Godzilla stomping back to theaters via Legendary
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Well, well, well ... look who's getting back in fighting shape.
Everyone's favorite gigantic, havoc-wreaking lizard, Godzilla, is on his way back to the big screen via Legendary Pictures, which has acquired the rights to develop and produce a new feature based on the iconic Toho Co. character. Warner Bros. will co-produce, co-finance and distribute through its deal with Legendary, and Toho will roll out the film in Japan.
Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers are also producing; Yoshimitsu Banno, Kenji Okuhira and Doug Davison will be executive producers on the project.
The last major Godzilla outing, an American, New York-set version from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, grossed $376 million worldwide in 1998 despite fielding equally major criticism. Toho quickly produced "Godzilla 2000," in which the big beast took on an evil UFO, the following year.
But the Godzilla franchise juggernaut has survived decades of permutations (he first appeared in 1954), dozens of films, books, video games and merchandising tie-ins and seems perpetually ready to rear up again for new audiences.
The new film is shooting for a 2012 release.
"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise," said Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary. "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop culturally relevant for as long as it has."
Added Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, "Godzilla is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which Warner Bros. and our partners at Legendary are best known."
The two companies have partnered on such global properties as "Batman Begins," "The Dark Knight," "Superman Returns" and "The Hangover," which have grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. Together, they have a remake of "Clash of the Titans" stomping into theaters Friday.
'Godzilla' Getting A Frank Darabont Rewrite As Legendary Battles Roy Lee And Dan Lin
BY MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: As it stomps its way toward a March production start, Godzilla has two significant developments in the offing. Frank Darabont, who veered into genre territory by launching the AMC series The Walking Dead, has been hired by producer-financier Legendary Pictures to do a final rewrite on the script that was written by The Seventh Son scribe Max Borenstein.
At the same time, Warner Bros-based producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee, who were among the producers who came into Legendary with a Toho rights deal for the iconic reptile, are in a huge battle with the financier-producer. Legendary, which now controls the rights, wants to drop the producers from the film. As it stands right now, the 3D picture will be produced by Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, along with Brian Rogers, the latter of whom was on the ground floor of the Toho deal. The film will be directed by Monsters helmer Gareth Edwards and has been dated for May 16, 2014 release.
A report on Hitfix.com last night mentioned the exits, and painted it amicably. Actually, it could prove as toxic to Godzilla than the time the fire breather took on the smog monster Hedorah. This one's going to wind up in the courts, I'm told. My understanding is, Lin and Lee refused to reduce the fees they signed on for when the original deal was made. Legendary brass feel they have the latitude to get rid of them and is doing just that, exercising a pay-or-play clause and paying them upfront money to go away, with no back-end or credit on the film. The potential back-end on a global franchise is where the big bucks are.
I've also heard that Legendary cited Lin for mentioning the project in recent interviews to fantasy film blogs, though those comments seemed innocuous to me. This is going to be awkward, because neither guy is insignificant and both of them are lot-based producers at Warner Bros, which has money in Godzilla and will distribute worldwide except for Japan, where Toho Co will do the releasing. I've been calling the studio since last night to try and get its position on all this, and they just got back to me and issued a no comment. Neither Legendary nor the ousted producers would comment. Lin, by the way, has 15 years on the Warner Bros lot as an executive and producer, and his latest film, Gangster Squad, gets its premiere this evening.
godzilla trailer has arrived:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKO10hKtYw
oooh lol he's gonna fuck some shit up
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So very awesome. These folks know how to make trailers.
Not as great as the teaser trailer, but I'm still all in. I trust Gareth Edwards implicitly, and hopefully this movie will make people reevaluate Monsters in hindsight.
So we get two monsters eh? I'm putting money down that Godzilla is the good guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64c6VLNJQiE
looks good
The extended look was uploaded along with 3 other small trailers a few days ago. Having no self-restraint I watched all of them and regretted it quite quickly. But still, ssssoooooo much hype.
