Chris Newbould
Samuel L Jackson is no stranger to blockbuster movies. From his work with Quentin Tarantino on hits including Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight, to his role as Nick Fury in the Marvel Universe, critical acclaim and box office receipts seem to follow wherever the actor goes.
He's particularly excited about his role in the forthcoming King Kong reboot, Skull Island, due in March 2017, however.
"For me, doing King Kong is a no brainer," he says when we talked to him at the Dubai International Film Festival. "They said, 'Do you want to do King Kong? Here's a script' – and I don't even need to read it. I've been watching King Kong since I was a kid."
Jackson adds that with such an iconic movie property, he did not think twice.
“You know, a lot of times people say to me, ‘How do you choose your films?’” he says. “I don’t need to choose my films. I just choose movies that I’ve been watching since I was a kid. If they’re gonna make it, and especially if it’s gonna shoot in some really cool and exotic place, I’m just like, ‘Yeah, let’s go. Let’s go and have some fun.’ It’s not like I’ve got to do some kind of deep character study or something.”
Although Jackson's character in Skull Island a lieutenant colonel in the US army, may not quite have entirely Shakespearean depths, but Jackson notes that neither is he a cardboard cut-out soldier.
“My character has some interesting things going on in terms of what it means to be a warrior,” he says, “and to see his team being destroyed by this thing that can supposedly be defeated by man, because man has held dominion on this planet since he got here, and that’s who he is. King Kong, in my mind, became the White Whale to my Ahab.”
Ultimately though, Jackson just seems to be thrilled to be part of a Kong movie.
"Still, it's just a no brainer," he says. "It's King Kong. It's something we know. I used to pretend that I was King Kong when I was a kid with my friends. Total no brainer."
cnewbould@thenational.ae
