DanielSan wrote:Last night a buddy and I hung out, got loaded, and watched the original Godzilla (although not the "true" original, because Ironsides was in this one). And, in our state of mild loadedness, we came up with a couple questions to which neither of us knew the answer:
What was used to make that awesome Godzilla scream?
Where did the name Godzilla come from?
Thanks for any answers you guys may have!
DanielSan wrote:Wow!! Thanks for the quick info, Theta!!!!
minstrel wrote:I've never seen King Kong Vs. Godzilla.
But the concept seems weird.
havocSchultz wrote:Speaking of Godzilla...
My high school science teacher was/is the Editor and Publisher of G-Fan Magazine...
I always thought he was a bit of a d00ch...
But, then again, I thought most of my teachers were kinda d00ch-like...
But he had his moments of geeky coolness...
We were fortunate enough to have a class of his during the release of the Godzilla remake...
Ahhhh...to be able to waste an entire class just by uttering a "positive" remark towards that film...
So all in all - when he wasn't ranting and raving about all things Godzilla, or telling the girls in our class that all women HAVE to shave their legs and armpits (odd guy really, he ended marrying one of his former students - but he told her that she had to lose some weight first or something like that...) he was kinda d00chy...
And I want somebody to remake King Kong vs. Godzilla.
Gimme 3 hours of those two just duking it out...
Theta wrote:minstrel wrote:I've never seen King Kong Vs. Godzilla.
But the concept seems weird.
Wait 'til you see the movie. Kong and Godzilla are equally matched in size, but nobody's explained why the big G, toting a nuclear ray, didn't blow a big hole in Kong in the first fight.
minstrel wrote:I've never seen King Kong Vs. Godzilla.
But the concept seems weird. Wouldn't Godzilla just step on Kong and grind him into the dirt? I thought Godzilla was something like 200 feet tall and Kong is only about 30 feet tall.
Please correct me if I'm wrong ...
godzillasushi wrote:minstrel wrote:I've never seen King Kong Vs. Godzilla.
But the concept seems weird. Wouldn't Godzilla just step on Kong and grind him into the dirt? I thought Godzilla was something like 200 feet tall and Kong is only about 30 feet tall.
Please correct me if I'm wrong ...
bastard_robo wrote:Theta wrote:minstrel wrote:I've never seen King Kong Vs. Godzilla.
But the concept seems weird.
Wait 'til you see the movie. Kong and Godzilla are equally matched in size, but nobody's explained why the big G, toting a nuclear ray, didn't blow a big hole in Kong in the first fight.
Godzilla foes in general were imune to being blown the fuck up by his ray.. It did damage, but didnt kill em.
Cha-Ka Khan wrote:What I love most about G vs. KK is just how bad and cheap the American scenes are, with the "news via satellite" and the map (with fold lines) pinned up on the wall.
Cha-Ka Khan wrote:What I love most about G vs. KK is just how bad and cheap the American scenes are, with the "news via satellite" and the map (with fold lines) pinned up on the wall.
Heya Harry and gang,
The long rumored Godzilla-IMAX movie is moving forward.
Looks like a bunch of ex-ILM employees(many of whom are self professed Ultraman and Godzilla geeks) are providing all the major special effects for the film while another Japanese company will be providing the funding for the film.
Director Banno has secured Toho Company's blessing on using Godzilla so there's no worry about that.
When the project was first announced a few years ago, it was targeted as a movie being made specifically for IMAX theaters. Don't know if that will be the case now or not.
What's interesting is that it seems like they'll be using some type of super "James Cameron?" cool 3-D camera/effects work for this.
Will this be a preview of sorts of what's to come with Jim's "Avatar" technology?
Anyways, I'd scream man in suit, man in suit but I'm sure you'll have that covered.....
-Rob(no fancy alias) D.
godzillasushi wrote:I love having more Godzilla movies, but this huge push for a 3-D version is like![]()
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I mean, for you and I Bastard, it's great. Just seems odd to me that there is this desire to get it made. The whole reason for the break was that nobody really cares anymore. And I don't think that has changed. Still would be nice to have a new Godzilla though.
