Flaming Scales
Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have really, really reached their nadir. They can talk about going back to origins of a landmark 1954 Japanese monster flick all they want, but they’ve basically declared an intention to remake a 12 year-old deeply loathed Roland Emmerich film.
If you were a senior Warner Bros. production exec, would you have the stones to greenlight a new Godzilla film? I’d approve it on one condition. If Legendary commits to shooting it in black-and-white with a guy splashing around inside a Godzilla suit, like the 1954 filmmmakers did. Shoot the damn thing on sound stages with stupid-looking miniature buildings and fighter jets on wires and toy ships in the harbor. That I would honestly pay to see. Especially if the Godzilla suit has eyes with white pupils that roll around when the monster gets especially angry. And if they use the old Godzilla roar.
Dave McNary‘s Variety story about the project appears to be historic, however. It actually credits a horror-film website for breaking the initial news. I could be wrong but to my knowledge Variety has never does this — they’re famous for never crediting websites for anything. “Speculation about a new Godzilla has been active since last summer,” McNary writes. “The Bloody Disgusting web site reported in August that the project was in development.”
Seems pointless, especially so soon after Cloverfield.
Are there really no original ideas left in Hollywood? Is nobody producing bad-ass spec scripts featuring totally new stories and new characters? What will they remake in 10-15 years time? Remakes of remakes? Surely they need some original ideas?
Man-in-suit please (ha! that’ll never happen) and black and white please (even less likely than man-in-suit…)
but seriously — get Neveldine/Taylor to do this version. if you saw crank 2 then you’d know why I’d make this suggestion. will NEVER, EVER happen but damn it would be sweet…
“Godzilla pure motherfuckin’ filler/Get your eyes off the real killer” = YEP YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
BOW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgZ_D8pM1rE
Long as they bring THAT song back… HUGE Rage fan if not their politics, but gotta admire the balls to get commissioned to do a B-side for a shitty movie, take the check, then crank out a song that indirectly bags on the movie, its filmmakers, its studio, its marketing, and its entire raison d’etre.
THE FRONT LINE IS EVERYWHERE.
They’re not remaking Emmerich’s version. They’re going back to the roots.
Blah, blah, Hollywood’s bereft of ideas, blah.
“Going back to the roots”…really? They’re making a period film set in the ’50s, you mean? And they’re setting it Tokyo? And they’re going to allude to nuclear bombs as the reason for Godzilla being awakened? I’ll tell you something. I’ll tell you what I think. I don’t think so!
I love it!
The movie could absolutely work if they remember this is a film about a giant radioactive lizard. The Emmerich version was too serious, and way too focused on Brodericks boring scientist and his annoying girlfriend.
Give this Godzilla a worthy foe (Ghidorah?) and let them fucking destroy everything in their paths.
wordpress ate this a moment or three ago, but…
Jeff:
“I’d approve it on one condition. If Legendary commits to shooting it in black-and-white with a guy splashing around inside a Godzilla suit, like the 1954 filmmmakers did. Shoot the damn thing on sound stages with stupid-looking miniature buildings and fighter jets on wires and toy ships in the harbor. That I would honestly pay to see. Especially if the Godzilla suit has eyes with white pupils that roll around when the monster gets especially angry.”
For what it’s worth, Toho has been doing big-budget-but-still-with-guys-in-suits Godzilla movies since the mid-80s. The “last” one even played theaters here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJriHDqj5HY
…including a sequence where the “real” Godzilla KILLS the American one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkoCOcvHAb8
I’m all over this. There is nothing, nothing, NOTHING in cinema that’s as good as a GOOD Godzilla movie. If this is that… fuckin’ A. It’s about damn time.
actionman, I like where your head is, but I saw GAMER recently. They need to be in director jail for awhile.
If you’re going to go the rubber suit route, they should give this property to “South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone. A “Team America” approach to a monster movie would be far fresher than anything a Michael Bay-wannabe could dream up.
They should get Michael Giacchino on score duty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xhIX4qr9JI
Lol: http://www.filehurricane.com/photos/5132008121815AM_cloverfield-monster.jpg
The only reason I’ll see this is if they include a photo-realistic CGI Raymond Burr.
Alternately, get Steve Martin to play a reporter named “Raymond Burr.”
I’m waiting for the movie version of Card Sharks
Eloi. Two FX-heavy sci-fi flicks, both with original characters and not based on a comic book, were nominated for Best Picture last year. No need to bemoan the dearth of quality efforts. Just ignore the non-original efforts.
If there’s confirmation of no character named Mayor Ebert, I’m in.
It’s the terrorists that created him.
If Clash of the Titans ends up being a $200+ million hit for WB, I could see them asking Leterrier if he wants to direct this. The guy appears to be the next good hack director. He’s got an eye for action sequences, so he could be a good fit. I don’t see any non-hack directors wanting any part of this, unless they’re low on cash.
Here’s how I would tackle a new Godzilla movie:
http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/godzilla/the-time-is-right-for-a-new-godzilla.php
Can’t wait!
Jeff: There were actually rumours of a sequel to the Emmerich version for years. Anyway, I’d be a little more tolerant of a (non-shitty) Hollywood Godzilla than I would a Hollywood Akira, or [if someone's actually fucking crazy enough to make it happen] a Hollywood Barefoot Gen. Ironically, though, from what I hear, the English-dubbed version of the original Godzilla was actually popular in Japan, because Raymond Burr had a following there.
