Man In Suit! Man In Suit? (Godzilla Remake)

[TheButcher]

From Collider:
Legendary Pictures Offers PACIFIC RIM (aka the GODZILLA Reboot) to Guillermo del Toro

Here’s the basic sequence of events:

* Legendary Pictures acquires the rights to Godzilla with plans for a 2012 film
* Legendary Pictures buys a spec script from Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) titled Pacific Rim, “set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.”
* Legendary Pictures retrofits the Pacific Rim script into their planned Godzilla reboot, confirming the rumored presence of multiple monsters
* Legendary Pictures offers the director’s chair on the Zilla-fied Pacific Rim to none other than Guillermo del Toro

At least that’s how things went down according to Latino Review. Details after the jump.

A Godzilla film, especially one with multiple monsters and thus intensive creature design requirements, is right in Del Toro’s wheelhouse. To offer the project to the Mexican director totally makes sense, though the report doesn’t indicate the extent of Del Toro’s interest. But let’s say he commits to direct: is that equivalent to postponing from the planned 2012 release? The man has a lot on his plate.

His next film is a 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness with James Cameron producing, plus another commitment to write and direct Trollhunters for DreamWorks Animation. As a producer, he’s got Disney’s The Haunted Mansion and the drama Midnight Delivery, plus broader development deals in video games and television.

At the Mountains of Madness appears to be of the utmost importance, with plans for an intensive 3D shoot May 2011. I suppose Del Toro is the type of guy you wait for, so we must see what comes of this. Either way, this Godzilla reboot is starting to sound pretty cool.

In the meantime, if you’d like further insight into Del Toro’s recent state of mind you should check out Steve’s video interview, in three parts.

[bastard_robo]

From Collider:
Legendary Pictures Offers PACIFIC RIM (aka the GODZILLA Reboot) to Guillermo del Toro

Here’s the basic sequence of events:

* Legendary Pictures acquires the rights to Godzilla with plans for a 2012 film
* Legendary Pictures buys a spec script from Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) titled Pacific Rim, “set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.”
* Legendary Pictures retrofits the Pacific Rim script into their planned Godzilla reboot, confirming the rumored presence of multiple monsters
* Legendary Pictures offers the director’s chair on the Zilla-fied Pacific Rim to none other than Guillermo del Toro

At least that’s how things went down according to Latino Review. Details after the jump.

A Godzilla film, especially one with multiple monsters and thus intensive creature design requirements, is right in Del Toro’s wheelhouse. To offer the project to the Mexican director totally makes sense, though the report doesn’t indicate the extent of Del Toro’s interest. But let’s say he commits to direct: is that equivalent to postponing from the planned 2012 release? The man has a lot on his plate.

His next film is a 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness with James Cameron producing, plus another commitment to write and direct Trollhunters for DreamWorks Animation. As a producer, he’s got Disney’s The Haunted Mansion and the drama Midnight Delivery, plus broader development deals in video games and television.

At the Mountains of Madness appears to be of the utmost importance, with plans for an intensive 3D shoot May 2011. I suppose Del Toro is the type of guy you wait for, so we must see what comes of this. Either way, this Godzilla reboot is starting to sound pretty cool.

In the meantime, if you’d like further insight into Del Toro’s recent state of mind you should check out Steve’s video interview, in three parts.

I'll admit it.. I had a tear in my eye when I heard this news...

[TheButcher]

From Motion Captured:
Guillermo Del Toro on 'Godzilla'? Not so fast, says director

What rumor?"

That was the first reaction Guillermo Del Toro had when HitFix contacted the director to ask him directly if he's planning to step onboard as director of the new Legendary Pictures reboot of "Godzilla,' as rumored today by our friends over at Latino Review.

I found the news surprising and, frankly, a little bit confusing when I read it earlier this evening. I just got out of an afternoon screening of an upcoming film, and all of a sudden I'm reading all these retweets of a headline about Guillermo being offered the job as director, and Travis Beacham's "Pacific Rim" script being folded into "Godzilla," both of them the same project now.

"I am not involved in 'Godzilla' at all," Guillermo replied once I'd explained the rumor to him. "I haven't read it or plan to read it. Nor have I been approached to direct it."

That sounds pretty definitive to me. I've known Guilermo a long time, and he's not the sort of guy to shy away from geeking out about this or that potential project. He's a big monster fan, and I'm sure if he was thinking about taking on the King of the Monsters, he'd be happy to share some of that enthusiasm.

Instead, he tells me that he's hard at work on "At The Mountains Of Madness" right now, and that "things are going incredibly well." That's so unbelievably exciting to hear. An R-rated 3D giant budget Lovecraft film with Cameron producing and Guillermo directing is pretty much one of those "I can't believe that's real" sort of movies, and it's amazing that we live at a moment where that may indeed become a reality.

Would I love to see him direct "Godzilla"? I'm sure it would be beautiful. He's spoken at length about his love for the game "Shadow Of The Colossus," which is one of the great contributions to giant monster lore of recent memory, and I'll bet he'd bring some ideas to the table that we'd never seen in any of these movies. But do I want that instead of "Mountains"? No. I'd rather he fulfill this lifelong dream of his, and it sounds like that's what is happening.

As far as the stuff about Travis Beacham's script "Pacific Rim" getting merged into the most recent "Godzilla" drafts, that doesn't sound right to me, either. I can't get too specific, but I can say that I've heard a great deal of confidence from inside Legendary about their "Godzilla" drafts. It's possible that this is indeed happening right now, and maybe Beacham, a talented writer, really put together something irresistible with "Pacific Rim."

Whatever the case, it's worth clarifying Guillermo's position, and I hope that when they do land a filmmaker for the movie, it's someone who will bring an equal enthusiasm to the material, someone up to the challenge of bringing to new life one of the great iconic monsters in movie history.

We'll be sure to keep you posted with any news on "Godzilla" right here on HitFix.

[bastard_robo]

From Motion Captured:
Guillermo Del Toro on 'Godzilla'? Not so fast, says director

What rumor?"

That was the first reaction Guillermo Del Toro had when HitFix contacted the director to ask him directly if he's planning to step onboard as director of the new Legendary Pictures reboot of "Godzilla,' as rumored today by our friends over at Latino Review.

I found the news surprising and, frankly, a little bit confusing when I read it earlier this evening. I just got out of an afternoon screening of an upcoming film, and all of a sudden I'm reading all these retweets of a headline about Guillermo being offered the job as director, and Travis Beacham's "Pacific Rim" script being folded into "Godzilla," both of them the same project now.

"I am not involved in 'Godzilla' at all," Guillermo replied once I'd explained the rumor to him. "I haven't read it or plan to read it. Nor have I been approached to direct it."

That sounds pretty definitive to me. I've known Guilermo a long time, and he's not the sort of guy to shy away from geeking out about this or that potential project. He's a big monster fan, and I'm sure if he was thinking about taking on the King of the Monsters, he'd be happy to share some of that enthusiasm.

Instead, he tells me that he's hard at work on "At The Mountains Of Madness" right now, and that "things are going incredibly well." That's so unbelievably exciting to hear. An R-rated 3D giant budget Lovecraft film with Cameron producing and Guillermo directing is pretty much one of those "I can't believe that's real" sort of movies, and it's amazing that we live at a moment where that may indeed become a reality.

Would I love to see him direct "Godzilla"? I'm sure it would be beautiful. He's spoken at length about his love for the game "Shadow Of The Colossus," which is one of the great contributions to giant monster lore of recent memory, and I'll bet he'd bring some ideas to the table that we'd never seen in any of these movies. But do I want that instead of "Mountains"? No. I'd rather he fulfill this lifelong dream of his, and it sounds like that's what is happening.

As far as the stuff about Travis Beacham's script "Pacific Rim" getting merged into the most recent "Godzilla" drafts, that doesn't sound right to me, either. I can't get too specific, but I can say that I've heard a great deal of confidence from inside Legendary about their "Godzilla" drafts. It's possible that this is indeed happening right now, and maybe Beacham, a talented writer, really put together something irresistible with "Pacific Rim."

Whatever the case, it's worth clarifying Guillermo's position, and I hope that when they do land a filmmaker for the movie, it's someone who will bring an equal enthusiasm to the material, someone up to the challenge of bringing to new life one of the great iconic monsters in movie history.

We'll be sure to keep you posted with any news on "Godzilla" right here on HitFix.

Sight.. I saw this literly 5 mintues after reading the orignal news.. I hope Latino Review's "Souces" gets a bad case of crabs..

[TheButcher]

Screen Rant Interview: Guillermo del Toro Talks Upcoming Projects

Just the other day, it was rumored that del Toro might direct the upcoming Godzilla reboot from Legendary Pictures. As it turned out, the misunderstanding came from del Toro’s rave over Travis Beacham’s script for Pacific Rim. The two have similar archetypes, but are completely unrelated.

We asked the director to clear up any further confusion by revisiting the rumor on camera. As enticing as it sounds, Guillermo del Toro is definitely not helping Legendary Pictures bring Godzilla back.

“I’ve never been involved in Godzilla. I’ve read and liked Pacific Rim a lot. I’ve read it because I’ve met [writer] Travis Beacham way before and I loved his writing and I loved his world creation. But it was definitely more rumor than anything else. I never laid eyes– I know Legendary’s keeping Godzilla and Pacific Rim completely separate.”

[TheButcher]

From AICN:
Just spoke with Joe Kosinski, director of TRON LEGACY... about that, BLACK HOLE & OBLIVION

He's not sure if OBLIVION will be his next film, as he's also working on a remake of BLACK HOLE. The script on that one is being handled by Travis Beacham, who worked on the incredibly disappointing CLASH OF THE TITANS.... and whose spec, PACIFIC RIM has been turned into GODZILLA at Legendary. Now... if you get a chance to talk BLACK HOLE with Kosinski, he really gets excited.

