It’s been in the works for quite some time, there was even a teaser trailer shown at Comic-Con, but now it’s official: Godzilla will be back in 3D on May 16, 2014.
Legendary Pictures, which produced the Christopher Nolan Batman franchise, is making the latest incarnation of the big G, along with Warner Brothers, with Gareth Edwards (Monsters) directing.
Some time back, Deadline wondered if the world really needed another Godzilla film, and we at TG say yes for several reasons.
As I’ve said before, America has never done a Godzilla film right, and it would be great for today’s generation to learn the joys of Godzilla. And even if you’re sick to death of 3D by now, a Godzilla film in 3D could be too much fun to resist.
Collider points out that if this current release date holds, Godzilla will be coming out on the same day as Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, if that ever gets off the ground of course, and a week later will be the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This is quite some time away now, so it will be interesting to see if Godzilla, the Apes and the Turtles will indeed all go head to head that summer.
Godzilla made a sneak appearance this year at Comic-Con, and apparently the teaser trailer got a good response, so maybe the geeks are indeed looking forward to the big guy coming back. At Comic-Con, Gareth Edwards said, “We’re just gonna take it very seriously. I’ve wanted to see Godzilla like this all my life, really. The idea is, if this really happened, as crazy as it sounds, what would it really be like? There’s nothing sci-fi about this movie; it’s very grounded, realistic.”
In an official announcement from Warner Brothers, the studio said that the 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 Warner Bros. will return the character to its epic roots with a gritty, realistic actioner.”
So here’s to hoping the next revival of Godzilla will indeed deliver. The 1998 version, helmed by the ID4 duo of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, was a big disappointment that really missed what Godzilla was all about. Gritty and realistic’s cool, and it should be great fun in 3D, but don’t forget that you shouldn’t take Godzilla too seriously, he is after all a guy in a rubber suit stomping on little buildings and swatting model airplanes, which is part of what makes him so much fun in the first place.
