A rebooted Godzilla in America

[Jochimus]

Godzilla 1998 was an ABOMINATION !!!!!

The spinoff 'toon wasn't too shabby, though.

 

[SUPER SAIYAN D]

Yea, the Toon was better than the movie.

 

[8wid]

The spinoff 'toon wasn't too shabby, though.

Agree to that.

I think after the military finally left as characters of the franchise and monsters were introduced, I think it got better.

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

Agree to that.

I think after the military finally left as characters of the franchise and monsters were introduced, I think it got better.

yes it was awesome, i like how they introduced Mecha-Godzilla.

 

[SUPER SAIYAN D]

The 1998 Godzilla has always been a childhood favorite of mine, and I would love a reboot, especially if they kept the design of the '98 version, and gave him the powers he should have, as well as making him go up against another monster.

A 150 ft mutant Marine Iguana, as opposed to a 400 ft mutant Godzillasaurus ? I'll take the ORIGINAL Godzilla over the '98 version anyday !!!

 

[Timstuff]

I was thinking today, it would be cool if Godzilla got a reboot that was made in Japan, but produced by a Western producer, similar to how Cloverfield and District 9 had big producers attached to them. This would not be another "American" Godzilla movie-- it would be very much a Japanese production (with a Japanese director), but with a budget of around 50 million dollars (which for a Japanese Godzilla production is VERY big) and a US producer to make sure that it's being spent in the right places.

The plot would probably be a little more international with one or two Western actors to provide a culture bridge. The special effects would be VERY high production value for a Japanese Godzilla film, but it would still use actors in suits w/ some minor CG enhancements (such as composting from blue screen onto real-life / CG enhanced backgrounds) and stuff like that. Basically, the charm of good ol' rubber suits, but with some of the added believability of CG, all for a low-risk budget.

It would be marketed as an event film like any other blockbuster these days with a decent sized promotion campaign, so it wouldn't just be a foreign production getting a US release. Like I said, this would have to be a big pet project like District 9 was, and it would also be an opportunity to give a lesser known foreign director some exposure in the Western market. It would be a REAL Godzilla movie, but it would also be a well-polished, "big budget" (or big budget looking) release.

Maybe Peter Jackson and/or Richard Taylor would be interested in getting involved with such a project?

 

[Sarge 2.0]

The movie could be fun, but I dunno how many people would be willing to see another Godzilla flick after the Emmerich disaster...I think that the audience would largely consist of hardcore Godzilla/Kaiju fans.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think a Godzilla movie in the style of Peter Jackson's King Kong is the way to go IMO.

 

[Nightmare]

I wanna see something new from Godzilla, I still have very high hopes if done right.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Yes, because God forbid a director ask an audience to actually use their imagination. It's MUCh better to just spoon-feed them EVERYTHING.

So then why do you like Spider-Man comics?

 

[Timstuff]

The movie could be fun, but I dunno how many people would be willing to see another Godzilla flick after the Emmerich disaster...I think that the audience would largely consist of hardcore Godzilla/Kaiju fans.

It depends... Godzilla '98 did make a profit despite being blasted by fans, so I think that there is a market for a big-budget Godzilla movie. The question is what direction they should take with a new movie. I think we can pretty much rule out a sequel to Godzilla '98, but I think that a more faithful Godzilla movie could be a worthy venture.

Movie budgets go A LOT further in Japan than they do in the US, so if a lot of the production for the new movie was done in Japan they could easily keep the budget under 50 million and still produce something that looks on par with other big budget productions. It wouldn't 100% be a cheap Japanese movie, but at the same time it would still have a bit of geurilla flavor to it that keeps it from feeling like a bloated hollywood CG fest the way Godzilla '98 was. Like I said, the place to look for inspiration on how to make the production work would be Cloverfield and District 9. This would basically be a Western-produced/funded Japanese movie made for the international market, preferably with a big-name Western producer attached.

 

[SonofKrypton009]

It was horrible. Wish they would do another one in the U.S.

Yep hopefully a serious director takes a whack at it nightmare. I bought it just because it was one of the most hyped films of my life... Man did the guys from ID4 waste mega potential with making a horrible remake.

I bought the dvd, just because it covers the hype and those cool trailers, not for the film itself.

Keep your fingers crossed Nightmare that a really innovative director takes on the reported big budget reboot coming.

 

[8wid]

If Godzilla came back, then what on Earth would he do? Don't you think that the attack and destroy the big city routine is far beyond being old? Fighting creatures is more interesting. But who to fight? Rodan sounds interesting redone in CG.

 

[Timstuff]

Yes, a Godzilla reboot would HAVE to have monster battles. Part of why so many people were disappointed with Godzilla '98 IMO was because it did not have any monster-vs-monster action. It was not serious enough to work with just having Godzilla blow stuff up, but without a monster battle the cheesiness felt out of balance. If you want to do a direct remake of the original Godzilla you've got to do it dead serious, but if you want to make a fun Godzilla movie you've gotta have some Kaiju action going on in there.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Tim, I'm going to have to disagree.

I take it none of you read the leaked script for the Godzilla movie that was never made?

