The Monkey: What We Know About The Longlegs Director’s Upcoming Stephen King Adaptation

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There are a number of exciting upcoming Stephen King adaptations on the way, but few have us really buzzing quite like writer/director Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey. The filmmaker delivered one of the best horror films of 2024 with Longlegs starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, and he is set to debut his first King movie less than a year later.

While we also wait for Stephen King movies including Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot, Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck, Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk and Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man, let’s dig into everything that we know about Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, starting with when you’ll be able to see it.

What Is The Release Date For The Monkey

The Monkey is scheduled to arrive in theaters domestically on February 21, 2025.

As reported by Deadline in May 2024, Neon acquired the distribution rights to The Monkey at the Cannes Film Market… and that was notably before Longlegs turned out to be the indie studio’s second nine figure box office hit (the first being Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite). Neon put out Longlegs in summer, but it seems those planning the release of the upcoming Stephen King movie think it will be properly seen when there is a chill in the air.

The Monkey Teaser Trailer

In the wake of Longlegs hitting big at the box office in July 2024, Neon took advantage of the buzz by teasing the next tale of terror on the way from Osgood Perkins. As seen above, the first teaser trailer for The Monkey dropped online in August 2024, and it provides us with more mood and tone than anything. We see the titular toy looking creepy and banging on a drum (notably not cymbals) while circus music plays, and the only shot of an actor is Theo James splattered with blood and removing his glasses.

About The Short Story

“The Monkey” was first published in a booklet that came with the November 1980 issue of the magazine, Gallery, but it was five years later when it was included in Skeleton Crew that it was discovered by most readers. It’s a cursed object horror story, with the object in this case being one of those creepy monkey toys that wind up and bang a pair of cymbals together.

The story begins as Hal, the protagonist, joins his family in cleaning out his great uncle’s house. It is during this chore that Hal’s sons discover a toy monkey from their father’s childhood, and the sight of the thing immediately chills the man. He knows it as a source of pure evil. When he was a child, he found it in his father’s antique chest, and shortly thereafter he discovered a horrific pattern: the monkey would occasionally turn itself on and start clashing its cymbals, and soon afterward, somebody he loved would die. Eventually, young Hal threw the toy down a well hoping to get rid of it forever, but it resurfaces when Hal’s kids find it.

Hal knows that he has to get rid of the monkey before it can do harm to his family, and so he takes a perilous trip out to the middle of a lake to dump it. It’s an ordeal that he survives, but the short story ends with a newspaper clipping reporting that hundreds of fish from the lake have washed ashore dead.

How The Monkey Is Deviating From The Short Story

Osgood Perkins’ script for The Monkey will change a few key things from Stephen King’s short story by having a stronger focus on the relationship between Hal and Bill. The movie will see their relationship become strained because of the trauma they experience as kids as a result of the titular toy. They become estranged as a result, but the return of the monkey and more death forces them to reunite.

It’s also notable that the filmmaker has said that The Monkey will deviate from the tone of both the source material and his previous movies. While Perkins’ specialty to date has been telling stories that go to deep levels of darkness to get scares, his latest feature will be a bit more… entertaining. He has described it as a film that families can see together and that it’s very funny – though he also promised that we will get to see people literally explode.

Theo James Leads The Cast Of The Monkey

Theo James had an incredibly busy 2022. He cameoed in the opening sequence of Riley Stearn’s Dual; starred in the HBO Max adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife; had a supporting part in the romantic comedy, Mr. Malcolm’s List; and earned widespread acclaim for his turn as Cameron Sullivan on the hit HBO series, The White Lotus. He’s kept working since then, starring on Netflix's original series The Gentlemen (based on the 2019 Guy Ritchie film of the same name), and now he is ready to make his debut in a Stephen King adaptation.

The report that announced the film back in May 2023 noted that he is starring in The Monkey, and the project will give James the opportunity to play a dual role. The movie will deviate from the source material and not only have a more prominent role for Hal’s brother, Bill, but he’ll also be Hal’s twin (in the short story, Bill is two years older).

While James is best known for his part in the Divergent franchise and now The White Lotus, he has a few horror genre credits on his filmography, including two of the Underworld sequels with Kate Beckinsale and a voice role in Netflix’s animated Castlevania series.

For a long time, Theo James was the only actor attached to star in The Monkey… and it actually wasn’t until after the film secretly completed production in March 2024 that reports came out about the movie’s talented ensemble.

Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy are all part of the cast of The Monkey, though the only role information we have regarding roles is that Convery will be playing the younger versions of Theo James’ characters. O’Brien is the only actor among the performers who has been in a Stephen King adaptation before, as he previously had a supporting part in John Lee Hancock’s Netflix movie Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.

Osgood Perkins Is Writing And Directing The Monkey, And James Wan Is A Producer

The Monkey is the fifth film from writer/director Osgood Perkins – all of his features being exercises in the horror genre. He made his directorial debut in 2015 with The Blackcoat’s Daughter starring Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka, and he followed that up with I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House in 2016. In 2020, he made the twisted fairy tale, Gretel & Hansel, starring IT’s Sophia Lillis, and that same year saw the release of his Season 2 episode of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone (titled “You Might Also Like”). His greatest success to date has been the critically acclaimed/box office hit Longlegs.

James Wan, one of the biggest names in modern horror, is attached to The Monkey as a producer, and while he has never directed a Stephen King adaptation, this movie will be his second King title made as a producer, as he also worked behind the scenes on the  upcoming remake of Salem’s Lot. It was reported in March 2018 that he was developing a big screen version of King’s novel The Tommyknockers, but we haven’t heard anything about that project moving forward.

As noted earlier, we’ll continue to update this feature as new information about The Monkey becomes available, so check back in periodically to learn the latest news about the project. To learn about King’s long history with Hollywood by checking out my Adapting Stephen King column, and you can learn about all of the latest developments related to Stephen King in my King Beat column, which is published here on CinemaBlend every Thursday