Skull Island Explored at Simian Saturdays

kong-skull-island-japanOver at the StarWarp Concepts blog, you’ll find the latest installment of Simian Saturdays, a series of reviews I’ve been doing that examine the movies (and other media) that focused on King Kong, the giant monkey who’s captured generations of monster fans’ hearts. It’s part of SWC’s celebration of King Kong, the latest addition to its Illustrated Classics library that’s now on sale.

Today I’m reviewing Kong: Skull Island, the latest movie reboot of the king’s story. This one stars Tom Hiddleston (Loki of the Thor movies), Academy Award winner Brie Larson (Room, and star of Marvel’s upcoming Captain Marvel), Samuel L. Jackson (Marvel’s The Avengers), John C. Reilly (Guardians of the Galaxy), and John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane). I liked it a lot, so if giant monsters, building-size monkeys, and a tease for the upcoming crossover Godzilla vs. Kong are your thing, head over to the SWC blog and check out my review!

King-Kong-Final-FrontCvrKing Kong (the SWC Illustrated Classic) is an e-book-only release that reintroduces monster fans to the 1932 novelization of the original movie classic. Written by Delos W. Lovelace, based on the story by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper and the screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose, it includes scenes that didn’t appear in the final cut of the film—including the notorious “spider pit” sequence in which Kong’s human pursuers are attacked by horrific arachnids and insects. The SWC version features six original black-and-white illustrations by comics artist Paul Tuma, whose pulp-influenced style has appeared in the pages of The Twilight Avenger, Flare, and Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective.

King Kong is on sale right now, so visit its product page at StarWarp Concepts for ordering information.

That Time Dracula and Dr. Who Fought a Killer Monkey (Sort Of)

horror-express-movie-poster-1973Here’s something you Panatics might enjoy. Over at the StarWarp Concepts blog, I occasionally post “Tales of Development Hell”: stories of projects I was hired to write, only to see them wind up being canceled for various reasons (a deal fell through, the publisher went out of business, etc.). One of those projects involved contributing to a collection of horror-movie reviews that ultimately never saw print.

The movie I covered was 1973’s Horror Express, which starred Christopher Lee (old-time fans know him as Dracula; younger fans would know him as Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episodes 2–3, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and the voice of Pastor Galswells in Corpse Bride) and Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: Episode 4, Dr. Who in Doctor Who and the Daleks, and Van Helsing in Christopher Lee’s Dracula films), who team up to fight an ancient monkeyman that’s killing passengers on a train. And that’s not even the weirdest part of the movie!

Sounds interesting? Great! To get the whole behind-the-scenes story on the project, read this post at the SWC blog. Then, to check out the actual review, go here.