JVD: It’s pretty obvious the South Park guys like those kaiju flicks-as that Mecha-Streisand episode attests. But a faceless corporation like WB would want merchandising potential out of this thing. [Ironically, in spite of the Emmerich version disappointing @ the box office, the toys and cartoon spin-off were said to do very well for Sony.]
Hell, Eloi, when have there ever been any original ideas in Hollywood, or anywhere for that matter? EVERYTHING is derivative (except my comments, of course).
Okay, this seems as good a place to ask as any, but I remember hearing many years ago that Akira Kurosawa lent a hand in directing (or possibly second unit) the original GOJIRA flick that his pal and occasional collaborator Ishiro Honda was directing. The arrangement was reportedly similar to what Howard Hawks did for Christian Nyby on THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, except that Hawks still took an on-screen producing credit…
Maybe it was because so many faces from SEVEN SAMURAI also pop up in GOJIRA that the connection was made? Any know for sure?
Carl, I’m not sure if that rumor is true but it’s definitely true that Ishiro Honda did direct 2nd unit stuff on a number of Kurosawa’s films (like Stray Dog, Ran and Dreams) so it wouldn’t surprise me. It would be awesome to find out what sequences Kurosawa worked on.
Takashi Shimura actually shows up in a few of Honda’s kaiju pictures — you can also spot him in Rodan and The Mysterians.
Go retro and full stop-motion with it. Make it the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens should’ve been. Get some good subversive comedy writers to work on it. Get Joe Dante to direct. In fact, if none of my other suggestions hold water, the last one does. Give this to Joe Dante.
Alternately, get Steve Martin to play a reporter named “Raymond Burr.”
LYT FTW.
Martin’s idea is pretty good. Dante, Raimi…somebody who grew up watching these movies on Saturday afternoon and GETS it.
Carl,
For what it’s worth, I’ve read/seen damn near every written or filmmed history of Gojira that’s been translated into English and I’ve never heard that Kurosawa being involved in it was anything more than A.) an urban legend and B.) one that’s entirely an invention of the west.
at the GODZILLA (1998) press junket Matthew Broderick said that there was a guy walking behind him in NYC muttering under his breath “Old Godzilla is better than new Godzilla” over and over
MovieBob, to paraphrase “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” – When the legend is so cool, post the legend.
“this is the West sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
JVD – Aren’t Parker and Stone supposed to be doing a giant monster movie?
Thanks, MovieBob. I never put much credence in the story (heard it sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, I can’t even remember exactly where), but it’s a hoot to think what could have been.
I finally saw GOJIRA a couple years back at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco and it was disarmingly well done, especially after decades of seeing the truncated and creaky Americanized cut with Raymond Burr.
Carl: I know how you feel. I’m still waiting for Blowme to put out the Japanese version of Godzilla vs Destoroyah on R1 DVD. [The one from the 90s where he "dies", and one of the better ones of that era.] And it’d be nice if Universal let us see the Japanese version of the King Kong cross-over so we don’t have to pay the ransom money for the import of that, too.
“the Japanese version of the King Kong cross-over”
Isn’t that “lost ending” a myth?
Still wanna know what the dialogue was like for that thing.
Hey there, DeeZee, according to Wikipedia (which knows all!) the whole dual endings shot for KING KONG VS. GODZILLA is just a myth:
For many years a popular myth has persisted that in the Japanese version of this film, Godzilla emerges as the winner. It isn’t known where this myth of the dual endings actually originated, but it’s been reported as far back as Famous Monsters of Filmland in the early 1960s. Decades later in the 1980s, the myth was still going strong. The Genus III edition of the popular board game Trivial Pursuit had a question that asked “Who wins in the Japanese version of King Kong vs. Godzilla?”, and states that the correct answer is “Godzilla”. As well, through the years, this myth has been misreported by various members of the media, and has been misreported by reputable news organizations.
As more Westerners were able to view the original version of the film especially after its availability on home video during the late 1980s, the myth became dispelled. Both versions of the film end the same way. Kong and Godzilla crash into the ocean, and Kong is the only monster to emerge and swims home.
Yeah, yeah, I read that shit on snopes. I’m not interested in the ending, just the overall tone of the script.
In all seriousness, they should definitely skip ahead and just remake ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’. It needs it much more than either Godzilla or King Kong did.
The last decent Godzilla movie was Godzilla vs. Biollante. The special effects are actually pretty good.
reverent: You should check out Destroyah, Megagiras, GMK, and Final Wars.
rev – if you’re watching Godzilla movies for the special effects, why are you watching Godzilla movies?
‘Godzilla vs. King Ghidora’ is the best plot of any Godzilla movie ever. Here’s what happens. Time travellers arrive from the future warning that Godzilla is going to destroy Japan, and they remove the dinosaur from the island where it was exposed to the radiation. But they replace it with a few things that turn into King Ghidora, the Three-Headed Monster. So then, they make a new Godzilla, with radiation. He fights King Ghidora, and kills him. But then he attacks Japan. So Japan sends King Ghidora’s body into the future, where it’s grafted with robot parts and turned into Mecha-Ghidora! Then he comes back to fight Godzilla.
I can’t remember where, exactly, the cycle ends. But it’s a pretty great example of not thinking many moves ahead.
DZ – it’s actually Destoroyah.
Might as well be Michael Bay’s Godzilla vs. The Decepticons.
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