We got quite the surprise when Legendary Pictures announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 that they were going to make a film based on Skull Island. The island where King Kong originated from was expanded thanks in part to Peter Jackson‘s version of the iconic beast back in 2005, but it seems that this film would focus on the entire island has a whole and may or may not just be about King Kong.

While we are left to speculate what the film will be about, Legendary has released some fascinating new details about the film, and have already found its lead star and a director. Tom Hiddleston will star in an unspecified role, while Kings of Summer director Jordan Vogt-Roberts will helm the film. Hit the jump for more info.

In a surprise announcement on Saturday in San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H, Legendary Pictures revealed their plans for a new King Kong film called Skull Island and showed the crowd a sneak peek video.

Now, Deadline reports that the studio has offered the directing job to Joe Cornish, who made his feature directorial debut with 2011’s well-received Attack the Block. No word yet on whether Cornish will accept the gig, which is said to be an origin story/prequel tale set on the behemoth ape’s island home, Skull Island. The filmmaker has reportedly been getting quite a bit of offers for big films, such as Universal’s Section Six, the James Bond-esque action-spy film written by Aaron Berg.

Legendary Pictures booked a large panel today at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H, where they showed footage for their upcoming features, Godzilla, Warcraft, Crimson Peak, Blackhat, and As Above So Below. When the panel was drawing to a close, the audience thought for sure there’d be something about Pacific Rim 2, since director Guillermo del Toro was there promoting Crimson Peak and head of Legendary Thomas Tull mentioned how del Toro was working on the sequel.

The lights then went out and instead of getting a Pacific Rim 2 tease, attendees were treated to a look at new King Kong movie Skull Island.

Carlo Rambaldi, the three-time Academy Award-winning Italian-born visual effects artist responsible for creating the alien E.T. in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, died today in Lamezia Terme, Italy after a long illness, according to the Washington Post. He was 86 years old.

Born on September 15, 1925 in Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Rambaldi got his start in the Italian film industry providing visual effects for films such as Bloody Pit of Horror and Mario Bava’s highly influential sci-fi chiller Planet of the Vampires. He would later reunite with Bava to execute the gory murder sequences for one of the acclaimed filmmaker’s finest films, Twitch of the Death Nerve (a.k.a. A Bay of Blood). In 1971, Rambaldi’s mutilated dog effects for Lucio Fulci’s psychedelic giallo Lizard in a Woman’s Skin were deemed so realistic that the director was prosecuted in Italian court on charges of animal cruelty. Only after Rambaldi presented the fake dog effects in court was Fulci exonerated.

Since fire ravaged and destroyed much of the Universal Studios Hollywood lot, we’ve been covering their progress. One of the more exciting plans was to rebuild the King Kong attraction that debuted in 1986 and was badly damaged in the blaze. Universal brought in the director of 2005’s King Kong, Peter Jackson, and they set out to make an amazing new attraction to their tour.

Since then, we’ve heard much about the new ride, and it’s been about as exciting sounding as anything else you could think of. And while it’s called “360 3-D,” it does have a lot more of a 4D feel to it, considering the movement and interaction involved.

If you’ve been at all interested in checking out the new King Kong attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, well…you’re now in luck. The ride is making its debut TODAY!

Click on over to check out a couple new images, and some making of videos for the the ride.