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Seeing how that's a no.

The early script for Godzilla was going amazing, from what I remember reading and this:

Created by the late Stan Winston himself, was the original design for the Americanized Godzilla.

Oh and, I found the script:

http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/GODZILLA.TXT

 

[Timstuff]

Dang, that looks awesome! Oh, what could have been... Only the most rabid of Godzilla fanboiz would have been able to look at that thing and call it "GINO."

Maybe if they do the east-meets-west reboot movie I was talking about, they could get Stan Winston Studios to take a whack at designing the Godzilla suit. That was actually something I had been quite interested in.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

I'd like to see that Godzilla but in delicious CGI in IMAX.

 

[Kane52630]

you can watch Godzilla 1998 on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9hwcl3GC3Q

 

[Golgo-13]

That above design looks awesome, and yes the 1998 movie was an abomination to a legendary character. Please re-boot this. I wouldn't mind seeing a King Kong vs Godzilla movie too......

..oh, and since we're talking about reboots, plz re-boot Planet of the Apes!

 

[Timstuff]

So here's a question I've been pondering-- with a Godzilla reboot, should they start at the very beginning where no-one knows of Godzilla's existence at all, or should it use the 1954 movie as a sort of vague history? Like, a Godzilla creature attacked once before, and now another one is attacking in modern times, sort of like what they did in some of the recent Japanese movies?

If they were going to do a hard reboot, then that begs another question-- should they start off jumping right into monster battles, or should they first do more of a remake of the original, where it focuses just on Godzilla attacking and gives a human face to the destruction? I think in a post-9/11 and Katrina world, there's a lot of potential to do a powerful movie with Godzilla as an allegory for how people react in crisis situations, which would resonate with audiences. On the other hand though, when people think of Godzilla they think Kaiju, and a lot of people were disappointed by the '98 film's lack of any monster-versus-monster action. The question IMO is not one of whether or not this reboot should allow for classic monster mashups, but whether or not they should start them in the first movie or wait till Godzilla and his world have been established, then have the battles in the sequels.

Something that Cloverfield and District 9 had going for them was that they had human characters who we actually cared about by the time the movie was over, so whether they're remaking the first movie in a contemporary setting, or just making a light reboot that jumps us straight into the monster mashups, there needs to be a solid human element that keeps the audience invested in the story. The best Godzilla movies have had a good human element, and the worst ones have had either a minimal human element or one that was crappy and we just wanted it to be over with.

 

[Timstuff]

So here's a question I've been pondering-- with a Godzilla reboot, should they start at the very beginning where no-one knows of Godzilla's existence at all, or should it use the 1954 movie as a sort of vague history? Like, a Godzilla creature attacked once before, and now another one is attacking in modern times, sort of like what they did in some of the recent Japanese movies?

If they were going to do a hard reboot, then that begs another question-- should they start off jumping right into monster battles, or should they first do more of a remake of the original, where it focuses just on Godzilla attacking and gives a human face to the destruction? I think in a post-9/11 and Katrina world, there's a lot of potential to do a powerful movie with Godzilla as an allegory for how people react in crisis situations, which would resonate with audiences. On the other hand though, when people think of Godzilla they think Kaiju, and a lot of people were disappointed by the '98 film's lack of any monster-versus-monster action. The question IMO is not one of whether or not this reboot should allow for classic monster mashups, but whether or not they should start them in the first movie or wait till Godzilla and his world have been established, then have the battles in the sequels.

Something that Cloverfield and District 9 had going for them was that they had human characters who we actually cared about by the time the movie was over, so whether they're remaking the first movie in a contemporary setting, or just making a light reboot that jumps us straight into the monster mashups, there needs to be a solid human element that keeps the audience invested in the story. The best Godzilla movies have had a good human element, and the worst ones have had either a minimal human element or one that was crappy and we just wanted it to be over with.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Haha, I'm going to get hell for this:

But, I'd love a Cloverfield themed Godzilla, of course set it in New York but, have Godzilla be a new monster, like. NO not a FPS Style of filming but, an all out monster movie that is just destruction, no heroes, no "getting the upper hand at the last second". Just all out monster, chaos and destruction. I think they can do faith to the Original Toho films but also keep it as realistic as possible with Godzilla as the only monster.

 

[Timstuff]

I was thinking it would be awesome if in a Godzilla reboot using men in suits, they went for a somewhat "documentary" look in the action scenes-- as in, they had clear thought put into where exactly the cameras are, and made sure that they were in correct scale with the monsters. Like, "is this a fake helicopter shot?" or "is the camera on the roof of a building, or on the street being held by a steady cam?" It would be tricky and would likely require the use of some wacky new technology, but the results would be some VERY convincingly shot action scenes-- especially if they're composited with footage of real people and real cities.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

I fell asleep on Godzilla '98 in theaters which is an incredible feat considering how loud the movie was.

As far as Godzilla goes I'll always favor the 60's versions of the monster. The 70's he became too kiddy and the 90's where he looked like a freakin Doberman was just awful. GMK got me back into the Godzilla movies.