[TheButcher]

From The Playlist:
Rumor Control: William Monahan’s Never Heard Of ‘Once Were Cops,’ ‘Pacific Rim’ Still Not ‘Godzilla’

Another rumor that reared its head again over the weekend was that “Pacific Rim,” the hot spec script from “Clash of the Titans” writer Travis Beacham, was being folded into Legendary Pictures’ upcoming reboot of “Godzilla.” Latino Review broke the ‘news’ a few months back, and, despite a fairly comprehensive takedown by Drew McWeeny of HitFix not long after, the rumor continued to get some traction, with Ain’t It Cool repeating it recently.

So, frustrated, Beacham took to Twitter to repeat “PACIFIC RIM IS NOT GODZILLA. It was never Godzilla. it will never be Godzilla. Pacific Rim is Pacific Rim.” So there we go: the original report seems to be 100% false. Beacham also promised ‘exciting developments’ on the project soon—maybe it’s being folded into Legendary’s upcoming reboot of “Godzilla?” What? Oh, right. We imagine it involves a director being attached, so we’ll keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, Dave Callaham (”The Expendables,” “Doom”) continues to work away on “Godzilla,” and we will continue to fear that project like it was a 60-foot moth creature.

From Variety:
Producer on a WB spree - Roy Lee signs three-year first-look deal

Warner Bros. has signed producer Roy Lee, best known for remaking Asian fare such as "The Departed," "The Grudge" and "The Ring," to a three-year first-look deal.

Warners' pact with Lee raises the number of producer deals on its lot to 34 -- by far the most producers among the Hollywood majors.

Lee's already involved with several prominent Warner projects including its reboot of "Godzilla" with Legendary Pictures and Dan Lin; a bigscreen reboot of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with Atlas Entertainment; an adaptation of Stephen King's "It"; Kevin and Dan Hageman's pitch for a live-action/CGI hybrid about the fictional Acme Corp.; a "Lego" movie; and a Leonardo Da Vinci action-adventure project with Adrian Askarieh.

Lee's also a producer on the upcoming Taylor Lautner thriller "Abduction" and was a co-producer on "How to Train Your Dragon." And he's racked up an extensive list of credits on remakes including "The Lake House," "Dark Water," "Quarantine," "My Sassy Girl," "The Eye" and "The Uninvited."

Lee began his career with stints at Alphaville and Benderspink, then formed Vertigo Entertainment with Doug Davison in 2001 with a specialty in obtaining remake rights to Asian properties. His first exec producing credit came the following year with "The Ring" with Gore Verbinski directing, followed by "The Grudge" in 2004 and "The Grudge 2" and "The Departed" -- a remake of "Infernal Affairs" in 2006.

Lee and Davison decided earlier this year to dissolve their nine-year partnership. His execs are Irene Yeung and Carly Norris.

[TheButcher]

From Variety:
Changes loom for studios - A list of 2010 developments that will impact the biz

Warner Bros. didn't suffer much for splitting the final "Harry Potter" book in two or declining to release it in 3D. And it scored a major hit with "Inception," a passion project for Christopher Nolan -- who's now making "The Dark Knight Rising." Key initiatives include rebooting "Godzilla" and "Superman" and ramping up DC Entertainment, which has been moved from Gotham to Burbank.

[TheButcher]

HEAT VISION EXCLUSIVE: 'Monsters' Director Stomps to 'Godzilla'

Godzilla has a director.

Gareth Edwards, the British filmmaker who wrote and directed indie sci-fi movie Monsters, is closing a deal to develop and direct the creature feature for Legendary Pictures, the company that co-produced blockbusters such as Inception and The Dark Knight.

Warner Bros. will co-produce, co-finance and distribute per its deal with Legendary. Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee, and Brian Rogers.

Legendary picked up the rights to the giant lizard from Japan’s Toho Co. in March 2010. It was around that time that Edwards’ Monsters made its premiere at SXSW (where WME quickly signed him for representation) before moving on to the Toronto International Film Festival and a U.S. release by Magnet Releasing in October.

The movie, famously made for a budget in the low six figures, took a different tact in its handling of the alien invasion genre. It centered on two characters traveling through a Mexico that is now a quarantine zone due to an alien-monster infestation. The flick slyly showed only parts of the aliens during the course of the movie, with tentacles attacking cars and people during the night, for example, but the gripping climax featured two giants slithering around an abandoned gas station.

The movie got Hollywood ga-ga over the filmmaker, who always intended Monsters to act as a showpiece to attract bigger work, and Legendary execs were no exception. They sought him out, thinking he could be the right man to take their monster into the 21st century.

Edwards will now work with a new yet-to-hired writer on the script. (David Callaham was the original writer.)

Edwards’ Monsters work has won the filmmaker three British Independent Film Awards, including nods for best director, best achievement in production and best technical achievement. It also landed him work with Timur Bekmambetov on an epic sci-fi project that he is writing as a directing vehicle.

[TheButcher]

From Variety:
'Monsters' director to helm 'Godzilla' - Warner Bros., Legendary tap Gareth Edwards for sci-fi reboot

Special effects juggernaut "Godzilla" has a director with British helmer Gareth Edwards on board for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.

"Godzilla" would be Edwards' second film. He wrote and directed low-budget sci-fier "Monsters," for which he won trophies for best director and best technical achievement last month at the British Independent Film Awards.

"Monsters," set in Mexico, focused on an alien-monster infestation in a quarantine zone.

Legendary had announced in March that it had closed the rights deal for "Godzilla" with Japan's Toho Co., which has overseen more than 25 "Godzilla" films. It also announced at that point that it was aiming "Godzilla" for a 2012 release.

In addition to Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, producers on the new film will be Dan Lin ("Sherlock Holmes"), Roy Lee and Brian Rogers.

"Godzilla" is part of Legendary's financing deal with Warner Bros. Legendary's productions with Warners have included "The Dark Knight," "300" and "The Hangover."

Edwards is also expected to work on the script, written by David Callaham.

From AICN:
The Legendary attempt to bring GODZILLA back to life on American screens just got fascinating!

Hey folks, H arry here... Last year at SXSW, in the FANTASTIC FEST midnight portion of the festival, we premiered a film that was not quite all the way finished, called MONSTERS by Gareth Edwards. If you got to see that film, you were probably very taken with it. It wasn't an enormous spectacle. If anything, it was a BORDER story, about some Americans trying to get back to America - through a No Man's Land of giant Alien Monsters. But the film was made with more of a eye to Terrence Malick's films than any TOHO man in suit spectacle. In fact, for a studio film's catering budget for a two week shoot - Gareth not only shot and produced his first film, but he managed to do a fantastic indie-themed giant monster movie that in no way looked like any giant monster movie we've seen. Primarily because it wasn't preoccupied with the military, but simply two people trying to survive their personal situation - and how they relate to one another.

I found it captivating. The movie got picked up by MAGNET at the fest - and Gareth Edwards began to appear on the map of interesting talents on the market. Now, well - I can't even imagine how giddy Gareth Edwards must be at landing the directing gig to end all directing gigs in the Giant Monster Movie realm. He's going to make Legendary's GODZILLA.

MONSTERS will be hitting home video February 1st of this year. This was a film made on a shoestring, but that is constantly fascinating, beautiful and haunting. That a man with an eye as unique as the one that shot MONSTERS - and that directed his cast perfectly is directing GODZILLA is not an automatic mainstream home run - but it certainly has my ass in a seat. Hollywood Reporter's HEAT VISION broke the news.

From Collider October 23rd, 2010:
Director Gareth Edwards Exclusive Interview MONSTERS

[bastard_robo]

I'm...just.....so happy......................



Never, EVER would I have guessed that Legendary would hand one of my most beloved characters ever to a man who's potential talent has yet to be tapped. I loved Monsters. It's a great piece of movie making, and out did Cloverfield 10 to fucking 1 on the human side of being caught between giant monsters. I was disappointed by Del Toro not being the guy, but then I saw Monsters. Gareth Edwards has my %100 approval. I did a back flip when I heard this news (last time I did that was when Ryuhie Kitamura was signed on to direct Godzilla Final Wars. It's a point of debate in the fandom circle, but I loved it.)

[TheButcher]

From CHUD:
GODZILLA TO ROAR AGAIN WITH GARETH EDWARDS

Everyone loves Godzilla. It's just a fact of modern life, and I imagine we all want more Godzilla movies.

But after being burned so very badly by that one American reboot we won't speak of, well, hope dimmed a long time ago. When Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures announced they were remaking Godzilla, there was only a smattering of enthusiasm across the Internet. We all remember how this played out before.

But today, THR's Heat Vision broke some pretty awesome news: Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters, will be helming the new Godzilla for Legendary and Warner Bros. He's in final talks, and in the process of hiring a cowriter for the script.

This is actually really inspiring news. Edwards' Monsters was beautifully shot and the special effects were fantastic. The final shot was actually a little sad in the way that all good monster movies should be. I wasn't a fan of the script or the characters, but hopefully a solid cowriter will iron those kinks out.

This new century needs a new Godzilla. May this one honor the great lizard's legacy and usher in my dream of a new Mothra movie.

[TheButcher]

From The Wrap:
Gareth Edwards to Direct 'Godzilla' for Legendary Pictures

"Monsters" director Gareth Edwards ("Monsters") is ready to make another creature feature, as the British filmmaker will direct "Godzilla" for Legendary Pictures, the company behind "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" has confirmed to TheWrap.

Edwards will develop the project and work with a new writer to revise David Callaham's original screenplay. He earned Hollywood's attention with his low-budget sci-fi film "Monsters," which was made for well under $1 million. The film follows two characters as they make their way across Mexico, parts of which have been quarantined due to an infestation of aliens that are only partially shown onscreen.