Obvious spoilers, 5 minutes of blurry WonderCon footage. Will probably be taken down quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYES8ZF-K9I
I strongly recommend not watching it.
awkwardly disinterested in every current godzilla bluray release, semi-forgetful about my initial personal frustration with this new one not being set in tokyo or at least an irl city (will they use a city name?), and still max fucking pumped for this movie
also, today i'm thinking about buying a godzilla bluray. that's such a bad idea. i'm excited. of course, there's the question of which one i should get. is there, for example, a godzilla movie i'd want to watch a second time? have not heard of or seen a godzilla movie such as that!
^doubt we have godzilla nerds, but please link me. or ignore me. or destroy my city. whatever's topical
^ I know nothing about Godzilla but serendipitously this was just posted (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/run-screaming-residents-of-tokyo-here-are-the-top-10-godzilla-movies-ever-20140513)
thanks! their recommendation is clear: Mothra and King Ghidorah
might do this because there might not be another time i'd buy a godzilla bluray. might not do this because i'd have to buy a godzilla bluray. mystery
So. It's definitely an atmospheric movie. And after Pacifim Rim, I'm glad that monsters in a city feel like monsters who are in a city. Why do we care? Why a monster in a city is so cool to watch? Most of this Godzilla is around Godzilla. Pacific Rim was focused on the monsters and the robots, and they fighter, and the monsters and robots looked dull. Here we have some amazing shots.
But. The characters are...well, not dumb...but everything is a cliché, and, actually, it didn't feel like there was characters. It tries, though. But I forgive it because we stay on humanity side, where the eyes are, where it is exciting to see monsters.
It's doing well on Rotten Tomatoes. I wasn't expecting this.
It does have Walter White and Olson non-twin.
I saw the 98 Godzilla in the theater and have never watched it again.
I was more impressed with the soundtrack at the time.
I think I mesh parts of G 98 with The Lost World: JP, both of which I haven't watched in a long time.
Quote from: Drenk on May 14, 2014, 04:59:05 PM
So. It's definitely an atmospheric movie. And after Pacifim Rim, I'm glad that monsters in a city feel like monsters who are in a city. Why do we care? Why a monster in a city is so cool to watch? Most of this Godzilla is around Godzilla. Pacific Rim was focused on the monsters and the robots, and they fighter, and the monsters and robots looked dull. Here we have some amazing shots.
But. The characters are...well, not dumb...but everything is a cliché, and, actually, it didn't feel like there was characters. It tries, though. But I forgive it because we stay on humanity side, where the eyes are, where it is exciting to see monsters.
^new page reminder someone has seen godzilla(!!)
my guess is now leaning toward the apes winning the summer movie showdown
I'm watching it tonight!I'm real deal excited.
I'll post my opinions laterr
It was solid and entertaining, very Spielbergy at moments but not as concerned with the human characters, which in this context is good because characters, thankfully, have no arcs or emotional obstacles to overcome and it's all very much about the problem of gigantic monsters destroying cities and how to deal with them. No corrupt authorities, blind government policies, no absent father reuniting with family, just that huge problem and everyone trying to solve it.
Great creatures and shots, and really a cosmic improvement over the last godzilla movie.
I really liked how they didn't force characters to act stupidly to move the plot along. Even the tightwad military guy came across as reasonable. It's amazing how much you serve your characters when they act believably. They might've stretched a bit of credibility with working the main hero into every situation, but it never felt too hamfisted. Cranston was good, almost too good for what was written as a stock conspiracy nut character. What sells the movie is the imagery though. The use of perspective really helped everything feel massive, lots of images stuck with me after it was over, specifically an overhead shot of Godzilla swimming in the ocean surrounded by Navy ships. It's not comedic in tone like the 1998 film, but it's having way more fun.
Just got back! I was expecting more of a massive and artsy horror/disaster film about Godzilla but its much more of a safe hollywood blockbuster. I have mixed opinions but overall enjoyed and liked it. Here are my positives and negatives.
Negatives:
1. For the first two thirds of the film the majority of the soundtrack is, imo, generic action film music that makes everything feel bland and takes out the tension.
2. The film rarely, especially in the later two thirds, fully dedicates itself to a scene and intercuts everything with a bunch of drama that gets real busy and uninteresting pretty fast.
3. Sometimes the monsters, when fighting by themselves in big open spaces and aren't hidden or contrasted to anything, look a bit mediocre and not all that impressive.
