A 14 second piece of viral marketing is usually something I would have no interest in at all, but I'll make an exception for anything that will give me even the slightest glimpse further into KONG: SKULL ISLAND.
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Robert from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, John Gatins, Dan Gilroy, and Derek Connolly, the film is set in the 1970s (the setting was Vogt-Robert's idea – the first script was set in 1917) and centers on
a diverse team of explorers who are brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Pacific – as beautiful as it is treacherous – unaware that they’re crossing into the domain of the mythic Kong.
Among that team of explorers is a character played by Tom Hiddleston, and the official KONG: SKULL ISLAND Twitter account has shared a bit of information on who this character is. Presented as being a file from Monarch, the scientific organization first introduced in the 2014 GODZILLA film, the short video reveals that Hiddleston is playing Vietnam veteran Captain James Conrad, an elite hunter-tracker who is now suffering from "shellshock". As words are redacted from the file, it emerges that the "Hunter Becomes Hunted" in the film.
Hiddleston's co-stars include Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, John Ortiz, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Toby Kebbell, and Eugene Cordero.
Why would KONG marketing be connected to an organization featured in GODZILLA? Because Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. are building a kaiju crossover universe here – the March 10, 2017 release of KONG: SKULL ISLAND will be followed by GODZILLA: KING OF MONSTERS in 2019 and GODZILLA VS. KONG in 2020.