Theo James flirted with the horror style many occasions in his profession, doing motion horror within the Underworld franchise and apocalypse horror in 2018’s How It Ends. 2025 offered the actor with a distinct horror subgenre — darkish comedy horror with The Monkey.
The movie comes from Longlegs‘ critically acclaimed director Osgood “Oz” Perkins and relies on Stephen King’s 1980 brief story of the identical identify. On the similar time, the director has taken quite a lot of liberties with King’s brief story, including a darkish comedy twist to it. Talking with The Hollywood Reporter, James additional defined what was the inspiration for the movie, except for King’s works.
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The Monkey tells the story of two twin brothers, each performed by James, who discover a mysterious wind-up toy monkey who results in a sequence of outrageous deaths. Years later, a brand new killing spree begins, forcing the 2 siblings again collectively to take care of the cursed toy.
Perkins himself defined that he did not religiously look into King’s writing to adapt the story. Chatting with the outlet, James confirmed he learn the story as soon as earlier than discovering inspiration for his work exterior the Kingverse.
“Sure, in fact, I learn Oz’s script, after which I learn the brief story as soon as and didn’t learn it once more. They’re fairly completely different. I’d clearly recognized Stephen King’s work. He’s utterly seminal, and I’ve learn many, a lot of his books and watched lots of the variations which have occurred over time. However what was helpful for me, primarily in his brief story, was tone. Stephen King is a grasp [of tone-setting].“
The White Lotus actor additional defined, “When it comes to The Monkey, he units a tone — certainly one of nostalgia, certainly one of melancholy and certainly one of intergenerational trauma — a couple of damaged relationship between a household, to sound portentous about it. And past that, there’s a sort of simmering dread, however it nonetheless has a slight lightness of contact.”
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Nevertheless, the director advised the actor that he had extra concepts past King’s brief story, largely from the ’80s or ’90s. “Then, when Oz and I began speaking about it, he began referencing what he needed the touchpoints for the film to be, they usually have remained that all through the movie. They’re Zemeckis [Death Becomes Her] and Gremlins. We additionally referenced ‘80s Tom Hanks for Hal, the sort of beleaguered everyman, however with a sardonic wit. And the beauty of working with somebody who’s assured within the tone that they’re portraying is that it provides you confidence. As an actor, you may embrace the world and attempt to take large swings and in addition not be too treasured about what you’re doing.”
Stephen King Had a Constructive Response to The Monkey Adjustments
Diversifications typically include quite a lot of strain, each from the e-book followers and in addition from the writer himself. King isn’t one to shrink back from talking his thoughts when he dislikes an adaptation, and he famously slammed certainly one of his most well-known variations, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Nevertheless, he preferred the modifications in The Monkey.
“Stephen King had no notes, and did not inform me to vary something,” Perkins beforehand shared about King’s response to the modifications. A month earlier than the discharge of the movie, King shared his personal evaluate on Threads, writing, “You have by no means seen something like THE MONKEY. It is bats**t insane. As somebody who has indulged in batsh**tery every so often, I say that with admiration.“
The Monkey is presently taking part in in theaters.
Supply: The Hollywood Reporter, Threads
The Monkey
- Launch Date
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February 19, 2025
- Runtime
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98 Minutes
- Director
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Osgood Perkins
- Writers
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Osgood Perkins
- Producers
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John Rickard, Natalia Safran, Ali Jazayeri, Chris Ferguson, Fred Berger, Giuliana Bertuzzi, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, John Friedberg, Jason Fabric, David Gendron, Michael Clear, Jesse Savath, Peter Luo, Dave Caplan
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Christian Convery
Younger Hal / Younger Invoice
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