Positives:
1. Most of the acting is pretty great.
2. When the monsters are contrasted with small humans and when they're hidden by smoke or water or whatever they look and feel fucking awesome
3. The film has lots of great moments and scenes, its just a shame that loads of them aren't really dedicated to and are ruined by generic music and busy drama
4. When the film uses the monolith music from 2001, its amazing.
5. At some points you actually care about the human characters, which is a great achievement in a film like this.
6. The film is pretty beautiful and the cgi is great mostly.
7. There are some really cool little directorial flourishes throughout, although contrasting blandness of a lot of it undermines this at points
If you haven't seen it, these are my favourite scenes. Dw, i won't put any spoilers in.
1. The scene on the rickety bridge with the two soldiers
2. The sky diving scene
3. When the female and the male meet
Overall its a pretty good film. I thought it would feel a tad more sophisticated and tense rather than like a blockbuster. The spine of the film is very much of a hollywood blockbuster but there are still very sophisticated and tense moments throughout
Quote from: SailorOfTheSeas on May 16, 2014, 06:01:06 PM
4. When the film uses the monolith music from 2001, its amazing.
Yeah, that was a chilling sequence. And perfectly illustrates what you're saying about generic scores and how they undermine movies more than enhancing them. Just a small detour from the usual usual made the whole sequence feel transcendent.
Rather enjoyed it.
The halo/Ligeti sequence marked the final third or so of the film and from that point onwards, the movie was quite impressive. Liked the little background stories and the general setup. Monster stuff was slow, brutal and prehistoric. Appreciated that.
Score was occasionally stylistically inconsistent but was overall rather good.
hell yeah i snuck in godzilla prior to the magnificent ambersons. how i roll. quick:
agree with everyone and what they've said
locations were mentioned and japan was #1
director as artist, self as universal vs universal as self, the big screen priority was on universal as self, for the kids or whatever. prefer the self as univeral. but cool thing is, when this happens here it occasionally happens oriented from the monster's perspective. fuck yeah. also, cried in the beginning. you know why
mash it into into like 45mins, perfect, imo. that's all it needs, in a quick and easy sense. friend i was with said that before i'd said that's what i was thinking
echo most people who've seen this movie: think i like things and think i don't like things and i wanna see it again. the good is good
though. the apes might win. we'll see
I hated it. hated how nothing happens while the monsters were artificially kept in the back. hated how the movie would cut to a phone call in which nothing was said during the monsters rampage. hated how godzilla maybe did five minutes total's worth of stuff and that last battle really should've been the first battle. hated how no character did anything useful (the ones that did died early on) except stare meaningfully at the monster while everyone else runs in the opposite direction. hated how the first time director knew like three crowd pleasing tricks that he used over and over again (every time you saw Godzilla before San Francisco it was a slow move up from his tail to his face as if you didn't just see that fucking move two scenes ago, and the "IS HE DEAD? HE'S NOT DEAD" trick they used twice in five minutes) Hated the forced cutaway/ fade to black in the middle of a monster battle for no reason other than the movie would've ended right there and then. Hated the script basically had this guy try to get on a plane from scene to scene just so the monster battles can happen behind him. Hated this movie confused having more human characters with being more human. Hated how this movie confused waiting with suspense. Hated how it kept coming up with clever and not so clever ways to not show the monsters (like a door closing as you're supposed to see it). But most of all hated how dull everything is in a movie these days. How every movie has to follow the special forces, even if we're dealing with super heroes, giant robots, or dinosaurs, even if the character said or did nothing that had anything to do with the movie. If you saw a guy in military pants shout into his phone in a lobby for two hours then snuck into Godzilla for the ending, you would've just seen the same movie as that fucking snoring audience.
this is a movie that just badly doesn't want to be godzilla. the 1998 movie wanted to be jurassic park, this one just wanted to be other movies that Americans have seen (Monsters plus The Host), but it's another genre misfire in which the filmmakers think they're too good for the material. this is going to be the thing that keeps happening now, as more and more franchises are bought by people who don't understand them.
this is a really good try at a godzilla movie. it gets a lot of things wrong but i was never bored. i feel the need to break things down:
WHAT WORKS
• the monsters. they all have the right level of personality/crazy animal behaviour. slowly revealing all their habits and abilities plays like the best kind of nature doc. they're extremely well animated and their backstory is cool. (godzilla has a couple of false notes towards the end.)