One thing they don't warn you about in film school, that nobody tells you about regarding screenwriting, is THE SPEECH.
For most of the films I've worked on that have been produced, I've had to learn some version of The Speech. What happens is this: people (friends, relatives) come up to you and say something like, "I saw THE PUPPET MASTERS on television the other night," or "Hey, didn't you work on GODZILLA?" And you feel compelled to explain that yes, you worked on the picture, but you know that it's terrible, it's okay that they hated it, you would have done it differently, etc. You find yourself in the situation so often, the collection of disclaimers, apologies and explanations for a movie eventually become rote.
For example, here's 'The Speech' for GODZILLA:
"Yes, we worked on it, but our script got thrown out. We got story credit because they kept some basic elements -- but in our draft, Godzilla fought a second monster, and kicked his ass. We realized that Godzilla was the hero, and even if people were afraid of him in the beginning, they wanted to root for him in the end."
To which people invariably look relieved ("Great, I don't have to pretend the movie wasn't crap") and say, "Oh, that would have been much better."
And it would have been.
For the record: Ted and I originally helped get the GODZILLA film off the ground at TriStar, writing a screenplay that satisfied the studio enough to seek directors. Our draft got the interest of Jan De Bont just after he finished SPEED. During pre-production on the film (man, the storyboards looked great!) budget differences caused Jan and TriStar to part ways.
The INDEPENDENCE DAY team of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich came in, and decided to write their own script. They were complimentary of our draft, and said it showed them that a film could be made -- but concluded "It wasn't a story we wanted to tell." They kept some elements, and changed most. So here is the version that might have been -- our last draft, worked on with Jan. You can see for yourself how responsible we are for the film that was eventually made.
All right -- now all the tech stuff.
You can read GODZILLA online(one BIG page; 240k), and you can also download a compressed 'formatted text' file for Mac (Stuffed, self-expanding, BinHex'd; 130k), or PC (Zipped; 70k).
ALL versions look best when viewed in Courier 12 point. You might want to double-check that your 'Fixed' or 'Fixed-width' font option/preference is set to Courier.
To download a compressed file (again in most current browsers), click and HOLD your cursor on the file's link till a small menu pops up, and select 'Save this Link as...' or 'Download Link to Disk' or words to that effect.
Finally, to use a compressed file, you'll need a program to decode and/or open them. (Get StuffIt Expander. It's FREE, it's multi-platform, and it's great!)
Please note that the 'formatted text' files are similar to the original script but NOT exact (no underlining, for example). We're all sticklers for detail as far as screenplay formatting goes, but in this case, there's no choice -- that's just how this file stuff works.
So there you go. We hope you enjoy the script -- it's the version of the film we thought would work. No speeches needed.
Terry Rossio
May, 1999
COVER · INTRO · SCRIPT
WELCOME · FORUMS · COLUMNS · INDY PROS · COMPANY · ARCHIVES
©1999 Terry Rossio & Ted Elliott · http://www.wordplayer.com · Site Map · Mail
Spandau Belly wrote:Blofeld would build a mind-control helmet and put in on Godzilla and control him to destroy cities...
Archive wrote:While I agree that the original Gojira is pretty great filmmaking, with a fantastic allegory and innovative effects, it did get silly in short order. At the same time, after the original, I don't think I'll ever get sick of Godzilla movies. It's fantasy fulfillment. I like the idea that we can make friends with our mistakes, which is one of the big themes. On the other hand, seeing the devil get his due is always a pleasure. When Godzilla puts the stompdown on the pesky humans, it's nothing but payback.
Then, of course, there's just the bizzarre aspects which are pure, weird delight. I loved Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. Giant lobster attack! Weird Mothra sex pixies! Secret government projects!
In my opinion, the only thing the Godzilla universe lacks is a James Bond crossover, circa late Sean Connery. James Bond got silly enough to earn it, and Bond is the only man fit to face off against the wheels within wheels of government superprojects that pepper a Godzilla movie.
DerLanghaarige wrote:While, since this thread is already bumped...
I seriously think that the first Godzilla is a very good movie. It's atmospheric and filmhistoric relevant because of its real life context.
Every other movie not so much, although I really loved them as a kid and enjoyed the hell out of them.