Edwards always intended for "Monsters" to serve as a showcase for his talents behind the camera, hoping it would lead to higher-profile projects. Legendary execs fell under his spell and decided he'd be the right filmmaker to introduce "Godzilla" to a new generation of moviegoers.

Warner Bros. will co-produce, co-finance and distribute "Godzilla" through its deal with Legendary, whose Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers.

Legendary acquired the rights to the "Godzilla" franchise from Japan's Toho Co. in March 2010, which is around the same time that "Monsters" debuted at SXSW. The film was distributed in the U.S. by Magnet Releasing in October.

Edwards is currently writing an epic sci-fi project for producer Timur Bekmambetov that he also plans to direct.

From Screen Rant:
‘Monsters’ Director Gareth Edwards Will Direct ‘Godzilla’

Godzilla is one of cinema’s greatest movie monsters. As soon as you think you’ve put him down for good, the big fella always comes roaring back to life to stomp the world once again.

For the last year or so, we’ve been following development on the most recent incarnation of the Godzilla movie franchise from Legendary Pictures. In September, we learned that Legendary Pictures wanted to bring the beast back to his roots and deliver a film that was far different than Sony’s 1998 remake. Now, we’ve learned who Legendary and Warner Bros. have chosen to bring the project to fruition – UK director Gareth Edwards.

According to an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter, Edwards was chosen for the director’s chair after his acclaimed independent sci-fi film Monsters wowed both critics and Hollywood execs. Edwards will work with an as yet undetermined screenwriter, because the original screenwriter, David Callaham, is no longer working on the project.

Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw gave Monsters a glowing 4/5 star review, remarking that Edwards delivered a uniquely insightful human story using an alien invasion as the premise. If that doesn’t make it sound like Edwards is the right guy to bring a CGI-fest like Godzilla to the big screen, bear in mind that Kofi also wrote “the director’s true forte is visual effects, and the CGI used at many points to augment the footage is nearly seamless and really does enhance the real-life atmosphere of the film.”

Given his impressive CGI work on the relatively inexpensive Monsters, it will be interesting to see how much Edwards is able to do with a (presumably) huge budget on Godzilla. My hope is that his instincts as a filmmaker, to employ CGI naturally so as to aid the story, will remain intact during filming. That’s not to say that I don’t want to see a giant, city-crushing Godzilla; however, I want to see one that I can actually believe in and care about.

I would say that getting Edwards for this film is a big win for Legendary Pictures. The company has been racking up blockbusters left and right (Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and Inception to name two) and this is definitely a strong step toward delivering another quality big-budget film.

From The Playlist:
From ‘Monsters’ To Monster: Gareth Edwards To Direct ‘Godzilla’

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are gearing up to launch a new “Godzilla” picture, but everything’s been quiet in regards to development, despite a 2012 release date already planned. Quiet no more! Gareth Edwards, the talented helmer of “Monsters” is now the new man for the job, entrusted with bringing the Toho titan back to the big screen.

Edwards, gaining end-of-year praise for his canny low budget “Monsters,” is expected to punch up the script from David Callaham, which is encouraging, considering Callaham’s contributions to cinema (”The Expendables” and “Doom” cowriter) have been negligible at best. This will be the first American Godzilla picture in twelve years when it is released, with Roland Emmerich‘s embarrassing 1998 version ranking one of the biggest franchise flops of all-time. While Toho was so upset with that incarnation of the character that they had him annihilated onscreen in “Godzilla: Final Wars,” they have kept to their word regarding that film being Godzilla’s swan song in his native tongue.

Edwards, a special effects wizard, is likely being picked for his notable skills in several arenas, as he showcased an intimate character drama in “Monsters” while still creating memorable creature effects that dazzled when compared to their $100 million counterparts (while Edwards disputes the budgetary numbers being thrown around, “Monsters” did indeed come in at under a cool million). Whether this gives us any insight into what kind of movie this will be remains a mystery, as studios have become much more possessive about their potential franchises, but Edwards remains a fine choice (if a bit obvious - he made a movie called “Monsters”). This sidelines his planned collaboration with Timur Bekmambetov, described as “an epic human story, set in a futuristic world without humanity,” but we’re with Edwards here: you just don’t say no to Godzilla.

[TheButcher]

From Motion Captured:
'Monsters' director Gareth Edwards signs on for 'Godzilla'

Gareth Edwards made quite a splash with his micro-budget giant monster movie, "Monsters," last year, and while it didn't make my end-of-the-year list, I have real admiration for what he accomplished, especially working on the budget he did. He's a smart filmmaker with a really interesting visual imagination, and it seems like one of the most obvious couplings of filmmaker with material in recent memory to hear that Edwards has been hired by Warner and Legendary to direct their upcoming "Godzilla."

It's an exciting choice in a lot of ways. If you see "Monsters," you'll see how clearly his focus is on character instead of spectacle, even in the moments where there are giant monsters onscreen. His idea of a money shot is defined by the emotion it evokes, not on how "cool" it is, and that's one of the reasons "Monsters" may have confounded people expecting more conventional genre fare.

"Godzilla" is a big priority over at Legendary, and for good reason. Thomas Tull is a fan of the property and knows that it's already been done really wrong in America before. It's interesting… talking to him after "Clash Of The Titans" came out, he was more blunt about that movie's problems and failings than almost any critic I spoke with. Tull is certainly not blind to the idea that his company can get it wrong, even when they're trying their hardest to get it right. That's one of the things that is most intense about filmmaking… sometimes, it's just a matter of alchemy, and all the willpower in the world can't turn a bad film good.

The way you deal with that is you treat development as an opportunity to make all those mistakes en route to the right way to do something. They've been working on the "Godzilla" script for a while now (and, no, they're still not folding Travis Beacham's "Pacific Rim" into this project), and the fact that they've moved on to hiring a director means they've finally got the material in the right ballpark.

I have no doubt Edwards will now work with the writer on a draft or two, but this means the ball is rolling. The train is leaving the station. "Godzilla" will walk the earth once more. And if it turns out all these dead birds and dead fish are just viral marketing for this film, I will be very, very impressed.


"Godzilla" is tentatively aiming for a 2012 release.

[TheButcher]

From Examiner:
Battle of Godzillas may be newest screen battle.

Godzilla, the iconic King of the Monsters, may be facing his biggest challenge yet – himself. Hollywood was abuzz last week when Gareth Edwards was named as director for a new American made version of the Big Green Guy. The film will be backed by Legendary Pictures and Warner Brothers. Edwards caught the eyes of producers in Tinsel Town earlier this year when he directed MONSTERS.

The first surprise came when Toho Corporation gave the okay for another American version of Godzilla. The first version, starring Jean Reno and Mathew Broderick was panned by critics and ballyhooed by the Hollywood Hype Hydra. It wasn’t that GODZILLA was a bad film, it was a good monster movie; it just wasn’t a good Godzilla movie. Hollywood began blasting GODZILLA before it was released. Producers Roland Emerick and Dean Devlin had shaken the Hollywood foundation with a series of blockbusters and a cocky mien. The movers and shakers thought they needed knocked down a peg, and GODZILLA was the vehicle. Toho was very disappointed with GODZILLA. In fact, the animal showed up in two Godzilla movies made in Japan after the American release and was soundly defeated by the original creature. Still, despite a negative campaign, the American GODZILLA managed to score $435 million in box office sales. With pay-per-views, videos and merchandise sales, the intake was considerably more. The campaign, however, was successful as Emerick and Devlin have not worked together since.

Meanwhile, Godzilla was having his own problems in his native land. A revamped monster, with a four picture deal, was going sour with fans and went through three different directors, seeking the right combination. Toho commissioned an independent Godzilla movie in between movies three and four of the series and it became more popular than the series. In it, Godzilla is reverted to a monster of destruction and the monsters he usually fought to save Earth, Ghidrah, Mothra and Baragon, became the ‘bad guys’. Now the Godzilla fan base was divided between the Earth friendly and the destructive monster Godzilla, and Toho had a publicity nightmare. Toho opted to put Godzilla on hiatus for ten years. Born in 1954, Toho retired Godzilla in 2004 on his fiftieth anniversary and declared no Godzilla movies would be made until 2014. Ten years proved to be too long for a reboot.

Toho announced earlier this year it was bringing Godzilla out of retirement early. The new movie is scheduled for December of 2012. It is planned for 3D treatment. But Toho was now in a dilemma. Script and technical issues threatened to delay Godzilla’s planned return. When Legendary Pictures approached Toho will the concept of doing another American Godzilla back in March, Toho saw a solution to its quagmire. Toho may scrub its planned 2012 release and attempt to satisfy fans with the new American version. This will allow them to keep to their original decade of retirement. The American version will satisfy clamoring fans and give the parent company the needed time to work out its difficulties. But, as of now, both movies could be released within months of each other, creating an on-screen battle of epic proportions.

MONSTERS was billed as the greatest large monster movie of the decade. I’m certain J.J. Abrams would not agree. MONSTERS had a rather unique distribution scheme. IFC Films allowed the movie to be seen through its web site. For several months, the cost was exceptionally low, and then it was offered for free. The tactic was to help spread the hype behind the advertising slogan. Actually, MONSTERS was a film about illegal immigration disguised as a monster movie. For most of the film, the monsters, aliens born from space spawn hijacking a ride on a meteor, where hidden from view. Viewers saw tentacles only with battles against an ill equipped Mexican army. The real story centered on two Americans caught in Mexico, trying to make their way back to America. The Americans suffered similar trials attempting to go home, as illegal immigrants do trying to come here. It was this theme that garnered accolades for Edwards with the Hollywood elite, as illegal immigration is just one of the many liberal causes high on the Hollywood agenda.

Edwards makes no qualms about his purpose for making MONSTERS; it was to serve as a show piece to garner him bigger projects. The ploy worked. David Callahan was first hired to script the new Godzilla film. Edwards promised to bring in his own people and a new scriptwriting team is currently being sought. No official word from Toho yet if it will still release its project in December 2012 or add the two remaining years to Godzilla’s forced retirement. Speculation is that Toho may release its new version of Godzilla, but only in Japan, allowing them to gauge reaction to Edward's treatment first and providing the opportunity to compare fan reaction and acceptance.

