Tom Hiddleston Is Here To Save The King Kong Franchise

When it comes to screen presence, few actors nowadays can compete with the power of Tom Hiddleston. Just look at his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: playing Loki, he is meant to be second fiddle to the likes of Thor and The Avengers, but he's walked away from all three of his features as one of the most buzzed about elements. That screen presence will definitely be coming in handy soon, because before too long the star is going to be sharing the screen with a cinematic legend who also happens to be a giant gorilla.

Legendary Pictures has officially announced that Tom Hiddleston will be the star of Skull Island, the King Kong-related project announced at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, and, what's more, the studio has also found a filmmaker to helm it. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who made his feature debut last year with the critically beloved indie movie The Kings of Summer, has signed a deal that will see him officially make his move into the world of blockbusters. To celebrate the gig, the director took to his Twitter account to post a special message and photo:

Because Skull Island is still so early in development, we don't currently have any details regarding what Tom Hiddleston's role in the movie will be, but I'm willing to put down some cold hard cash betting that he is not going to be playing one of the titular location's natives. We still don't know much about the script for the film, which is currently being penned by Max Borenstein, but the press release announcing the project's new actor and director notes that "Previous works have touched on the island, but staying on and exploring this mysterious and dangerous place offers Legendary the opportunity to take audiences deeper inside this rich world with a style and scope that parallels other Legendary productions."

This has been a rather quiet year for Hiddleston, who had a very quick cameo in Muppets Most Wanted and was the star of the limited released Only Lovers Left Alive (which made the festival rounds last year). Coming up soon, however, he has some very interesting stuff, as he has already completed production on Ben Wheatley's sci-fi thriller High-Rise, and Guillermo del Toro's haunted house horror Crimson Peak. In addition to Skull Island, also on his pre-production slate is the Hank Williams biopic I Saw The Light, in which he will play the lead.

Are you excited to see Hiddleston take on King Kong? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.