Just when you think everything is going fine with The Walking Dead and Godzilla, chaos ensues.
First The Walking Dead fires its current show runner, then there’s producer infighting on the upcoming Godzilla reboot. So it’s a bit ironic that the original showrunner of Walking Dead, Frank Darabont, is coming in to help Godzilla before he’s ready to stomp again.
As the Hollywood Reporter confirms, two of the producers on the film, Dan Lin and Roy Lee, are fighting with Legendary Pictures over the usual financial and creative differences.
But while this battle is building, apparently the script for the film needs a little tweaking before shooting kicks off this Spring. Enter Frank Darabont.
Darabont of course gave us one of the greatest Stephen King adaptations ever with The Shawshank Redemption, and he also adapted The Green Mile, The Mist, along with script doctor work on Minority Report.
A little bit of trivia you may not know is Darabont penned a script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie, which Spielberg loved but Lucas rejected, not to mention he wrote the best Nightmare on Elm Street movie, Dream Warriors. David Goyer, screenwriter of Batman Begins, Man of Steel, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, and Da Vinci’s Demons, took at pass on the Godzilla script as well.
Along with bringing Darabont aboard for some last minute polish, right now Legendary is also trying to cast the lead in Godzilla, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt has already turned it down.
Variety reports the current #1 choice for Godzilla’s leading man is Henry Cavill, the new Man of Steel. (Thankfully, Cavill has already beat the Superman typecasting curse, but who’s going to be inside the Godzilla suit is the real question).
A lot of A-list writers in Hollywood do rewrite work for quick money, and it will be interesting to see what Darabont can contribute to Godzilla. I’ll certainly be sitting in the theaters trying to pin-point what Darabont could have written for the film, and I hope there will finally be a great American Godzilla flick. Having a touch of Darabont certainly can’t hurt.
Godzilla is currently slated for a May 16, 2014 release date.
