Stephen King’s ‘The Monkey’ Adaptation Receives Exciting Update

We finally have an update on the upcoming movie adaptation of his short story ‘The Monkey.’ First announced last year, the film is directed by Osgood Perkins, known for ‘Longlegs,’ and produced by horror maestro James Wan, raising anticipation for another thrilling adaptation. Though details remain scarce, Perkins recently teased that the film will be “very funny and very nostalgic.”

‘The Monkey’ centres on twin brothers Hal and Bill, who discover their father’s old toy monkey in the attic, triggering a series of gruesome deaths. They dispose of the monkey and move on, but years later, the mysterious deaths resume, prompting the brothers to reunite and destroy the monkey for good. Speaking to Bloody Disgusting, Perkins compared the film’s tone to ‘Misery,’ ‘Creepshow,’ ‘Gremlins,’ and ‘An American Werewolf,’ emphasizing that it’s very different from ‘Longlegs.’

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“If you’re gonna make a movie about a toy monkey, you can be serious about it. But so much of King is funny and nostalgic feeling. So we tried to make a movie that felt a little bit more like something from the late ’80s – ’90s. It’s sorta like if Robert Zemeckis had just like a LITTLE bit of acid and made a Stephen King picture about a monkey toy,” Perkins explained.

Reflecting on his latest release, ‘Longlegs,’ starring Nicolas Cage, Perkins noted, “The success we’ve had with Longlegs has been astonishing and The Monkey being a COMPLETELY different movie, a COMPLETELY different movie in every possible way, is really exciting to me to see what’s gonna happen.”

He added that ‘The Monkey’ will be a feature “that kids and their parents wanna go see together,” teasing, “People blow up, people explode; it’s very extreme but it’s very funny. It’s very father-son redemption, it’s very touching, it’s very nostalgic, it’s very Stephen King.”

The film features an ensemble cast including Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy. Perkins directs from his screenplay, while Wan produces under his Atomic Monster banner. No release date has been revealed yet. Stay tuned for further updates.

–Farheen Ali