Godzilla 2014: Rumors, Pix and filming

[Gojira]

Since the new Godzilla movie begins filming next week in Vancouver I thought I would start the official thread for the movie. The release date is May 16th, 2014.

They will also film in Hawaii and principle photography is to last until June.

The specifics so far...

Director: Gareth Edwards
Exec. Producer(s): Alex Garcia, Patty Whitcher
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston.

Juliette Binoche is eyeing Godzilla, is what Variety is reporting.

From IMDb

Principal photography was then reported to start in Vancouver, British Columbia in March 2013. The film's cinematographer Seamus McGarvey ("The Avengers") stated that the shooting schedule is expected to begin in March and end in June. Director Gareth Edwards arranged a presentation in one of the stages on the Warner Bros. lot to walk the studio through his vision of the film, which was received very positively and locked in the March production start date.

The second and third poster poster is fan art. I can't wait to see how the new Godzilla will look. Hopefully soemthing gets either leaked or officially released soon.

This pisture is of the destruction from the 2012 Comic-Con teaser trailer.

 

[JD]

I'm a big Godzilla fan, so I'm really hoping they can get it right this time.

 

[Gojira]

This is also interesting: In October 2012, Legendary announced that "Iron Man 3" writer Drew Pearce would polish the script, making the principal characters older to suit the actors that Legendary intends to target. January 7, 2013, it was reported that "The Walking Dead" creator (and screenwriter/director of "The Shawshank Redemption") Frank Darabont was hired to add some finishing touches to the script.

Looks like we have some good screen writers working on the film!

 

[Gojira]

I'm a big Godzilla fan, so I'm really hoping they can get it right this time.

For me confidence is high that they will do a good job and it is supposed to be in the spirit of the original.

 

[JD]

Have you seen Monsters? I know it was another giant monster movie by the same director, and the impression I've gotten is that it basically got him the Godzilla gig.

 

[Gojira]

Have you seen Monsters? I know it was another giant monster movie by the same director, and the impression I've gotten is that it basically got him the Godzilla gig.

I have seen it and own it. While I am not real crazy about the design of the monsters I do like the story and the tone of the film. If Edwards can do the same with Godzilla I think he'll do alright.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Another Western Godzilla, eh? All they have to really do is not try to make the big G into something else, just let Godzilla be Godzilla. He doesn't need babies, or to look like an iguana or be completely scientifically plausible. The comic book movies have shown how to do it, just take the extraordinary as given and just make sure it gets sensibly integrated into the whole.

Have you seen Monsters? I know it was another giant monster movie by the same director, and the impression I've gotten is that it basically got him the Godzilla gig.

Was that the immigration metaphor movie? Yeesh, that might tamper my enthusiasm.

 

[Christopher]

What I'm wondering is if this is a complete reboot or if they'll acknowledge the original film. There have been quite a few different feature-film continuities in the Godzilla franchise, including the 1998 Devlin-Emmerich movie, and pretty much every one of them is at least implicitly a sequel to the 1954 original. Despite being in different realities and often interpreting the events of the original film in different ways or altering the details of its ending, they all assume it happened in one form or another (except for Godzilla 2000: Millennium, which never specifically references it, though it's assumed by Godzilla fandom that it did happen in that universe too). Even the '98 American film has Japanese characters who perceive the film's creature as "Gojira" and thus give it its name, implying that the Japanese have encountered a similar creature at some time in their past. And the 2001 Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack referenced the events of the '98 movie, saying that there were claims that Godzilla had been seen in New York a few years back but it was unconfirmed whether it was really Godzilla. In GMK's continuity, Godzilla hadn't been seen since his original '54 attack and the government had suppressed a lot of the details so that the Self-Defense Forces wouldn't look bad (since it hadn't been they who defeated him), so modern memories of Godzilla were vague and a lot of people didn't know what he looked like -- which handily explains the '98 film's creature as simply a different kaiju that people mistook for Godzilla. So even that film can be treated as a sequel to the original.

Thus, I'm hoping this film continue the tradition of being a sequel, at least implicitly, to the original film rather than a complete restart. That strikes me as an important part of what makes a Godzilla movie -- that acknowledgment of the original, the incorporation of it into the backstory of your film's universe even if that universe is drastically unlike that of any other sequel.

And of course I'm hoping to hear the Akira Ifukube themes.

 

[Gojira]

What I'm wondering is if this is a complete reboot or if they'll acknowledge the original film. There have been quite a few different feature-film continuities in the Godzilla franchise, including the 1998 Devlin-Emmerich movie, and pretty much every one of them is at least implicitly a sequel to the 1954 original. Despite being in different realities and often interpreting the events of the original film in different ways or altering the details of its ending, they all assume it happened in one form or another (except for Godzilla 2000: Millennium, which never specifically references it, though it's assumed by Godzilla fandom that it did happen in that universe too). Even the '98 American film has Japanese characters who perceive the film's creature as "Gojira" and thus give it its name, implying that the Japanese have encountered a similar creature at some time in their past. And the 2001 Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack referenced the events of the '98 movie, saying that there were claims that Godzilla had been seen in New York a few years back but it was unconfirmed whether it was really Godzilla. In GMK's continuity, Godzilla hadn't been seen since his original '54 attack and the government had suppressed a lot of the details so that the Self-Defense Forces wouldn't look bad (since it hadn't been they who defeated him), so modern memories of Godzilla were vague and a lot of people didn't know what he looked like -- which handily explains the '98 film's creature as simply a different kaiju that people mistook for Godzilla. So even that film can be treated as a sequel to the original.