[TheButcher]

Dread Central Exclusive:
Gareth Edwards Talks Godzilla and a Sequel to Monsters!

One of my favorite films of last year was Gareth Edwards' Monsters. Part sci-fi epic, part intricate character study, the film blew me away from beginning to end. With its home release this week, I was excited to have the opportunity to catch up with Edwards again during his press rounds.

Dread Central got to talk to the director about the project as well as a potential sequel and how it feels to be tackling one of the most famous monsters in cinema history - Godzilla.

After its release last October, Edwards said he was really surprised by the many interpretations of the themes running throughout Monsters. The director explained, “What I thought was very interesting was that a lot of people in America picked up on the immigration theme in Monsters, which was another subtext within the story, but it was never something I wanted to feel really obvious in the movie to anyone watching.

“For me, a lot of Monsters was about the war on terrorism. Obviously, terrorism is terrible and must be stopped, but we always have to stop and realize what the price of that war is.

Monsters on Blu-ray and DVD“In this movie there are these aliens, and yes, they’ve killed innocent people, but you have to consider how many innocent people must die in order to eradicate these creatures from the area so you have to look at what you’re willing to do in order to deal with these kinds of problems. But the reality is that monster movies throughout the ages have always been allegories for something more - whether it’s the Cold War, nuclear war, or terrorism - these monsters usually represent something bigger going on in the real world,” Edwards added.

As a storyteller, Edwards quickly realized that while Monsters had to be able to deliver amazing creatures, there had to be something that really connected fans to these creatures and made them see them as something more than just, well, monsters.

“I always say films with great storytelling should be able to give audiences some sort of perspective change by the end of the film,” said Edwards. “Monsters isn’t just a journey for the leads in the film; it’s for the viewers as well. At the start of the film, you go in with the idea that ‘oh, there are these big monsters, they must be destroyed,’ but as you continue on throughout the movie, you end up with almost a polar opposite opinion because you see that these aliens are struggling just as much as the humans are. You begin to understand them.”

For fans of Monsters, don’t expect to fall victim to having to buy a bunch of special editions over the coming years either. Edwards is a firm believer in the idea that when you complete a movie and it’s released, then that’s how it should stay.

“I think Monsters is a completed film - I don’t really see myself going back to do a director’s cut or anything like that,” explained Edwards. “For me, that’s like your mom getting out the family photo album and you see that she Photoshopped in a brother you’ve never had just because you said you’d always wanted a brother. It doesn’t feel natural to me."

Edwards added, “Filmmaking is like giving birth - once you have the baby, then you give it up to adoption and have to hope for the best. Are there things I’d like to change? Of course. But at some point you just have to let go and move forward on to something else.”

Now that Monsters has made its way to DVD and Blu-ray, Edwards weighed in on the future of the world he created. “Vertigo owns the rights to Monsters, and I know they’re keen to move forward with another Monsters-related project very soon. I’m not sure how involved I can be right now, and I don’t think my next film really should be a sequel just yet. I’d like to do something else first, but I would definitely be open to returning at some point.

“But I do think whoever Vertigo ends up hiring will do a great job because they really know what they’re doing there. For me, if they hire someone to direct another Monsters movie, the last thing they need is for me to be hanging around, telling people how the movie should be. Whoever comes in should definitely be given free rein to put their own spin on this world, and I know they’ll get the right person,” Edwards added.

One very big reason Edwards can’t come back right now for another Monsters film is because he recently signed on to work with Legendary Pictures to breathe some new life into Godzilla. The British filmmaker spoke of his confidence in pairing up with the production company that has brought audiences movies like Trick ‘r Treat, The Dark Knight and Inception.

“It’s really too early to talk a lot about Godzilla, but I am very confident in Legendary Pictures' belief that we need to make the best film we possibly can,” said Edwards. “This will definitely have a very different feel than the most recent US film, and our biggest concern is making sure we get it right for the fans because we know their concerns. It must be brilliant in every category because I’m a fan as well.”

Edwards added, “But I think the project is in great hands, and I don’t necessarily mean that about myself, but more so about Legendary. They have an amazing track record, and I think they’re the right studio to be behind this project.”

[TheButcher]

STYD Exclusive:
Gareth Edwards Talks Godzilla Reboot!

Fledgling filmmaker Gareth Edwards has a behemoth task ahead of him. He's rebooting Godzilla on American shores for Legendary Pictures. For some, Edwards and Big G are a natural fit given the former's feature debut Monsters - a movie that is decidedly heavy on human drama and light on the "monsters." Still when the tentacled beasties of that film rear their heads, there's a delicious sense of spectacle that's fighting for domination with the budget Edwards had to work with.

Many are curious to see what Edwards can do with Godzilla and the money that he's allowed to play with on his sophomore effort.

"I'm a big fan," Edwards tells Shock, palpably choosing his words wisely when it comes to talking about his latest endeavor. "I guess I will say I'm highly aware - and everyone involved is incredibly aware - of everyone's opinions on what this film has to do and what it has to be. And no one will do anything but the right thing. Without addressing anything specific, everyone knows how important is to get it right."

He can't talk about the scripting process (he did reveal he's not writing the film), however, he recalls his introduction to the long-running franchise. "My earliest memories was channel 4, they showed them every Friday night. As a kid I wasn't quite sure about the dubbing, the English-dubbed versions. They threw me for a bit. I love science fiction and, well I call them B movies but they're not, but I love '60s and '70s sci-fi. But these would come on and be dubbed and it would take my kid brain to adjust to the dubbing. It took me some time to get through that."

Look for Godzilla in theaters in 2012. Monsters is on DVD and Blu-Ray this week!

[TheButcher]

From the Chicago Tribune:
Studios handing big films to untested directors

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Hollywood loves discovering new talent. But its passion for developing emerging filmmakers has lately strayed into large-scale, downright risky terrain.

Case in point: Universal is in the process of handing director Carl Rinsch a $170 million budget for "47 Ronin," a 3D samurai revenge story starring Keanu Reeves that will begin shooting March 14 in Budapest. Rinsch's resume includes a popular short film and a Heineken commercial -- but no features.

And he's far from the only fresh-faced director stepping into the big-budget fray. Disney gave commercials helmer Joseph Kosinski close to $200 million for "Tron: Legacy." Universal recently hired first-timer Rupert Sanders to helm the $100 million-plus "Snow White and the Huntsman." Relative newbies Marc Webb, who's shooting Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man," and Daniel Espinosa, who's helming Universal's action thriller "Safe House," took on the potential blockbusters with little previous feature work.

It's not an entirely new phenomenon, but for several reasons the scale and justifications behind the hires have changed. During the 1990s, commercial and music video directors such as David Fincher ("Alien 3," 1992), Michael Bay ("Bad Boys," 1995), Gore Verbinski ("Mousehunt," 1997) and McG ("Charlie's Angels," 2000) made the jump to features, but most of them did so with comparatively modest budgets.

During the past five years, though, technology has enabled rookie directors to hone their skills via FinalCut Pro, digital-video cameras and other state-of-the-art effects tools from a young age, prompting budget-wary studios to salivate over what they can put on screen for a price. Gareth Edwards, for instance, made his indie sci-fi film "Monsters" for a few hundred thousand dollars, even though it looked much more expensive. He's now up to direct "Godzilla" for Warner Bros.

"It's a reflection on the innovation of emerging filmmakers," says Anonymous Content manager Michael Sugar, who represents Webb and Kosinski. "You're looking at people like Fede Alvarez, who made a short film ("Panic Attack!") for $300, put it on YouTube, and it looks like it was made for $20 million." Alvarez, an Anonymous client, was hired by Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures to develop a sci-fi feature.

More than ever before, the short-film and commercial environment has become a playground to use up-to-the-minute tech to create feature-film calling cards. Sanders, "District 9" co-writer-director Neill Blomkamp and Noam Murro -- recently hired by Fox to direct the fifth "Die Hard" -- all did spots for recent Halo video game campaigns, a gig that has become as coveted as any debut film job because it often becomes a higher-profile entry into features.

Ad-world veterans also tend to be more comfortable making presentations in front of dozens of studio execs, and to be handy with creating the rip reels, animatics and annotated screenplays that the studios now want to see. These days, when execs say yes to a spec package, they aren't saying yes to development but to a movie, with a budget, detailed vision and release date.

"If you look at the way movies are being sold into the studios, whether it's "Safe House" or "All You Need Is Kill" or "Snow and the Seven" -- those are spec screenplays that were either sold in with a director or developed to the point where they were movies," says Management 360 manager-producer Darin Friedman, who represents "Kill" writer D.W. Harper and director Adam Berg.

At the same time, the screenwriting community has largely abandoned the spec approach -- what was for a long time Hollywood's prime idea factory. In the last few years, studios have made brutal trims to slates and development overhead. Filmmakers are now bypassing writer-provided original material by building a creative pipeline to funnel their own spec packages directly to producers and execs.

Alvarez's short film got him noticed all over town. Berg's short "Carousel," made for Philips TV, had him up for the job of helming the big-budget "X-Men" spinoff "Deadpool" for Fox. James Mather and Stephen St. Leger's short "Prey Alone" led to their writing and directing the sci-fi actioner "Lockout" for Luc Besson's EuropaCorp and FilmDistrict.

Rather than scrape together financing for a small indie, a visionary director can simply send a link to his short to someone in the industry, and everyone's seen it within an hour. The heat generated from a viral explosion can put an auction-like target on a filmmaker.

"Carl Rinsch had been kicking around for years, but when he made (the 2010 short) "The Gift," it got sent around and it created a frenzy," Friedman says. "That doesn't happen without that perfect storm of the right idea executed well, with the technology to share it virally."

