The official Legendary Pictures GODZILLA 3D reboot thread (5.16.14)

As a lifelong Godzilla fan, I have been waiting for this day all my life... OK, since Godzilla 2000. But really, beyond JUST seeing a Godzilla film in American theatres... I wanna see an EPIC serious Godzilla film in an American theatre that is well received and highly rated. And not scoffed at or "only for the fans." In that sense, yes, I have been waiting all my life. And it looks like... on May 16, 2014, that may finally become a reality.



5.16.14 will be an epic day, with this, TMNT (even if it sucks it's still TMNT right?) and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It might mark the first time in my life that I watch 3 movies in the theatre in 1 day.

Filming for Godzilla is scheduled for March 14, 2013 and is expected to run through June 22. Rewriting the final script is Frank Darabont

Look at the casting... it's looking promising



Olsen has confirmed. Johnson and Cranston would be excellent additions.

It's shaping up to be a "dark, serious" Godzilla film, and looks like this could possibly be a legitimately good film. Fingers are crossed...

Sounds like 1998 all over again. I saw Godzilla 98 in theaters, goddamn that shit sucked. Quite funny to see his ass getting kicked in Final Wars though.

Steve said:

It's shaping up to be a "dark, serious" Godzilla film

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...with a giant lizard, how serious can you really get?

I've been rewatching a lot of Godzilla lately. Maybe the recent news of the upcoming movie has been seeping into my subconscious and putting me in the mood. I've been jumping around all over from Millennium to Heisei to Showa... and while I like pretty much all of the movies to some extent, watching them in random order really reinforces the idea that the Heisei era is by far my least favorite. A couple of those are just downright TEDIOUS to get through at points. Even Showa at its silliest at least keeps things moving. And the Millennium movies are like what the Heisei movies attempted to do but done right. Just my opinion.

Anyway, the ones I've been watching the past few days:
Godzilla 2000 -- love it.
Destroy All Monsters -- like it a lot except I have the shitty dvd with no chapter stops.
Tokyo S.O.S. -- love it.
Space Godzilla -- in the middle of this now. Great in parts, a chore in others.

Next is probably the original, followed by GMK, both of which I love. Then maybe Destroyah, a movie which could stand to lose the entire middle section. Just dump that lame Aliens rip-off subplot completely.

I gotta get up off my ass and check out the films I haven't seen yet. I watched most of the older ones when I was a kid and sometimes they'll air one of the 80's-90's ones on Encore complete with the English dubbing. Last one I saw was Final Wars and my god was it a lot of fun. It really was like Godzilla walking around like a killer in a slasher flick. The "fight" with Zilla in Sydney was hilarious. I remember rewinding it so I could see it again. Best part of Godzilla 98' was the advertising. They bought out a ton of add space in New York City that summer. I remember going to Six Flags in Jersey and they had bought three billboards and the last one said "His tail is this long" and the city buses would say "His foot is larger then this bus"

I hope this movie comes out alright. I know it's going to be another CG Godzilla so I don't know how that's going to look. The costumes in Final Wars were awesome. It'd be amazing if they could do a suit with CGI to enhance the look, but it'll be straight up CG. As long as they have another monster to fight him off with and not the military like in 98' then it'll be worth checking out.

As a Godzilla die hard I need to hear some more from the current crew cause what I have heard I like less then the bull shit starring Faris Buler

I hope this godzilla doesn't look like the CG POS the US godzilla ended up to be -.- the book was way better then the movie because it didn't have any images lol

The figure they used in that Godzilla movie didn't look anything like Godzilla.

Steve said:

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This isn't going to be what the new Godzilla looks like, is it? Please tell me no.

^ Not sure. It was a shot captured by a fan at Comic Con when the teaser aired (and has only aired there.. my guess is there will be a teaser before Pacific Rim movie starts, also by Legendary and dealing with "monsters"). The final Godzilla look could easily be modified... kind of like how some trailers nowadays show things you don't actually see in the real movie.

I only ask because I don't know if it's an illusion caused by the rock or whatever in the foreground, but the monster almost looks square-headed like the previous bullshit american Godzilla. Or "Zilla" if that's what he's called now.

It's cast looks good, Aaron Taylor-Johnson played an excellent John Lennon in nowhere boy, I mean can it really be as bad as 1998

AppleiDog said:

It's cast looks good

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totally irrelevant to a Godzilla film though

This is great news. Personally, I liked 98, even if it was quite a departure from the Japanese movies, but I seem to be in the minority.

Any speculation as to who the enemy monster(s) will be?

I think the grey area lies with the portfolio and experience of the director, Gareth Edwards.

Maybe he'll put out a great Godzilla movie. Maybe he won't. All of his previous works seem to mainly centralise around special effects, so maybe he just thought... he 'could' re: Godzilla.

I wouldn't call that a solid casting though...

Toho should know better than giving his monster to the americans...again.

we did get that from the first American Godzilla movie, so i'd say it paid off in a way

In the spirit of this thread, I just amazoned the Godzilla Collection dvd box, which fills in most of the Showa movies I didn't yet own. $25 for 7 movies across 8 dvds is a pretty great deal, and couple of them, I haven't seen in decades. It will be my fourth copy of the first movie, but still more than worth it to get the others.

'Raids Again', I think I've only seen once in my life, back around 1986 at some anime fanclub thing they used to hold in downtown L.A.. It didn't even have subtitles. They just handed out a printed synopsis before the movie, and then it was catch-as-catch-can as you watched the thing.

