KONG: SKULL ISLAND took a hit when both Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons jumped ship, so to speak, leaving two of the key male roles open.
The question is, are they the roles that Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Wilkinson are currently up for?
One of them reportedly isn’t; John C. Reilly is apparently the one who Legendary and Jordan Vogt-Roberts want to replace Keaton. But Jackson is allegedly in early talks “to bring his fire to the role that Simmons vacated.” Guessing he’s the big bad, or at least a big, bad, blustery character. Which, as we all know, Jackson has little experience with (…mothafucka.).
Wilkinson has also been offered “a lead role,” so it’s looking like the ship to Skull Island might have a pretty A-list crew onboard, plus STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON newcomer Corey Hawkins (who, as it happens, shares a surname with another famous young shipmate, Jim Hawkins…just sayin’).
The film’s going to get going either later this year or early 2016 to make it’s 2017 release date, so they’ve got some time to hash things out and pick their (schedule-permitting) cast at their leisure. It’s crazy to think that Samuel L. and Wilkinson work in as many A-list projects as they do these days, but that’s as much evidence as any that they’d be down (and invited) to take a trek over to the dinos and oversized monsters of SKULL ISLAND.
KONG: SKULL ISLAND will almost definitely suffer from a noticeable lack of vaudevillian juggling on March 10th, 2017.