Studios want and need movies, but they have less and less interest in developing them internally. From multiple accounts, rookie filmmakers are put through their paces by nervous studios before a green light. But by choosing to hire unproven talent, studios are also getting less expensive filmmakers that are potentially easier to control and can be loyal to the studio if the film is a hit.

Blomkamp had only about $30 million but made "District 9" seem a lot bigger. When it grossed $211 million worldwide, the path widened for other first-time visionaries, and Blomkamp is now directing the $125 million "Elysium" for Sony.

But the strategy is not without risk. Sony distributed Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar-winning debut "The Lives of Others" via Sony Pictures Classics. But when the studio gave him $100 million to make "The Tourist" with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, it grossed only $67 million domestically amid critical pans (the film did better overseas, grossing $163 million).

And as Rinsch goes into production on "Ronin," he might want to take stock of first-timer Kinka Usher, a Directors Guild of America award-winning commercials veteran to whom Universal gave $70 million in 1999 to make "Mystery Men." The superhero spoof grossed just $33 million globally, and Usher has been making commercials ever since.

[jetnet22]

I'll admit it..it's scary!

[TheButcher]

From STYD:
Bits 'n Bloody Pieces: The River, Pontypool 2, Sidney Prescott, Pacific Rim Plot

• Warner Bros. and producer Basil Iwanyk (The Town) are developing Destroy All Monsters which is being described as Independence Day meets Jurassic Park.

From Bloods and Scripts:
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

Destroy All Monsters - Action, Sci-Fi

Postby sevaan » February 6th, 2011, 3:26 am
Title: DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
Logline: When a malevolent, alien race invades Earth, it’s up to a group of legendary monsters to fight back and protect both humans and monsters, from extinction.
Production Co: John Wells Production, Thunder Road Pictures
Studio: Warner Bros.
Produced By: John Wells, Basil Iwanyk
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Notes: Remake of the 1968 Japanese film "Destroy All Monsters".

[TheButcher]

Obsessed With Film Audio Interview:
Gareth Edwards Talks MONSTERS, GODZILLA & Inspires Us All

[TheButcher]

EMPIRE Exclusive:
Gareth Edwards On Godzilla - 'We want to stay true to the fanbase'

If the notion of another Godzilla like that Roland Emmerich monster makes you want to emit a throaty roar of your own, rest assured: the next incarnation of the creature feature is in safe hands. When we caught up with him at the Jameson Empire Awards, Godzilla director Gareth Edwards was keen to put minds at rest while stressing that the monster was ripe for an update.

"The thing that’s so interesting is that Godzilla has evolved since the original one in the ‘50s," Edwards said, "so there is the opportunity to bring it up to date. But we want to stay true to the fanbase as well and I’m a fan of the Toho films."

How big a fan? Well, try this for coincidence. "When I got the call about it from my agent I was in my bedroom and right in front of me by my DVD player was the 1954 Godzilla. He asked, 'Are you a fan?' And I said, 'Yeah, I’m looking at him right now!' It was incredible."

Edwards, who's hard at work on script duties and keeping details seriously under wraps, is well aware of the level of scrutiny that will fall on his monster: “Everyone’s got a very strong opinion about Godzilla and what it should be." So what should it be?

[Tyrone_Shoelaces]

This might have been posted elsewhere already but this thread was the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

[Ribbons]

IMPMPLSH!

We can only hope the new Godzilla is half as awesome.

[TheButcher]

From Fresh Voices:
SCREENWRITER PROFILE: DAVE CALLAHAM

Most recently, Dave was hired by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures to write the 2014 summer tent-pole Godzilla and he sold an original pitch to Twentieth Century Fox and Producer/ Director McG.

FV: So what’s next for Dave Callaham?

DC: Before The Expendables was released, I pitched my take on a new Godzilla movie that Warner Brothers and Legendary are working on and was hired to write a first draft. I recently delivered that to the studio.

FV: Going back to the writing process. What’s your philosophy or mentality as a writer?

DC: I want to elevate. My philosophy as a writer is to always make something better than it ought to be. This is obvious. I’m sure every writer says that. But I really want to, if it’s an action movie I want to make it, like Heat is a good example, again, I want it to be an action movie with characters you actually care about, and stakes and themes. I always want the story to have themes even if it’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard. Godzilla is a pretty cut and dry, giant monster smashes stuff. But the reason I got excited about it is because I saw themes and relationships to the modern world that I could tell in this story that was important. I always strive to elevate. And you see a movie like The Dark Knight and it tells you, or Inception, another Chris Nolan movie, it tells you, you can make giant movies that work on many different levels, that are intellectual, that are important, that are valuable and they work on a commercial level. And they’re exciting and they’re fun and they’re popcorn. People don’t do it too much, and I don’t think they try hard enough to do it. But I’d like to try. I do try. And you know, you learn that sometimes you try and things get changed. But if you don’t try then no one will.

FV: So if you’ve got act 1 and act 2 pretty well laid out, how long does it take you to write that first draft? How long do you want to spend?

DC: Horsemen and Godzilla, the first and last things I’ve done, are pretty similar. I think they both took 3 months for a first draft. And they were both 2 ½ months to write the first 2 acts, and I wrote the last act in a week on both of them. Because it’s a runaway train at that point, and there’s no more questions. Act 2 is the hardest, because I know where I need to get them, how am I gonna get them there? By act 3, if you can’t just roll with act 3 you’ve messed up somewhere. Act 3 should write itself.

I get really emotional writing act 3. It’s coming out of me at that point. A lot of times I have to struggle to force myself to write the first two acts. First act’s easy, second act is hard. Third act, I’m just dying to do it. I’ve spent all this time leading you to a place, now it’s time to show you.

FV: Ho much time do you spend rewriting?

DC: Depends. Like on Godzilla I was under a pretty strict time crunch. So I wrote it, it was very, very long. I sent it to a couple friends and I did a week of super intensive rewriting. If you’re writing on spec you’ve got the luxury of time so it just depends on how long it takes to get it right. Usually once or twice. I don’t like to rewrite.

FV: How do you approach the blank page? Where do you go to find inspiration?

DC: I watch recent movies that I like. I read a lot of comic books because to me it has the right combination of text and story-telling and visuals. If I’m writing a small character piece I could read fiction and be fine. But on Godzilla I wanted to always be thinking in giant, sweeping science fiction terms. So I was watching a lot of those types of movies. You know, I could be watching Star Trek and it would help me with Godzilla just because it put me in the right mindset of “the universe is yours to play with.” I watch a lot of Discovery channel stuff, History Channel and that always helps.

On Godzilla as an example and Doom I did this too. I watched a lot of nature documentaries because I felt like I’m writing about an animal; it’s just a giant animal. But if I can get some cool set pieces out of behavior that I see animals doing in the wild in the show, then I can maybe translate that into something. Just whatever’s appropriate. And then I read a lot. I’ll be reading fiction for the sake of constant creativity, but I also I feel like on everything I write there’s research I could be doing.

On the script that became The Expendables I read all about mercenaries. I read biographies of mercenaries and I read about first hand accounts of armed conflicts and things like that. On Godzilla I read about the history of Godzilla, Godzilla’s history through film. But I also read a 600 page manual that is handed out to municipal areas, cities, counties, states, about disaster preparedness and how to react when a disaster does hit and how to make sure that you rebound from it. Because I was trying to tell the story from a perspective of Godzilla being treated as a disaster. So anything that I find appropriate I’ll read. Even if I don’t get a specific idea out of it creativity-wise, it gets me in the right mindset. I don’t want to be doing anything while I’m writing a script other than living in the world of the script. So if I’m not writing it and I turn around, I’m trying to spend time with my wife and have fun, but if I’m reading, I’m reading something that’s gonna help me in the right mindset, and if I’m watching something hopefully it’s gonna help me do that too.

[TheButcher]

DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE:
Legendary Hires David Goyer For 'Godzilla

David Goyer has worked with Thomas Tull's Legendary Pictures on both Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy and the new Superman reboot Man Of Steel. Now the in-demand writer will pen the screenplay, from a draft written by David Callaham, for Legendary Pictures’ new version of Godzilla. The project will fall under Legendary's overall agreement with Warner Bros while Toho Company, which own the rights to the oversized reptile, will distribute the film in Japan. Toho’s Godzilla franchise boasts one of the most widely recognized film creatures worldwide, resulting in a series of books, television programs, video games and more than 25 films worldwide. Legendary intends to approach the film and its characters in the most authentic manner possible and was smart to get a pro like Goyer on board so early in the process since he has so much experience creating franchises. Of course, Sony Pictures in 1998 tried to jumpstart a Godzilla franchise and that disappointed. And the first Godzilla movie came out in 1954 which was an indictment of nuclear wweaponry. Gareth Edwards is attached to direct the Legendary project. Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce on behalf of Legendary. Goyer is repped by CAA.

[TheButcher]

From Latino Review:
David Goyer Is Writing Another 'Godzilla' Film

Whether you like it or not, it looks like David Goyer is going to be writing his own version of "Godzilla" for Legendary Pictures. The writer will be tweaking the script that was originally penned by David Callaham.

Believe it or not, there's been about twenty five films made on the fictional "Godzilla" creature over the decades. In a climate where we feed tons of dollars into films where metal beings beat the ever-loving hell out of each other ("Transformers"), maybe we'll get the crazy fun kind of "Godzilla" we'd like to see in theaters over here. Fingers crossed.

The last time that Americans tried to bring the famed monster to the big screen, and failed horribly, was in 1998 when Sony Pictures tried their best to spin their own version of "Godzilla." With that dark chapter behind us, perhaps Goyer and company will do at least a decent interpretation of the creature. If not, then we can always look forward to whatever Guillermo del Toro will give us with "Pacific Rim."

