--- --- # Watch Liam Neeson Play a Kind, Destructive Tree Monster Like You Always Wanted by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 13, 2016 7:31 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 13, 2016 7:31 PM UTC The comedy duo [Key and Peele](http://www.cc.com/video-clips/xwnjlx/key-and-peele-liam-neesons---uncensored) might still be waiting for [Liam Neeson](http://time.com/3088855/liam-neeson-taken-run-all-night/) and Bruce Willis to join heroic forces in an action movie, but for now, [Liam Neeson](http://time.com/3931739/seth-macfarlane-liam-neeson-impression-tonight-show/) as a heartbreaking tree monster will do. A newly released trailer for the upcoming fantasy movie _A Monster Calls_ gives us Neeson with all his gravitas in the form of a [great beastly tree](http://time.com/4343386/roald-dahl-bfg-book-movie/). When the kid sees him, he’s all: whoa, and the Neeson tree monster’s like, “whoa indeed.” In the movie, which is based on the 2011 novel by Patrick Ness, it’s Neeson’s booming voice all right, but his weepy eyes are replaced with balls of fire. Conor O’Malley’s (Lewis MacDougal, _Pan_) who appears to be losing his mom (Felicity Jones) to cancer, commands the tree to take out all his anger by busting up everything around them, and it’s visually astounding and heartbreaking like most things Neeson does. Sigourney Weaver stars as the strict grandmother. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters October 2016. Liam Neeson Plays a Tree Monster in A Monster Calls ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4404918/liam-neeson-tree-monster-calls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4404918/liam-neeson-tree-monster-calls/"},"headline":"Watch Liam Neeson Play a Kind, Destructive Tree Monster Like You Always Wanted","datePublished":"2016-07-13T19:31:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:23.213Z","description":"Whoa indeed","url":"https://time.com/4404918/liam-neeson-tree-monster-calls/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","liam neeson"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4404918/liam-neeson-tree-monster-calls/","name":"Watch Liam Neeson Play a Kind, Destructive Tree Monster Like You Always Wanted"}}]}] ```