Owing in part to a viral marketing campaign, Longlegs has been one of the big horror hits of the year. Starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, the movie follows an FBI agent hunting down a serial killer in Oregon. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs has grossed over $90 million at the box office and was well-received by critics. Now, Perkins is going to try to replicate that success with his next movie, The Monkey.
On Monday, Neon shared the first teaser trailer for The Monkey, which is based on the Stephen King short story of the same name. Perkins is again writing and directing this feature adaptation, which will star Theo James (Divergent, The White Lotus), Elijah Wood (Wilfred, The Lord of the Rings), and Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk, Orphan Black).
Producer James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw) said back when the project was revealed that “The Monkey is a personal favorite, with its simple, iconic and incredibly marketable conceit.”
Published in Stephen King’s 1985 short story collection Skeleton Crew, “The Monkey” follows two kid brothers who find a cymbal-banging monkey toy in the attic at their great uncle’s house. They soon find out that the toy monkey is cursed, and every time it claps the cymbals together, someone close to them dies.
In the movie adaptation, Theo James will play twin brothers Hal and Bill, who threw the monkey away when they were young but have to work together as adults to find and destroy it once the mysterious deaths begin again years later.
The Monkey is scheduled to hit theaters on February 21, 2025.