From Collider:
David Goyer to Write GODZILLA Reboot

David Goyer is set to write Gareth Edwards’ upcoming Godzilla reboot. Deadline reports that Goyer will write a screenplay based off a draft by David Callaham. While Mike Fleming raves about how Legendary Pictures is smart to get a pro like Goyer on board because he’s had so much success launching franchises, but let’s look at the films Goyer directed because those are the scripts that are almost certainly 100% his: Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, and The Unborn. All of those movies are terrible. What about his ABC series Flash Forward? Also terrible, and then rightfully canceled. Yes, Goyer has a track record of having a screenwriting credit on movies that make a lot of money, but that doesn’t mean he writes good movies.

I’m also wary that “Legendary intends to approach the film and its characters in the most authentic manner possible,” because that’s not what I want out of a Godzilla movie. You can have authentic characters, but I don’t want “authenticity” out of a giant mutant lizard whose hobbies include destroying metropolitan areas and fighting other giant monsters.

[TheButcher]

From AICN:
David Goyer to write Legendary's GODZILLA for Gareth Edwards!

Hey folks, Harry here... this is so funny, Merrick and I were just literally on the phone with each other, talking about whether or not we thought LEGENDARY would go through with GODZILLA now that Guillermo's futuristic Giant Monster adventure epic is being made over there. And I literally had said to Merrick... I haven't heard of a screenwriter attached yet... I hang up, and Deadline reports that David Goyer is writing the script from a previous draft by David Callaham. SO - Goyer now has BLADE, GHOST RIDER, BATMAN, SUPERMAN & GODZILLA in his typewriter's ribbon... scratch that, upon his hard drive. Damn I'm old.

But seriously - it's so weird when you're literally having a conversation about something and it's the next email in your box. CREEPY. We've yet to have the real serious question answered...



MAN IN SUIT?

[TheButcher]

From Motion Captured:
Legendary brings in David Goyer to rewrite 'Godzilla' - Does this mean they're getting closer to a greenlight for the King Of Monsters?

I've had several conversations over the last few years with Thomas Tull about Godzilla, both generally and specifically.

If you don't know Tull's name, he's the Big Cheese at Legendary Pictures, the company that has served as one of the primary financing partners for Warner Bros. the last few years, and he is a fascinating figure, a guy who came to Hollywood from the world of high finance but who is genuinely a giant movie nerd. Sure, he's a financial partner in the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a guy who build a giant hedge fund, but movies are one of his great passions.

And even with movies as a general passion for Tull, the character of Godzilla is a particular passion, something he loves dearly. Right now, as Legendary prepares for their first Comic-Con panel next week, I'm excited to see what sort of presentation they've put together for "Pacific Rim," which is a big giant demented monster and mecha movie that Guillermo Del Toro and Travis Beacham have cooked up. It's a wild read, and I can't even imagine what sort of outrageous energy Del Toro's eventual film will have. I know there was some confusion during development when it was reported that "Pacific Rim" would be replacing "Godzilla," but despite the presence of giant monsters in both projects, I don't think that would be as easy as previously suggested.

"Godzila," after all, comes with its own mythology, its own history, and over 50 years of pop culture baggage. If you're going to make a movie about Godzilla, you need to consider all of that when crafting your approach. Toho, the company that created the character and released his movies, is onboard to distribute this new version in Japanese theaters when it's ready, and according to Tull, they're very protective now of a new Godzilla after their experience with Sony in 1998. Everyone involved seems well aware of just how easy it would be to get this wrong, and they seem dedicated to getting it right.

Gareth Edwards, whose microbudget movie "Monsters" garnered him some serious attention, is onboard to direct this new version, and until now, Dave Callaham has been the writer on the film. It looks like that changed, though, and now David Goyer is coming onboard to rewrite the film. What I can tell you about the approach the studio is taking to the film is that Godzilla is not "just" a giant monster. He is a character, a major force of nature, and there will definitely be other giant monsters in the world. They're focusing on the notion of Godzilla as a defender of Earth, the one thing that can stop some of these other giant creatures, and while there will obviously be a human story playing out with the giant monster story, don't expect it to overwhelm or overshadow the monsters. They know why you're going to the theater, and they are determined to give you a real, no-compromises Godzilla film featuring the giant lizard you know and love already. There are definite design choices they'll make, and the official Toho Godzilla has gone through many changes over the years, but I guarantee when you see this one for the first time, you will know immediately that it is Godzilla.

Goyer is one of those guys who knows the studio system and game very well, and I have no doubt this was an open assignment people were fighting for. What he does well is think big-picture, and this is an important franchise for Warner and for Legendary. If all goes well, they could make a number of these. If they screw it up, they'll be a footnote in the character's history, just like the Emmerich version. I know they're doing everything they can to avoid that, and I'm curious to see now if they set a 2013 date for this one, and if so, how fast things will start to come together.

One thing's for sure… we'll be covering any developments on "Godzilla" eagerly, and we look forward to seeing his return to theaters as soon as possible.

[bastard_robo]

I for one welcome the writing style of Goyer to Godzilla. He seems like a perfect fit to punch up Godzilla

[TheButcher]

Gareth Edwards Talks GODZILLA

[TheButcher]

From AICN:
Is This The New GODZILLA? I'm Not Too Sure...

Nordling here.

So I'm checking my inbox, when I get this email from a website I've never heard before, called Infamous Kidd.Com. So I can't vouch for the authenticity of this scoop, but the site claims to know what the new Gareth Edwards' Godzilla will look like in the reboot. Their sources say that not only will it be a MAN IN SUIT, but that they are working off the artwork of Hector Arce on the look of Big Green. I'm a bit skeptical that this will actually be MAN IN SUIT considering Edwards' background from MONSTERS, but anything's possible and I'm sure that Legendary Pictures would like to appease the fans after Roland Emmerich's debacle.

Now, this isn't the final artwork. It could look radically different on screen. But according to Infamous Kidd, this is the sculpture that Legendary is basing it on. Grains of salt, people...

Gotta say, I like it a lot. I love the back scales and ridges. Looks fierce. And again, this could all be BS, these pictures could have been floating around for years. I have no idea. I just thought it looked interesting, and if these guys are right, they landed a hell of a scoop.

Nordling, out.

Infamous Kidd.Com EXCLUSIVE: Is This What The Rebooted Godzilla Will Look Like?

Legendary Pictures has been going hard at rebooting the GODZILLA franchise, in the hopes that they can bring the legendary monster to American audiences and have them be entertained, something Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Americanized version failed to do. It may have made money at the time, but let’s not use that as some type of justification for the final cut. That movie downright sucked.

Gareth Edwards, director of MONSTERS, was brought on board to direct the new vision for GODZILLA, and David Goyer was later hired to pen the script, taking a pass on the original draft written by David Callaham. However, even with those big steps taken in Godzilla’s return to the big screen, there hasn’t been a lot of movement, as Edwards has been working secretly to get his “robot STAR WARS” made, and it would seem that GODZILLA has taken a backseat of sorts. But there may be more going on behind-the-scenes than meets the eye, with a big focus being put on the appearance of Godzilla and what the creature will look like in this rendition before casting gets underway or any plans are made to head into production.

Our source in the know on the new look of Godzilla sent us off in the direction of Hector A. Arce, a creature/fantasy sculptor, who we’ve been told is part of the design team for Legendary’s film, primarily because this version of Godzilla is based on a sculpt he did of Godzilla quite some time ago. Legendary’s roll-out of GODZILLA concept art at Comic-Con back in 2010 was based on his design, and, even with a few tweaks here and there, I’m hearing that the final approved version of Godzilla shouldn’t look that drastically different from this:

Toho Company, which owns the rights to Godzilla, are much strict in their guidelines for the design, following the drastic departure Sony made from Godzilla’s original look for their film. Their limits on the Sony picture was supposedly only a few things, but, in order to prevent such a debacle again (that didn’t even look like Godzilla), Toho is really laying out what they want Godzilla to look like in detail, not really straying from the classic Godzilla appearance we’ve come to recognize since the creature’s inception.

The bigger question though is – how will Godzilla be brought to the screen? Will it be another CGI creation? Will we be lucky to get an old-school rubber suit? I’m hearing that the plan, as it stands now, is for Godzilla to actually be in the flesh, with someone filling a rubber suit for Godzilla’s return. The head will be controlled by animatronics, and any touch-ups needed for the final film will then fall upon CGI.

Woohoo!!! The man in a rubber suit Godzilla is back!! I couldn’t be more thrilled if this holds up. Emmerich’s GODZILLA was only ever Godzilla in name, as there was nothing about the flick that even remotely felt like Godzilla. Other than the story being complete garbage, from the moment you first saw Godzilla appear on-screen, you knew everything was just off. A great deal of that I think was due to the fact that we didn’t even have a Godzilla that looked like Godzilla, giving off the feeling that this was just cashing in on the familiarity people have with the Godzilla title, and nothing more. Here, it seems like there’s a conscious effort to get back to basics for Godzilla by playing to Godzilla’s strengths and not changing too much about the beloved creature. After all, Godzilla has been surviving since 1954. Clearly there’s a lot of things right with the property, so, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

What do you think? Is this more in line with the Godzilla you want to see back on the big screen?

[TheButcher]

Will Godzilla Battle Biolantte in Gareth Edwards' American Version? - Arce Redesign Sculpture Could Point to This

Godzilla purists everywhere are in celebration over the announcement that their favorite lizard king will again be played by a man in a rubber suit in Gareth Edwards' ("Monsters") upcoming Legendary Pictures reboot of "Godzilla." The news came via website Infamous Kidd, the announcement also noting that the head of the monster will be controlled through animatronics and everything will be cleaned up using CGI. It sounds like we're going to be getting the best of all effects worlds.

