Scheduling conflicts are believed to be the main reason behind the two actors' departures from the new King Kong movie.
- Jul 2, 2015
AceShowbiz - "Kong: Skull Island" has lost two-third of its principal cast. According to Deadline, Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons have exited the Legendary-Universal project apparently due to scheduling conflicts while Tom Hiddleston remains onboard.
Legendary is currently in search of replacement for Keaton and Simmons. The project pushed back its production from early fall to before the end of the year. Jordan Vogt-Roberts is directing the project with a script from John Gatins ("Flight") and Max Borenstein ("Godzilla").
Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the movie along with Alex Garcia and Mary Parent, while Eric McLeod will serve as executive producer. Universal will release the movie in 3D and IMAX 3D on March 10, 2017.
Keaton will next be seen in Thomas McCarthy's Catholic Church child-abuse drama "Spotlight" which is slated for a November 6 release. He is currently filming "The Founder" which will be released on November 25, 2016. Simmons, meanwhile, has three upcoming films to be released in 2016 including "Kung Fu Panda 3", "The Accountant" and "The Lake".
Back in January, Simmons shared some details from "Kong: Skull Island" during an interview with MTV News. At that time, the "Terminator Genisys" actor said, "When it first came to my attention, 'There's interest in you for a new King Kong,' I thought, 'Okay, why?' "
"But I met with Jordan Vogt-Roberts who's going to be directing it, and John Gatins who's gonna be writing, and [Tom Hiddleston] - Jordan was just so passionate and so smart and there's such an interesting new take on it," he continued, "It's set in Detroit in 1971 which is where I grew up, and we're gonna shoot in Detroit during baseball season and I'll be able to go to Tigers games, so there's a lot to like about this movie."