• the action. completely thrilling throughout. on top of that, there is a wonderful degree of variety, not just in terms of what's going on, but tonally. this movie has a better grasp on spielberg/john williams-style action than anything jj abrams has ever done. it's not just dangerous, it's adventurous. there's a sense of wonder about what's going on. magic. something beyond man.
• the score. (mostly). this lumps in with the john williams vibes. the movie is so confident about the terror of the monsters that it takes a step back and goes 'whoaaaa, nature' etc etc. it's refreshing.
• elizabeth olson and cranston. they give it their best shot and manage to make things work/feel urgent when every other human is falling apart.
WHAT FAILS
• aaron johnson drops the ball so hard. i would be very curious to see a version of this movie with a capable lead performance because i almost believe it could all work if i didn't completely disregard everything he does on a gut level. he's not playing a real person. he's playing a 'type'. he's squinty and mumbly and buff. he plays nearly every dangerous situation like it's a minor inconvenience. he's too cool to ever get ruffled or not know what he's doing. basically, no one in their right mind should give a fuck about this guy, and 70% of the movie is predicated on giving a fuck about this guy.
• ken watanabe has no idea what he's doing. he appears stunned throughout the entire movie. that never changes once. that is all he contributes. his acting boils down to one face. no thought, no intention. just face. if you took a screencap of his face from any scene in the movie and blurred out the background and asked me for generally when in the movie that scene happened, i would be guessing every time. seriously, look at the many faces of watanabe in godzilla:
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• the writing. i don't fully blame the writing because like i said there's a ton of variety and the humans/monsters are well-knitted together. there are some underdeveloped themes and stupid ideas here and there. unnecessary subplots. a lack of intentional humour. many elements of the story fall apart if you think about them for more than a few seconds. it makes no sense that johnson and cranston's characters are the only people to figure certain things out. i find the tone of the ending ridiculous, but i think that may be a directing decision. i think a lot of the writing could have worked with better performances and better tonal decisions. however, they would be covering for something fundamentally weak.
bottom line: i still enjoyed this a lot. it made me believe there's a great godzilla movie that could exist someday. it's just so damn hard to find someone who understands monsters AND humans.
Yeah, with Watanabe, I'm glad they had a fair bit of focus on him. But it was kinda wasted because they never used him well enough.
no! it doesn't matter how you use him. he isn't a thing. he's a hollow shell.
this thread has gone next level. whatever to say about the movie, glad it's brought a next level conversation
Quote from: pete on May 18, 2014, 12:15:43 AM
hated how the first time director knew like three crowd pleasing tricks that he used over and over again
enjoyed your whole post and think a lot of the movie's problems come from here. the director wasn't creatively adventurous! not often. sometimes maybe. the music problem, the acting problem, the embarrassing way characters would walk into midframe and turn around before they said important shit! am i sounding rude? what's the polite way to say...he wasn't an orson welles, that's for sure
It's a terrible try at Godzilla. It's a studio that's so afraid of the 1998 Godzilla backlash that they'd do anything to keep the movie from being called silly - even at the risk of showing the fucking monster all of five minutes. And the fucking audience ate it up. Because they were flattered into liking something "serious", like boredom somehow is a respect of their fucking intelligence. The result is a movie in which "human drama" is used as a gimmick to not show the audience what they paid to see, and everyone is so raised on dull trash that they'd accept FEMA porn much more quickly than a monster walking the earth wrecking shit and having more than one battle against the other monsters.
'Godzilla' Sequel in the Works at Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures
Goal was to re-brand property in 'Tiffany way,' says studio exec
Source: Variety
Warner Bros. and Legenday Pictures faced monster skepticism from fanboys, but after scoring nearly $200 million this weekend at the global box office, the two companies are moving forward with what they anticipated would happen: a "Godzilla" sequel.
"It's very validating," Legendary president and chief creative officer Jon Jashni spoke to Variety of the film's opening.
"You can't ask for a better situation when you have a group of people, who were perhaps expecting to be let down were impressed," Jashni added. "It all lines up when that eco-system aligns and starts feeding off itself."
As a principle hurdle in the re-making of "Godzilla," Jashni said the filmmakers were faced with massive pre-existing doubt toward the property, originating from the critically lambasted 1998 Sony remake.
