. :-)
Kong, of course, is not happy about that:
But the best part? An all star cast--many of them from the Marvel family of films:
- Brie Larson - Captain Marvel
- Tom Hiddleston - Loki (Thor, Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok)
- Sam Jackson - Nick Fury (Like, so many Marvel movies!)
- John C. Reilly - Nova Corpsman Rhomann Dey (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Yep, it has Steve Brule in it! And by the looks of it, he's the island "expert" laying down, uh..."rules" for survival, if you will excuse the reference.
The only one not from the Marvel movie-verse is John Goodman, who plays the seedy, money man who gets the group into trouble in the first place.
Rumor has it Kong will meet up with his frenemy Godzilla on the big screen sometime in the next few years. I. AM. THERE.
What's Gameable?
In short: ALL OF IT. Looks like plenty of fodder for an Isle of Dread type of adventure or maybe a prelude to Apes Victorious? Either way--the trailer alone has enough game inspiration for an adventure hook, as it is. I'm sure the full film is chocked full of more monster mayhem than you can throw a helicopter at!So if you're doing a mini-campaign set mid-century (read: 60s-70s) I think you've got a bunch of options:
- Wartime mapping/recon mission (soldier heavy party with lots of incendiaries/explosives)
- Big game hunt turned disastrous (non-professionals,no explosives, but armed with stun guns, gas grenades, tranq darts, nets, cages, etc.)
- Petroleum excavation crew (Heavy on science and exploration, few weapons)
- National Geographic documentary crew (cameras and machetes only!)
- Or a mix of any of the above
And you've got a great set up for NPCs and possibly foes:
- Lost tribe of humans who worship/fear the island fauna
- Stranded "guide" looking to get off the island
- Greedy entrepreneur looking to make a buck
- Mercs/henchmen, looking out for their boss
- Foolhardy scientist/journalist who gets too close
- Skeptical/grizzled colonel who's trying to keep his troops alive
IF your party escapes, you can a second leg where the kaiju bring the fight back to mankind on his home turf, a la one of my absolute favorites in recent years: Godzilla Half Century War.
That's a full-on military campaign, but it's MUCH more hard-scrabble for the humans than any of Godzilla's movies. We're talkin' street-level skirmishes against a kaiju--lots of fun! Oh and definitely check that comic out, the art is incredibly detailed and inspirational!
UPDATE: Eric over at Swords & Stitchery did a full write-up on running a Skull Island adventure!
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