Movies
‘Kong: King Of Skull Island’ Becomes Animated Feature At Fox
Back in 2009, Kong: King Of Skull Island was optioned by Spirit Entertainment with the intent of producing a motion-capture (possibly 3-D) film. Based on a novel that came out around the same time as Peter Jackson’s remake, the story focused on the backstory of Skull Island and how the giant gorilla became king there, introducing other giant gorillas and dinosaurs only hinted at in the previous films.
Deadline reports that Fox has recently picked up the project and plans to turn it into an animated feature that is a modern-day take on the King Kong story told from the ape’s perspective. Christian Magalhaes and Bob Snow, whose ‘Murder of a Cat’ script made the Black List, have been hired to pen the tale. This sounds a little too ambitious to be DTV, but I can’t really say whether or not general audiences are salivating for more giant ape adventures, especially when the last two attempts to bring the story to the big screen failed to set the world on fire – I love Jackson’s version, though.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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