Two scenes of Kong: Skull Island, previewed in last December's Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin, Texas, show that the monster epic has been set in World War II, with King Kong smashing choppers in an unnamed tropical island in the South Pacific. Call it his long-overdue revenge against the flying machines that sent him toppling from the Empire State Building in other movie incarnations.
Harry Knowles, who hosts BNAT, says that Legendary Pictures placed no restrictions on media during the screening. The first scene opens with a dogfight between an American air force pilot and his Japanese enemy during World War II. The two ditch their planes and take their battle to this unknown island where the Japanese chases the American with his sword. Nobody wins because Kong emerges to deal with them for roughing up his home. The audience cheered at this grand entrance.
The second scene fast-forwards to the Vietnam War. American choppers are invading Kong's precious island and he is not giving them any inch. Our favorite giant ape grabs the copters, crushes them, and sends them careening into the towering trees. Again, the audience cheered.
Knowles described Kong as "...so massive to defy expectations..."
In a separate interview with XPose.ie, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts says that he deliberately removed King Kong from the familiar 1930 settings and placed him in the Vietnam War era. He says that the "aesthetics of that time" -- meaning firepower, weaponry, warfare strategy - was critical to making a confrontation with King Kong an "incredible genre mash-up."
Kong: Skull Island had been shot in parts of Vietnam, Hawaii, and the Gold Coast. The fantasy thriller, which stars Tom Hiddleston and Samuel Jackson, will premiere on March 10, 2017.
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