And I the only one who thinks that Roland Emmerich's version DOES the series justice? I mean, it's pretty much exactly like the Japanese movies - just with better FX. Let's take a closer look. We got a one-sentence story that goes: "Giant monster attacks big city" and between the scenes with Godzilla we got some uninteresting banter with the human characters. Sorry, but that's exactly what the Japanese movies are! Monster rampage, intercut with uninteresting humans. I think the whole GINO-thing is bullshit, since it gives the audience exactly what it wanted to see: A Godzilla movie with better FX. (But of course we can argue about the design of the U.S. Godzilla)
TheButcher wrote:
Written By: Ken Hulsey
Source: SFX Magazine (Oct 1997)
With Godzilla fans around the world nervously awaiting word on who will helm Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros new American G film, it seems fitting that we travel back in time to 1998 to see just what went wrong with Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's movie flop.
Since both film makers are ultimately fed-up with fielding questions about their 1998 Godzilla movie, the only way to get a real definitive view on their thought processes is to go back to before G98 became a black mark in Godzilla movie history.
Luckily enough for us, we won't have to use a time machine or force either of the two film makers to subject themselves to a Vulcan mind scan to get our answers. You see back in 1997 a reporter for the UK sci fi magazine, SFX, was granted an interview with Dean Devlin on the set of G98 in Los Angeles. I would like to credit the interviewer here, but unfortunately their name was not included with the magazine article. Regardless, their piece gives all of us an unadulterated view of just what was going through Devlin's mind during the filming of the first American Godzilla movie, and ultimately provides the long-sought-after answers to why the film failed and why the much treasured G94 script by Ted Elliott/Terry Rossio was rejected.
At first the interviewer simply asks why the two film makers would opt to do an American Godzilla film?
Devlin answers, "Tristar came to us a couple of years ago about doing Godzilla, and we actually turned it down.
"We just thought, 'How do you overcome the cheese factor?'
"What you don't want to do is make fun of Godzilla. We really didn't know how to make it properly, and so we passed on it. Actually, we turned it down a couple of times.
"Later on when Jan De Bont got involved, he developed a really good script and even though we decided to abandon that script and go in a completely different direction, what it told us was that it could be done elegantly and straight. And when I say straight, I mean still with a lot of humor, but respectfully."
I think that those comments really speak volumes about how Devlin and Emmerich didn't really know what they were doing, and ultimately didn't even want to make a Godzilla film in the first place.
But wait, it gets better.....
Here is what Devlin said about reinventing, and redesigning Godzilla, "......Partrick Tatopoulos came over with his drawings of the new Godzilla, what our version could be like. The second we saw the drawings it was like. 'All right! That's it! We've got to do this!
"Because of the limitations of technology, the Godzilla of yesteryear is this lumbering Frankenstein coming down the street. But here we've got this agile , quick, scary and wild creature. Suddenly, all these possibilities opened up. That's when we decided, 'Let's do it!
And how did Toho respond to this new Godzilla design? "Jan De Bont told us that he had had a lot of problems. That every time they'd wanted to make a slight change (in the monsters appearance) it was a big ordeal. So what we did is we went for a completely different look, not slightly different. Totally different. We brought it to Toho, we brought it to the original creators, and said to them, 'Look, this is the way we'd do it.
"They took a long time in deciding and then finally said, 'You know what? We don't even want to comment on it; we'll just say yes or no.' And then they said, 'We love this look, we love your idea and we back it 100%. Go do it.' Because it was so different, it was like a whole rebirth of Godzilla. I think they liked that."
Well, it seems that if you read between the lines there, Toho tried to fight them on the new Godzilla design, but ultimately just gave in. They may have said how much they liked it then, but as you know, they don't much care for it now.
Here is what Devlin had to say about what I think is the worst scene in G98, "The original title was a combination of the Japanese word God and the Japanese word for whale. I don't want to spoil the best gag in the film, but in the picture he's originally called Gojira, but then it gets bastardised in a humorous way."
Umm.....well, little did Devlin realize the joke was on him, Godzilla in Japanese is still pronounced Godzilla......not GOJEERA.....its just spelled G.O.J.I.R.A. Ha....ha.....ha......uh.