The news was accompanied by recent design pictures that sculptor Hecter A. Arce had apparently made for "Godzilla." Arce's name has come up as one of the individuals on the design team for the new Legendary Pictures adaptation. It shows a much scalier and angrier-looking lizard beast than we've seen even from the Toho Millennium series of films that ended in 2004 with "Godzilla: Final Wars."

Something all the fan and news sites seem to keep missing in their excitement is another sculpture that was posted right next to the images of the new Godzilla on Arce's official website. There are three images marked "Biolantte Redesign" that appear suspiciously sandwiched between what appears to be an earlier version of Godzilla and the newest version. What could this mean? Is Godzilla's archenemy from 1989's "Godzilla vs. Biolantte" making a return for Edwards' American version?

Biolantte is a bizarre fusion of Godzilla's DNA, a rosebush, and the DNA of a scientist's daughter. In her first form, the monster looked like a mutated rose with teeth. In its second form, she had a head in the shape of a mosasaur's and a jaw with knife-like teeth. There are three large tusks on each side of her mouth. The Arce version looks absolutely frightening.

It's not surprising "Godzilla" would be filmed using practical effects. Recent movies like "The Thing" prequel and "Real Steel" have both used a lot of practical effects versus CGI. If done correctly, the use of a man in a realistic-looking costume could make the monster look more fluid while stomping through whatever city director Edwards decides he wants to destroy.

"Godzilla" is being written by David S. Goyer ("The Dark Knight," "Superman: Man of Steel"). The movie isn't scheduled to be released until 2014. We have a long time before we'll be seeing anything "official" pop up anywhere.

[TheButcher]

Legendary's 'Godzilla' Remake to Be Written By Max Borenstein (Heat Vision Exclusive)

Max Borenstein has been tapped to write the planned remake of Godzilla.

Gareth Edwards, the director of the indie sci-fi movie Monsters, is attached to direct the creature feature centered on the giant city-destroying and monster-fighting lizard, which is in development at Legendary Pictures.

Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers. Warner Bros. will distribute per its deal with Legendary.

David Goyer (The Dark Knight) previously worked on the script.

Borenstein, who just turned in his script for Art of the Steal for Warner Bros and producers Kevin McCormick and Zac Efron, is well acquainted with Legendary. He worked on the company’s in-development Jimi Hendrix biopic, Jimi, and rewrote the outfit’s supernatural fantasy The Seventh Son. The latter, based on the Joseph Delaney YA book, is due to go into production with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Ben Barnes attached to star.

Borenstein is repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Rosen Feig & Golland.

[TheButcher]

From Motion Captured:
The Bigger Picture: Muppets, Avengers, and Life In The Age Of Fanfiction
A new column examines the idea that our pop culture truly belongs to the fans today

You can treat something with reverence. You can treat it with irreverence. You can be sincere or silly, faithful or free to reinvent. You have to approach each property differently, and always… always… you have to give it to people who would make it for you for free. Morgan Spurlock's Comic-Con documentary has one storyline in particular that I think is just tremendous, inspiring and cool and funny. It's the story of Holly Conrad, a costume designer who is also a raving "Mass Effect" fan. She and her friends enter the masquerade at the Con and they win. More than that, though, she's now actually working on the Legendary Pictures film version of "Mass Effect" in some capacity. And when you're talking about genuine fans, you have to include Thomas Tull, the CEO of Legendary, who is as sincere a genre nerd as I've ever spoken with, but with a bigger checkbook than anyone else making fanfiction right now. He can pay for "The Dark Knight" because that's the version of Batman he wants to see. And ultimately, that is what fanfiction is,,, using whatever resources you have to make something about the properties that you love. If all you have is a Text Edit program and some inspiration, fine. Write the story. If you want to do a homemade video thing and shoot it guerilla and do all the FX yourself, and you want to spend $500 total, that's awesome. Do it. Directors are getting jobs now based on the fanfilms they make, and it seems like execs don't care. They're just looking at the skill set on display, and if the film punches some nostalgic button to give the exec that little extra squirt of Dopamine while he's watching, even better. And if you end up running a giant hedge fund and you think Godzilla's cool and you know he's got to fight other giant monsters and you think they screwed it up the last time Hollywood tried, and you want to pay to see that version, then fantastic. That's Hollywood 2012. That's where we are, and I don't see that changing.

But I hope as this age continues, and I think it will for a while still, these filmmakers take the time to also try the new. Thomas Tull may be making "Godzilla," an actual licensed version of the giant monster that still looms larger than any other internationally, but he's also the guy who finally had the stones to make "Pacific Rim" with Guillermo Del Toro, a giant monster movie with some pretty radical twists built in. It's like he's making both "Flash Gordon" and "Star Wars" at the same time. It is encouraging, certainly, and I hope more and more filmmakers take that step past the fanfiction that something like "Cabin In The Woods" represents next year, a film that is not just a show-off know-it-all ode to a genre, but also a very new and different expression of that genre. It seems to me that the Age of Fanfiction could give way to a new Age Of Invention, but that's going to require us to let go of the familiar at some point.

[TheButcher]

From Screen Rant:
Remakes & Reboots: Upcoming Movies You’ve Seen Before

Release Date: 2014
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: TBD

Category: Reboot of the Godzilla movie franchise.

Our take: The last time that Hollywood tried to reboot the Godzilla franchise, Matthew Broderick played hide-and-seek across Manhattan with a giant lizard. Needless to say, movie fans haven't been eager to open that door again.

This latest attempt to relaunch Godzilla in a movie franchise rests on the shoulders of director Gareth Edwards, who proved himself a creative sci-fi talent with his 2010 indie flick, Monsters. With a script being written by both David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) and up-and-comer Max Borenstein (The Seventh Son), there's reason enough to be optimistic that this new group of filmmakers will get right what the previous group got so very wrong.

[TheButcher]

From Screen Rant:
Remakes & Reboots: Upcoming Movies You’ve Seen Before

Release Date: 2014
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: TBD

Category: Reboot of the Godzilla movie franchise.

Our take: The last time that Hollywood tried to reboot the Godzilla franchise, Matthew Broderick played hide-and-seek across Manhattan with a giant lizard. Needless to say, movie fans haven't been eager to open that door again.

This latest attempt to relaunch Godzilla in a movie franchise rests on the shoulders of director Gareth Edwards, who proved himself a creative sci-fi talent with his 2010 indie flick, Monsters. With a script being written by both David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) and up-and-comer Max Borenstein (The Seventh Son), there's reason enough to be optimistic that this new group of filmmakers will get right what the previous group got so very wrong.

[TheButcher]

From Dread Central:
Real Deal ゴジラ Concept Art

We've seen dozens of fake designs for Legendary's upcoming ゴジラ flick, and all have proved to be fake. Recently, though, the folks at Toho Kingdom got their hands on two new images of what the creature could look like that are indeed the real McCoy.

The images popped up in the latest issue of G-fan. It should be noted these concepts were rejected, but at least they offer insight into which direction they're looking to go. Thankfully it's the right one!

Max Borenstein (The Seventh Son) has been tapped to write the planned remake of ゴジラ. Gareth Edwards, the director of the indie sci-fi movie Monsters, is attached to direct the creature feature centered on the giant city-destroying and monster-fighting lizard, which is in development at Legendary Pictures.

Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Dan Lin, Roy Lee, and Brian Rogers. Warner Bros. will distribute per its deal with Legendary.

David Goyer (The Dark Knight) previously worked on the script.

[TheButcher]

From Geeks of Doom:
Strange Sounds Heard Worldwide: Is It Viral Marketing For ‘Godzilla,’ ‘Cloverfield 2,’ Or Something Else?

Every once in a while some kind of unexplained phenomena hits the web in the form of a video (or many videos), and everyone goes wild trying to figure out just what in the hell it really is.

One such phenomena has reached these heights recently. In numerous videos posted from all over the world on YouTube, a very loud, very intimidating noise is heard. Listening to it you can only assume that a giant alien craft, Godzilla, King Kong, or some dinosaurs are about to come barreling into your back yard. So is it a clever viral marketing campaign, an elaborate hoax, something natural, or something else?

Continue below to check out videos from multiple locations experiencing the event and share your thoughts!

In most cases these are just a well-executed hoax—and props to the ones who pull them off well enough to get the planet debating—but sometimes it’s also a smart viral marketing campaign for an upcoming movie or something else. And perhaps it’s neither and there really is something strange going down.

Sometimes the sound has a very mechanical feel to it and sometimes it sounds like someone dubbed the mating calls of a blue whale over shots of various parts of the world. In all likelihood it is something made by one of us to fool the rest of us.

There is both a new Godzilla movie in the works, and there’s always Cloverfield 2 being whispered about (we know how crafty they can be with the virals). So is it one of those, something else entirely, or should we legitimately be terrified? The Mayans have seen to it that, in the very least, most of us will be on edge when it comes to anything like this, so it’d be a brilliant time to take advantage of those fears some have for the sake of entertainment.

You be the judge!

[TheButcher]

Monsters director Gareth Edwards talks to MSN

It's the stuff every movie maker dreams of: your movie project is spied by the big guns in Hollywood, snapped up and suddenly you're on the movie map. British director Gareth Edwards knows how this feels, after his 2010 independant sci-fi movie, Monsters, became an overnight success.

Now rumoured to be working on the re-make of Godzilla, MSN Movies sat down to chat to him for a few minutes at the Jameson Empire Done in 60 Seconds global semi-final, which he was judging. The competition challenges aspiring filmmakers to remake any big hit in exactly 60 seconds. No small feat.

Gareth's tight-lipped when it comes to letting any Godzilla details slip, so when asked what he's been up for the past year, says gingerly: "I've been trying to make a film... It's all really good, if you look at people, if I look at people whose careers I've looked to emulate, if you do that IMDB game (of looking at their projects) they do tend to have had a two or three year gap - there's not much you can do about it. There's just a long process before it all goes ahead."