Though in respect to the Warner-Legendary version's franchise potential, Jashni said that was always part of the conversation.
"Our initial goal was to re-brand and re-establish the property in a Tiffany way," Jashni said. "Now, we're trying to take in all of the results of the weekend."
Legendary financed 75% of the $160 million-budgeted tentpole, with Warner accounting for the rest. Both companies split marketing costs.
"Godzilla" overperformed domestically this weekend, with a boffo $93 million. Meanwhile, the film bowed day-and-date in 64 overseas territories, where it collected $103 million. Pic expands to China on June 13, followed by Japan, though local distrib Toho holds rights to the film in that territory.
Edwards should take a break, make something else and then return to the franchsie, Nolan-style. He was smart to make The Prestige and Inception between the Batmovies.
EDIT:
@Folks on the previous page, I'm kinda pissed cut away from monster fight scenes twice in the film. The first time, they had the most incredible buildup and then they showed him on TV- in a way that was almost comical. Second time, there was also a cool sense of drama to it but they really did force the Kaiju blue-balls. It did pay off in the final act though.
Also, just realised this film is about the world's biggest cockblock.
it's weird when so many ordinary people who are not fanboys or nerds are all more collectively concerned about whether they got Godzilla "right" than whether or not it's good or fun. most of the praises I've heard were just about how correctly Godzilla has been depicted.
There is this article from The Dissolve which is interesting, I agree with it. I liked the film, even if I don't necessarily want to watch it again.
http://thedissolve.com/features/exposition/566-godzilla-the-first-post-human-blockbuster/
it feels like there is almost a talking points memo for all these people who are just so stoked by what this film DOESN'T have. And the post that you linked defends a bad movie with the time-honored "BUT THAT'S THE POINT!" tactic. a boring piece talking about a boring movie - with so much devotion, effort and intelligence that it's almost offensive (both the movie and the piece.)
pete i'm so happy you mentioned the article continues to be boring, because i'm multitabbing and thank you. found a quote i thought described the piece and godzilla
QuoteThese failures are so extraordinary
i like what he's saying in a kinda 30s ad-sheet way. oooh you know what, i think he writes preponedly to mad men. before the mad man meeting
then also, someone had much to love in godzilla, and they wanted to write about it for a while. good. good movie. for movies to conquer the globe everyone must know we make these for them, dogs, monsters, etc. everyone
i had a lot of faith in this and you guys are making me want to never watch this movie. i mean i feel like im going to be so disappointed something bad will happen to me, physically.
i don't always date the person you'll marry, you know. you might marry godzilla
Everything Pete says makes sense, yet I still loved the movie. This is exactly what I expected the director of Monsters to deliver.
Quote from: diggler on May 19, 2014, 06:17:36 PM
This is exactly what I expected the director of Monsters to deliver.
This is actually the first thing anyone here has said that makes me wary. Monsters is a misunderstood masterpiece.
He loved the movie though.
Yeah, but if he loved it for being the opposite of what Monsters was, that's concerning to me, because I would love for it to be along the lines of what Monsters was.
EDIT: Disregard everything I'm saying. I'm an illiterate idiot without basic reading comprehension skills. Faith in the movie restored!
I chose this movie to finally check out a theater with $1.50 first run movies. They only have one showing each night Mon-Thurs and 2 showings nightly Friday-Sunday. The main thing keeping me away is the distance. If the experience sucked at least it would be a movie I didn't expect much from.
I was pleasantly surprised by both movie and theater.
I remember waging a great battle in 2003 on Xixax in which I railed against Lost in Translation and everyone on the board collectively joined in to teach me some manners. It was one of the few instances in which I felt like i was in the right, despite the overwhelming variety of contrary opinions, some of them from very intelligent folks, and then one day Christopher Doyle shat on the film in the same way that I did, which was all the vindication I needed. It is now 11 years later, I'm still a child in many ways, and I've now began my process to wait for a Christopher Doyle figure to vindicate/ articulate my distaste for Godzilla. It is like the first movie I felt this strongly negatively about since Lost in Translation, though I did pretend to hate Crash as much as everyone else here did.
For context (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=3446.msg116596#msg116596) (through page 18)