SouthtownKid said:

I only ask because I don't know if it's an illusion caused by the rock or whatever in the foreground, but the monster almost looks square-headed like the previous bullshit american Godzilla. Or "Zilla" if that's what he's called now.

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I liked it better when it was just called Creature X I also liked in Final Wars the chapter Godzilla fights it is called "Pretender To The Throne"


No one liked that damn thing

SouthtownKid said:

In the spirit of this thread, I just amazoned the Godzilla Collection dvd box, which fills in most of the Showa movies I didn't yet own. $25 for 7 movies across 8 dvds is a pretty great deal, and couple of them, I haven't seen in decades. It will be my fourth copy of the first movie, but still more than worth it to get the others.

'Raids Again', I think I've only seen once in my life, back around 1986 at some anime fanclub thing they used to hold in downtown L.A.. It didn't even have subtitles. They just handed out a printed synopsis before the movie, and then it was catch-as-catch-can as you watched the thing.

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Cool. I bought Godzilla vs. Biollante DVD which was officially released for the first time ever on US DVD last December. I'm looking forward to viewing it subtitle style. I've only seen the Miramax dubbed VHS version... probably like 10 years ago, lol

Steve said:

Cool. I bought Godzilla vs. Biollante DVD which was officially released for the first time ever on US DVD last December. I'm looking forward to viewing it subtitle style. I've only seen the Miramax dubbed VHS version... probably like 10 years ago, lol

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I saw Biolante is the only one they've released to blu-ray so far, too. I couldn't figure out what made that one so special as opposed to, say, the Ghidorah movie that follows it. But if this is the first time it's been released on disc at all, that kind of explains it. Maybe the others are coming on blu-ray.

Have any of the other Heisei movies been released dual-language? It's been so long since I've rewatched these that I was really surprised watching my Space Godzilla/Destroyer double feature dvd trying to change the language and suddenly remembering they were dub-only. What's worse is that I don't think they kept the same dub actors for the continuing parts, like that psychic chick.

The one I'm really interested to watch now is the Japanese version of Godzilla 1985. I've only seen the Americanized chopped-up version.

Also, I forgot to ask, but is there a domestic release of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (Heisei) that is in widescreen, either now or on the horizon? I'd really like to upgrade for this movie.

STK, let us know how that box set is when you get it. I'd like to beef up my Godzilla collection since I only have Final Wars. I watched it again last night. Fun friggen flick. Also, on the back of the case Toho named the American Godzilla, "Zilla". Is it true that the Japanese were in an uproar because the American Godzilla ate people? When my friend Gerard taught English in Japan he told me when he'd talk to people about Godzilla they'd tell him stories how when he ate somebody the audience started shouting and booing then all walked out. Which is almost unheard of in Japanese theaters. (Wish they'd be like that in American theaters now...)

I'm hoping Toho won't just sit back and let Hollywood do whatever it wants this time. I'm with Steve in wanting a darker, serious take that still remains true to the spirit (and closer in design) but with Hollywood production values. Like an American GMK or something.

As for the boxset, yeah, I'll report. Seems to have almost entirely 5 star reviews. Anybody who rated it less seems to have done so either because they were upset some of the movies were only available in the set after they'd already bought the others in single releases, or because All Monsters Attack sucks. But they're all widescreen and dual-language, so I'm good.

Supposedly there are even some special features, although I don't know what they are.

I doubt the new movie will be anywhere as bad as Zilla.
As far as my faves, I would go:

1)Gojira
2)Godzilla vs Destroyah (mostly because of it's connection to the original)
3)GMK
4)Godzilla vs Biollante

*STK knows his shit*

SouthtownKid said:

Also, I forgot to ask, but is there a domestic release of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (Heisei) that is in widescreen, either now or on the horizon? I'd really like to upgrade for this movie.

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I haven't seen one yet. The US released GvKG '91 and GvM '92 duo combo pack is not even subtitled so that was pretty lame. Godzilla 1985 (or the Return of Godzilla 1984) remains unreleased to US DVD/Bluray at this time. I too wanna see this and dunno why the long holdup, although I'm sure it's connected with money and rights BS. We finally got Godzilla vs. Megalon not too long ago, but that's not the best of the unreleased Godzilla stuff out there. I still am waiting for Godzilla vs. King Kong JP version widescren with English subs as well. I actually rather enjoyed the Japanese version. US GvKK was so butchered...

Here are some fan pics I wouldn't mind seeing the 2014 look resembling...



I'm not a huge fan of the "super spikey" Godzilla fan look I see a lot of nowadays, but I can dig the one above. It's not too spikey. And he does look like a force of nature, a demon from hell.

This is a cool panoramic pic



Not bad



More images here: http://www.godzilla-movies.com/gallery/view/6

For some reason, I just have a lot of faith in the entire 2014 Godzilla crew. Gareth is a huge fan of the series and its legacy. The leads aren't big names, but up and coming and big enough to attract some non-fans... and I think Godzilla will resemble the spirit of the 1954 one we all came to know and love. It's gonna be a hell of a film, I like to believe. And if it bombs, hey, it's more modern exposure to the legend of Godzilla, and we will always have the originals. That's one thing I don't get about people bitching about sequels. Yeah if they suck that sucks... but to me it doesn't necessarily detract from the original film(s). They'll always be there. At this point, every G Fan should be rallying and hoping for the best. If it turns out to be any good, there could be a trilogy in the works, and the entire Godzilla history tree would sprout off in directions we can only dream of right now.

In other words, I'm really optimistic and excited... and in a way that is beyond "cautionary" excitement. Godzilla 2014 is gonna rock the house (I hope...)