Talking about his own experiences as a young director, he told us: "I guess, in terms of, when I was a film student, and trying to make films, I was always emulating the big films. The first thing I ever did at college was Terminator. The next thing I did was like Cape Fear... So, if you can tell a story in a minute, then it means the story works. You often say to the editor when working, you say 'try and do a one minute version of the film', because it teaches you what you can get rid of."

Another one of the judges in the competition is movie critic Alex Zane, who we grabbed a few minutes with to chat about the movie he'd make in 60 seconds.

"I'd probably try and do Jaws purely because it's my fave film of all time and I have a bath in my house," he quipped.

Talking about movies and being a critic, he said: "It's very mood-depedent watching movies. I've reviewed films badly, I've sat back and hated myself, and gone, you know what it wasn't that bad, you were just in a bad mood. So I have to catch myself. Conversely though, I'll be in a really good mood. Like, you know, the movie MacGruber (a 2010 action comedy). I watched that and I laughed from start to finish."

"I gave it four stars and then it comes out on DVD and I get friends round, to come round and watch it and I put it on, and for about 40 mins people just sat in silence looking at me going 'Is this a joke?' I must just have been giddy with life on the day I saw it first!"

The winner of the Done in 60 Seconds competition is being announced at the Jameson Empire movie awards on Sunday 25th March. MSN Movies will be there on the red carpet bringing you all of the action, news and gossip!

[TheButcher]

Godzilla And Supercrooks Directors For KAPOW!

Visitors to KAPOW! – taking place over the weekend of 19 & 20 May at London’s Business Design Centre – will have a chance to hear from two of Hollywood’s hottest current directors, Gareth Edwards (Monsters, the new upcoming Godzilla) and Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes, upcoming Supercrooks).

http://kapowcomicconvention.com/

[TheButcher]

From Latino Review:
EXCLUSIVE: We Know WB/Legendary’s Big Hall H Surprise This Year!

BREAKING:

Busy day at the site today with the “Guardians Of The Galaxy” scoop we dropped earlier.

Well, guess what? We ain’t done!

I hinted at this one on twitter last night, but the comic con event I’m trying to pull off is consuming all my time. My apologies to the readers.

Now that being said…

You know what big Hall H surprise Legendary is bringing along with Pacific Rim?

Ready?

GODZILLA!

Not only is Legendary bringing the Lizard to comic con but get this, I hear the presentation is SICK! I’m not going to get into specific spoiler territory because then what’s the point of attending the panel, but take this one to the bank.

Godzilla will stomp both the audio and video systems within Hall H two weeks from this Saturday! I’ll be there to witness it myself. I can already envision them shutting down the lights, hearing Godzilla’s roar, and the crowd going wild!

Anyway, Max Borenstein is currently re-writing the script from David Goyer. Gareth Edwards is directing.

Follow me on twitter at @elmayimbe for more locuras!

Hasta el proximo capitulo…

[TheButcher]

The first poster is on facebook.


From BC:

Godzilla Trailer Screens At Comic-Con

Unfolding to Robert Oppenheimer‘s “I am become death the destroyer of worlds” speech, a surprise, Comic-Con exclusive Godzilla trailer just gave us our first look at the great lizard. And appropriately enough, Godzilla absolutely brought the house down.

The trailer started with some footage of huge urban devastation, and then as we saw more and more shots of buildings smashed to pieces, we catch a glimpse of train, apparently trampled by a giant foot and then a building with a huge hole through the middle.

As though Godzilla had walked right through it.

And then, a curving shot finds Godzilla’s body, apparently dead in the ground – arms revealed as Oppenheimer talks about Vishna’s many arms. Cut to a logo and the famous Godzilla roar as we know and love it, timed just perfectly to Oppenheimer’s speech.

And then we were back to a shot of Godzilla, alive. The trailer tracked up his back and came to head level, just in time for him to turn around, show his face, his slightly snub snouted face, and roar again.

It’s an astonishing creature design, very grounded.

And Edwards took to the stage after the trailer and echoed this, saying that the film is indeed grounded, and “there’s nothing sci-fi about it.”

The trailer was then repeated to audience excitement just about off the charts.

[TheButcher]

From AICN:
The GODZILLA Comic-Con Teaser Poster!!

Per Hall H - Pacific Rim wowed with the greatest trailer ever. Minutes later, GODZILLA made it look like chump change.

[TheButcher]

Godzilla 2014 Unveiling

Some attendee snapped the above shot of Godzilla during one of the two screenings of the teaser trailer. This may not be the final design of Godzilla according to sources.

[TheButcher]

Godzilla Release Date Announcement
THE ICONIC MOVIE MONSTER GODZILLA STOMPS INTO THEATERS ON MAY 16, 2014

BURBANK, CA, September 13, 2012 - Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have slated their take on the classic Godzilla franchise to kick off the Summer moviegoing season on May 16, 2014. The joint announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures, and by Legendary Pictures.

Toho Co., Ltd.'s Godzilla franchise contains one of the most widely recognized movie monsters worldwide, including more than 25 films, multiple television programs, video games and book series. Legendary, which has been developing the project, and its partner Warner Bros. will return the character to its epic roots with a gritty, realistic actioner. The project will fall under Legendary's overall agreement with Warner Bros.

The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, who earned worldwide acclaim for his feature directorial debut, "Monsters." Edwards directs from a screenplay by David Callaham ("The Expendables" films), David S. Goyer (the "Dark Knight" trilogy) and Max Borenstein (upcoming "The Seventh Son"). Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce, along with Roy Lee, Dan Lin and Brian Rogers. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher will serve as executive producers alongside Doug Davison, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira.

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd. The tent pole film is expected to be presented in 3D.

[TheButcher]

THE NEWS BUNDLE October 3, 2012:
Gareth Edwards' 'Godzilla' To Start Vancouver Production in March 2013

Earlier this month, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures decided to let monster movie fans start counting down the days as they set the date for the big screen revival of Godzilla. Though we still have over a year and a half until we get to see the cinematic icon rage across Tokyo once more, it's clear that casting will be getting underway soon as possible for a filming start next year. Now today, we know exactly when that will be as the first details regarding Godzilla's production start has been revealed.

One on-site reporter for OLV (On Location Vacations) tweets, "Godzilla remake will be coming to Vancouver in March 2013, tentatively". This remake is of course from director Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and has been in development for over a year already. The big green giant made his Comic-Con return in 2011, where he returned in style just one year later back in July with the first teaser trailer during the WB/Legendary panel.

With a screenplay by David Callaham (The Expendables films), David S. Goyer (the Dark Knight trilogy) and Max Borenstein (upcoming The Seventh Son), the upcoming film promises to "return the character to its epic roots with a gritty, realistic actioner". Edwards will be shooting Godzilla in 3D, with a release set for May 16th 2014.

No lead human characters have yet been cast, but we'll keep you updated on future developments.

[TheButcher]

Pearce to pen 'Godzilla' re-write - 'Iron Man 3' scribe will age up characters for Legendary pic

With buzz of the project rising, Legendary has brought in "Iron Man 3" scribe Drew Pearce to do a rewrite on "Godzilla" before it gets the casting process under way.

"Godzilla" has gained a lot of momentum after Legendary previewed a short test reel of the pic at Comic-Con, and sources tell Variety that Pearce is now being brought in to do a four-week polish on the script.

Gareth Edwards is helming the pic. Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce, along with Roy Lee, Dan Lin and Brian Rogers. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher will serve as executive producers alongside Doug Davison, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira.

Previous drafts were penned by David Callahan, who wrote the original draft, as well as David Goyer and Max Borenstein. Sources add that the polish isn't being done because Legendary has any major problems with the script; it wants to age up the characters so that they fit the prototype of the actors they would like to target.

Besides "Iron Man 3," the WME-repped Pearce is also working on the script for WB's "Sherlock Holmes 3."

[TheButcher]

THE NEWS BUNDLE October 3, 2012:
Gareth Edwards' 'Godzilla' To Start Vancouver Production in March 2013
From Collider November 14th, 2012:
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey Says GODZILLA Starts Filming in March; Reveals Joss Whedon Has Asked Him to Return for AVENGERS 2

]McGarvey is set as the cinematographer on Warner Bros. and Legendary’s upcoming Godzilla reboot directed by Gareth Edwards, so Steve asked if he could reveal anything about the highly anticipated monster movie. Though he was remiss to get into plot details, he did reveal the production schedule:

“We start in March. March ‘til June, I think.”

At Comic-Con earlier this year, Legendary showed a tease of Godzilla test footage that Edwards shot that had the crowd going wild. McGarvey revealed that they haven’t nailed down the exact visual approach just yet, but he starts prep next week:

“We still haven’t chosen the direction we’re going visually. I’m sort of testing next week, in fact, for that stuff.”

[TheButcher]

Exclusive: Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey Hopes To Return For 'Avengers 2' (Plus His Thoughts On 'Godzilla')

McGarvey has lined up another huge property, Warner Bros.' pricey "Godzilla" reboot, which features a script co-written by (amongst others) "The Dark Knight" scribe David S. Goyer and Marvel favorite Drew Pearce, to be directed by Gareth Edwards, who made a name for himself with indie sensation "Monsters."

"We haven't really worked out what we're doing yet. We don't start shooting until March of next year," McGarvey said. "I'm in the process of testing what our visual approach will be." He had nothing but great things to say about Edwards, who will be making his big-budget debut. "It's wonderful working with Gareth. He's a wonderful filmmaker and somebody who understands the camera," McGarvey remarked.

McGarvey then boiled down what makes Edwards so special: "It's great working with people who understand the history of cinema and the unique properties of cinematography and use the camera like a writer uses words, so it's not just a witness to big explosions and spectacle. It's something that has a thought out and intelligent approach to storytelling."

"Godzilla" comes out on May 16th, 2014, with "Avengers 2" to follow the next summer. "Anna Karenina" opens on Friday.