Thus, I'm hoping this film continue the tradition of being a sequel, at least implicitly, to the original film rather than a complete restart. That strikes me as an important part of what makes a Godzilla movie -- that acknowledgment of the original, the incorporation of it into the backstory of your film's universe even if that universe is drastically unlike that of any other sequel.

And of course I'm hoping to hear the Akira Ifukube themes.

I really hope they use the Akira Ifukube theme, at least the main one, somewhere in the movie. I also hope they do link this movie to the 1954 original somehow.

Also, Akira Takarada, who played in the first Godzilla movie, and the last (Final Wars) and many other Godzilla movies, is actively looking to be cast in this next film, even if it is a cameo. I hope they give him a part.

 

[_C_]

Oh GOD I hope this movie doesn't turn out to be another GINO.

I wish they'd play off Godzilla's Heisei era look. That's my fave era and when I think of Godzilla my mind always goes to one of the Heisei era suits.

 

[bigdaddy]

There is Godzilla 1954-84. Those all are in the same universe. Then 1985 to 1999 minus the USA one is another continuality. Then the ones ending in Final Wars ignore everything besides themselves, 1954 and dimes 98.

Honestly

 

[Gojira]

There is Godzilla 1954-84. Those all are in the same universe. Then 1985 to 1999 minus the USA one is another continuality. Then the ones ending in Final Wars ignore everything besides themselves, 1954 and dimes 98.

Honestly

What is interesting is that Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack makes a fun reference to the 98 American movie poking some fun at it.

 

[Christopher]

There is Godzilla 1954-84. Those all are in the same universe. Then 1985 to 1999 minus the USA one is another continuality.

Not quite. The first continuity, the Showa era, ended in 1977 with Terror of Mechagodzilla. The second, Heisei-era continuity began with the 1984 The Return of Godzilla, though that was released in the US as Godzilla 1985. It disregards every previous Godzilla film except the original, claiming to be Godzilla's first attack in 30 years. The Heisei series concluded with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995.

Then the ones ending in Final Wars ignore everything besides themselves, 1954 and dimes 98.

The six Millennium-era films comprise five distinct continuities, since the fourth and fifth (the Kiryu/Mechagodzilla films) were in the same universe. The first three are standalones, acknowledging nothing but the '54 original -- although, as I said, GMK does reference the '98 US film briefly and the two can be seen as sharing a common continuity. The Kiryu films acknowledge the '54 film (with a slightly changed ending) plus several of the non-Godzilla Showa-era films including Mothra. Final Wars also acknowledges Mothra and several other Showa films. This is discussed more in the link in my above post.

 

[RAMA]

No interest in this really. Pacific Rim looks fresher, with more enthusiasm behind it. Pacific Rim: theater in 3D. Godzilla 2014: Bluray rental on a cold winter day.

RAMA

 

[Christopher]

I'm definitely looking forward to Pacific Rim, but I'm hoping Godzilla turns out well too. We should wish them both well and hope for a daikaiju renaissance.

 

[Kelso]

I'm looking forward to both.

 

[StarTrek1701]

No interest in this really. Pacific Rim looks fresher, with more enthusiasm behind it. Pacific Rim: theater in 3D. Godzilla 2014: Bluray rental on a cold winter day.

RAMA

Bingo. With the BTS drama regarding Godzilla, it sure seems like a quick money grab rather than an enthusiasts project.

 

[Christopher]

With the BTS drama regarding Godzilla, it sure seems like a quick money grab rather than an enthusiasts project.

I hope that's not true. This film will be Godzilla's 60th-anniversary event, and the first G-film in 10 years. So it deserves to be handled with care.

Anyway, the only drama I'm seeing in what I read involves a couple of the producers leaving and suing the studio. That doesn't necessarily reflect on what the director and writers think of the project. The talk of "creative differences" leading to the producers' departure is a disturbing sign, but it's not enough by itself to erase all hope.

 

[DWF]

There is Godzilla 1954-84. Those all are in the same universe. Then 1985 to 1999 minus the USA one is another continuality.

Not quite. The first continuity, the Showa era, ended in 1977 with Terror of Mechagodzilla.

1975 actually not 1977.

 

[Gojira]

No interest in this really. Pacific Rim looks fresher, with more enthusiasm behind it. Pacific Rim: theater in 3D. Godzilla 2014: Bluray rental on a cold winter day.

RAMA

How can you say Pacific Rim looks fresher than Godzilla 2014 when the new Godzilla film hasn't even been filmed yet and we do not know a thing about the plot or the story? And how can you have already made the decision to only rent it?


I love Kaiju movies so I am looking forward to both films. I had hoped Cloverfield would bring back these type of movies, hopefully these films will accomplish that.