That's the best gag you guys could come up with?..........wow.
Throughout the interview Devlin was kinda all over the place when it came to his thoughts about the original, Japanese, Godzilla film series, in one statement he would mention how his film would be a respectful homage to the G films that came prior, then a few statements later he would seem to mock them.
Check out this dis of the Godzilla film series, "Most of the public, used to watching the hokey Japanese versions, will be thinking of men-in-suits and bad models, a kind of dinosaur hybrid who lumbers about in a semi-comical fashion trashing Lego buildings..."
Okay, lets recap, Godzilla films are cheesy movies about a lumbering comical Frankenstein who trashes bad models and Lego buildings.
Geez, did Devlin and Emmerich fly to Japan to dance on the graves of Honda, Tanaka, and Tsuburaya? Sure sounds like it!
Good job Tristar, you sure picked a couple of guys who really understood the Godzilla genre to make your G film!
That is the point though, from Devlin's statements it can be ascertained that Tristar was ultimately sold on both he and Emmerich, based on the success they had with "Stargate" and "ID4", and they really didn't seem to care if they understood how to make a Godzilla film or not, a fact that even they admitted to not knowing how to do properly.
In fact, the duo only accepted the gig, if they could do an 'un-Godzilla' movie, in other words, a movie that was nothing like a typical Godzilla feature.
In that they succeeded.......
It also explains why Ted Elliott/Terry Rossio's G94 script was trashed, it was for a 'real' Godzilla movie, something Devlin and Emmerich didn't want anything to do with.
I wish that I had the time, and space to post the entire interview. To summarise the parts that I left out, Devlin spends a lot of time bragging about how cool their new Godzilla is, and that it can run 500 miles-per-hour, and also that they had developed a canon that could shoot a 1,700 pound car 477 feet.
You get the idea.
So here we are in the early stages of yet, another, American Godzilla film. Though all the parties involved keep saying the right things, like how much they don't want to repeat G98, and how the film needs to be like the original Japanese films, you need to remember, Devlin and Emmerich were saying things like that in 1997.
Here is another of Devlin's statements, "I think what Roland and I did with 'War of the Worlds' (ID4) was a gas and fun, but it wasn't "Mars Attacks!" We took it seriously. And that's what we're trying to do with Godzilla - reinvent him, as though there was no previous one, but yet being respectful to the origins an intent of the original film."
Sound familiar?
Now, I'm not trying to make all of you Godzilla fans start loosing sleep or anything, but this is the kind of jargon you always here when remakes are announced. Do I think that Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros will select a director who has little to no respect for the Japanese Godzilla films, who wants to make a film that is nothing like any prior G feature? I sure hope not.
Yet, this is Hollywood we are talking about, and anything is possible.
I, however, do believe that the makers of this new American Godzilla film understand all too well the backlash they would receive if they repeated the prior mistakes of Devlin and Emmerich.
This all good food for thought, don't you think?
Peven wrote:i think it is pathetically funny how some people get so riled up and offended by the '98 Emmerich movie, as if by making it Emmerich destroyed every other Godzilla movie made so people could only watch his version. so, you don't like it, it isn't as if it hasn't gotten undeserved accolades or been successful in some other way to give a reason for such seething resentment. so someone made a bad Godzilla movie, get the fuck over it...and get a life while you're at it. plus, trying to elevate the Godzilla movies as anything above diversionary cheese is just plain....silly. fitting, i guess, since that is exactly what the movies themselves are.
Peter Bart wrote:Plans for a remake of "Godzilla" were unveiled recently by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. But that movie has already been remade about 50 times, and the last attempt from Sony only 12 years ago was the equivalent of ape rape.
TheButcher wrote:From the Godzilla 2012 blog:
What Went Wrong With Godzilla 98? - Inside The Mind Of Dean Devlin
TheButcher wrote:From Variety:
Does the gruff stuff still work for H'wood?Peter Bart wrote:Plans for a remake of "Godzilla" were unveiled recently by Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. But that movie has already been remade about 50 times, and the last attempt from Sony only 12 years ago was the equivalent of ape rape.
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