Godzilla Director Promises Realistic Approach
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Spirits are high as pre-production starts on the re-boot of the iconic monster movie franchise Godzilla. Director Gareth Edwards is taking the first steps from independent filmmaking to giant, Hollywood studio moviemaking. The young director hasn’t helmed a multi-million dollar production like Godzilla before, but a new interview with Edwards gives a sense that he may just get this right.
In an interview originally published in Total Film, Edwards describes what it’s like working in the Hollywood system and how working on Godzilla is the hardest thing (no pun intended) he has ever done since he lost his virginity. He admits:
I’ve never worked this hard, this long and been this emotionally involved in something that’s lasted only a few seconds since the time I lost my virginity! But the reaction has been amazing and I can’t wait for the fans to see our final product. I’ve always been interested in Godzilla and the ideas around him. I really wanted to see another Godzilla film and jumped at the opportunity. My main idea was to imagine, ‘If this really happened, what would it be like?’ I want to take a grounded, realistic approach to a Godzilla film.
Godzilla will not march into theaters for another 15 months, but the anticipation around the production is high. From a fan’s point-of-view, the new Godzilla can only be an improvement over Roland Emmerich’s 1998 version. Emmerich’s Godzilla was panned by critics and became the butt many jokes, especially for its “Size Does Matter” tagline. Hopefully the stigma against Emmerich’s Godzilla will not carry over to Gareth Edwards’ new take.
The production will start casting as soon as screenwriter Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) finishes his polish on the script written by David Callahan (The Expendables) [and then later David Goyer (Batman Begins) and Max Borenstein (The Seventh Son)]. It was reported that Legendary Entertainment wanted to “age up” the characters to accommodate potential actors. Of working with Legendary, Edwards remarked, “Everyone warns you about working for Hollywood and how you can get treated in a certain way but my experience has been the polar opposite. Thomas Tull (founder of Legendary) has been very supportive.”
Gareth Edwards received critical and moderate commercial acclaim with his breakthrough film Monsters in 2010. Edwards managed to parlay his special effects work on the film to obtain the directing job on the new Godzilla film. This past July, Legendary Entertainment surprised the geek-centric crowd in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con with a special announcement of the Godzilla reboot. The production studio also screened test footage and announced Gareth Edwards would helm the Godzilla project.
Godzilla will be unleashed in theaters everywhere on May 16, 2014 in IMAX 3D.
