Godzilla Introduces You To Director Gareth Edwards
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We’re getting to the point where we can damn near expect to hear daily news from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures Godzilla reboot. Before long it’s going to be every hour on the hour. Last week we got more than half a dozen TV spots, plus an extended look. Yesterday we saw a cool, high-contrast black and white poster. Today brings two short featurettes that introduce viewers to director Gareth Edwards.
Fans of his low-budget 2010 creature feature Monsters are already aware of what he can do, though wider audiences may not know much about him or his history. This first video serves as a basic getting to know you kind of thing. He thought he was on the right path—go to film school, make a short film, catch the attention of the studios, get a call, make feature films for the studios. Though it looks like he’s ended up there eventually, he took a more circuitous route than that to helming Godzilla for a major studio.
When he realized it wasn’t going to work out exactly like the anticipated, Edwards bought a computer and started teaching himself visual effects, another adventure that took longer than expected. He did all the special effects in Monsters himself on his Mac. Now on the opposite end of the spectrum, with all the money in the world and specialists of all varieties, he is in a unique position to compare the two extremes. Instead of relying on his own resourcefulness, he gets to hand off work to people he really looks up to and admires.
When Edwards made Monsters, the studios took notice. After all, if you can do as much as he does in that film with almost nothing to work with, what could he accomplish with money, resources, and the power of a studio behind him? Godzilla looks absolutely huge and massive, not just in the sense of the monster, but there are so many epic, sweeping helicopter shots and enormous set pieces. There’s nothing small about this movie.
After toiling in obscurity for as long as he has, Edwards seems to be as surprised as anyone at his new position in the pecking order. When he talks about having an agent you can see the sense of disbelief. Working on his own for years, now he has this crazy professional support system; that has to be something of a culture shock.
Godzilla stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, and David Strathairn, and stomps into movie theaters everywhere on May 18.
