Longlegs’ Osgood Perkins Wants His Stephen King Movie to Be Funny, But Violent

As excitement ramps up for Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs with growing word of mouth of how darkly grim and scary the Nicolas Cage-starring feature is, the director’s next project, Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, is starting to gain more and more attention.

The filmmaker’s adaptation of King’s short horror tale featured in Skeleton Crew is set to be his next feature; it stars Theo James (The White Lotus), Tatiana Maslany (She–Hulk: Attorney at Law), and Elijah Wood (Maniac). In an interview with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew, Perkins previewed what to expect, and it’s of course the unexpected. “It’s gonna feel more like Misery or Creepshow or Gremlins or [An American Werewolf in London],” he said. “It couldn’t be less like Longlegs. To me, if you’re gonna make a movie about a toy monkey, you can be serious about it. But so much of King is funny and nostalgic feeling. So we tried to make a movie that felt a little bit more like something from the late ’80s-’90s. It’s sorta like, if Robert Zemeckis had just like a little bit of acid and made a Stephen King picture about a monkey toy.”

The director teamed up with Neon (which is also releasing Longlegs) and James Wan’s Atomic Monster for his take, which we couldn’t be more excited for as it feels like that boundary-pushing gateway horror vibe. “For me, ideally it’s the movie that kids and their parents wanna go see together,” Perkins continued. “People blow up, people explode; it’s very extreme but it’s very funny. It’s very father-son redemption, it’s very touching, it’s very nostalgic, it’s very Stephen King.”

The Monkey opens in theaters February 21, 2025. Longlegs arrives this July 12.

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