'Kong: Skull Island' Star J.K. Simmons Reveals 1971 Setting

This has been a great week for J.K. Simmons (aka Just Keep Simmons), who won a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in ‘Whiplash.’ So, Mr. Simmons, you just won a Golden Globe and you’re primed for an Oscar win—what are you going to do next? He’s going to Detroit to shoot ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ which is definitely an interesting choice of location.

‘Kong: Skull Island’ is gathering quite an impressive cast, with recent Golden Globe winners (and Oscar nominees) J.K. Simmons and Michael Keaton joining Tom Hiddleston in the new film which sends a group of explorers deep into the heart of the island that birthed King Kong. We haven’t known too much about the upcoming film, but Simmons recently spoke with MTV, revealing his initial hesitance to join the project as well as a couple of interesting details:

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, and 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.

Like ‘Jurassic World’ director Colin Trevorrow, Vogt-Roberts is another director who landed a high-profile blockbuster on the strength of a hit indie film (Trevorrow—’Safety Not Guaranteed, Vogt-Roberts—’The Kings of Summer’). Having starred in last year’s ‘Whiplash,’ it’s easy to see why Simmons would be attracted to another director with indie roots.

But the real news here is that ‘Kong: Skull Island’ takes place in 1971, and partially in Detroit, the home of RoboCop—oh, and the place where Simmons grew up, which was also appealing to the actor. Moving the new ‘Kong’ film to 1971 is a pretty great choice, and should make for a cool aesthetic backdrop. I’m interested in how much time we’ll be spending stateside, and if ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ like ‘Godzilla,’ may hold back on showing too much of the titular monster. While many people felt like ‘Godzilla’ (another Legendary Pictures release) didn’t show us enough of Godzilla himself, it actually made his (or her! Godzilla could be a her; you don’t know) screentime that much more valuable and exciting.

We’ll see when ‘Kong: Skull Island’ hits theaters on March 10, 2017.