A Disney Copyright Issue Led To A Change In A Stephen King Horror Movie

Copyright issues are something that most people who watch movies don’t think about all that often, yet they frequently cast a shadow over studios and filmmakers who wish to make something. In the case of director Oz Perkins’ upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey,” that started with getting the rights to the author’s copyrighted tale. Unfortunately for Perkins and NEON, the studio backing this particular movie, the problems didn’t stop there.

In a recent conversation with SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar), Perkins, who is coming off of the success of last year’s breakout horror hit “Longlegs,” revealed that the title character in “The Monkey” had to undergo a change due to a copyright held by Disney. “When I was given the assignment, the producer said, ‘Oh, by the way, Disney owns the cymbals, because of [the toy monkey in] ‘Toy Story,”” Perkins explained.

It’s unclear precisely which producer Perkins was referring to, although horror maestro James Wan (“Saw,” “The Conjuring”) is a major producer on “The Monkey.” It’s also worth noting that the “Toy Story” movie Perkins alluded to was almost certainly 2010’s “Toy Story 3,” i.e. the film in which the “Toy Story” gang encounter a cymbal-banging monkey toy (aka a Jolly Chimp) identical to the one described in King’s original story.

The movie version of “The Monkey,” as it were, centers on a pair of twin brothers (played by “Sweet Tooth” actor Christian Convery as kids) who find a mysterious wind-up monkey in their youth, resulting in a series of outrageous deaths that tears their family apart. 25 years later, the same sinister monkey returns, kicking off a new killing spree that forces the estranged brothers (now played by “The White Lotus” star Theo James as adults) to confront the cursed toy once more.

So, what did Perkins do? The solution he came up with was a relatively simple (if somewhat obvious) one. Rather than use cymbals, he gave his monkey a little snare drum to beat when death is around the corner. As Perkins further explained, this seemingly frustrating issue turned into a positive for the movie:

“It [couldn’t] be cymbals. What if it was a drum? It’s one of those things where a limitation becomes an opportunity. If you’re making movies and you’re not up for that adage then you’re in real trouble! ‘I was like, ‘Hey, that’s awesome. The drum is better.’ The drum is like a marching drum. It’s like, ‘Drum roll, please!’ before something happens. That’s better than cymbals. So thanks, Disney. I prefer it!”

This is just a window into everything that goes into making a movie what it is. It’s the combination of a million decisions (like this) that can impact the outcome, many of which aren’t necessarily in the filmmaker’s control. In the case of “The Monkey,” some tragedies from Perkins’ own life influenced the script as well. It’s a combination of outside influence, in this case a copyright issue, and the director’s viewpoint that makes a movie what it is. King’s story truly was just a jumping off point.

“‘Stranger Things’ kind of cornered the market on ‘It’s like movies from the ’80s, it’s like ‘Gremlins,’ it’s like Spielberg!’ — and it did it so well and so successfully,” Perkins observed in the same interview, revealing why he changed the film’s setting from that of its source material. “Initially the movie that I wrote was set in the ’80s, with the childhood stuff in the ’50s, because that felt very Stephen King to me. But of course [the ‘It’ movies] already did that, and ‘Stranger Things’ took that away, so we moved it to the ’90s and the present.”

“The Monkey” opens in theaters on February 21, 2025.