Almost a year has gone by since it was announced that Theo James of The White Lotus had signed on to star in a Stephen King adaptation called The Monkey, coming from the team of producer / genre regular James Wan and director Osgood Perkins, whose credits include The Blackcoat’s Daughter (a.k.a. February), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Gretel & Hansel, and the upcoming Nicolas Cage horror film Longlegs. Longlegs won’t be reaching theatres until July 12th, but Deadline reports that filming on The Monkey has already wrapped. Their report also revealed the names of several cast members who will be sharing the screen with James: Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Tatiana Maslany (She–Hulk: Attorney at Law), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends), and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek).
Perkins wrote the screenplay for The Monkey, working from a King short story. The film will tell the following story: When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.
Theo James plays the twins in later years, while Christian Convery plays them in their younger days.
James Wan and Michael Clear are producing The Monkey for Atomic Monster, while Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan produce for C2 Motion Picture Group. Executive producers include Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger of Automatik, Peter Luo and Nancy Xu of Stars Collective, John Friedberg of Black Bear International, and Chris Ferguson. Atomic Monster and Stars Collective developed the project, and C2 Motion Picture Group is providing the financing. Black Bear International will be presenting the project to potential distributors at the Cannes Film Festival.
Wan provided the following statement: “Stephen King is the godfather of the horror genre. He had a huge influence on me as a child and throughout my career and it’s always been a dream to help bring one of his stories to life. The Monkey is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic, and incredibly marketable conceit. And I can’t imagine anyone better than a visionary and lifelong genre fan like Osgood to bring this to life.“
In addition to directing the films mentioned at the top of this article, Perkins directed an episode of the recent revival of The Twilight Zone. He has also worked on the screenplays for the thriller Removal, the crime thriller Cold Comes the Night, and the horror film The Girl in the Photographs.
Are you interested in The Monkey? What do you think of the cast Osgood Perkins and James Wan assembled for this Stephen King adaptation? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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