Thursday, May 6, 2010

Godzilla 2012 (And Gamera) In The News 05/06/10 - A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Rumors

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Sources: Numerous...and growing!

If you may recall, I mentioned on Monday that Robert Hood over on the Undead Backbrain website had posted a bunch of photos of potential "Godzilla 2012" designs that have been making their way around various websites and message boards.

Well, today several main-stream sites have zeroed in on two of them. Most notably the ones that have been rumored to be of a prototype design that Legendary Pictures, supposedly, sent to Toho for approval.

I have one of the pics above.

As I mentioned on Monday, these images first appeared on the Godzilla 2012 Facebook Group way back in late March and on Flicker before that.

According to many reports this was the message that accompanied these photos on the photo sharing site: “I was told by a good friend in the movie biz that this was one of the designs they were considering for the new 3D Godzilla!”

Well, there are a lot of things in that statement that pretty much rule out this being a genuine "Godzilla 2012" prototype.

One, any statement that starts out, "I was told by a good friend in the movie biz.......", should be taken with a huge amount of salt.

Second, and this is assuming this is legit, the statement points out that these were, 'one of the designs they were considering..', which means there are others.

So, what are the odds of this being the being the Godzilla we will see on the big screen in 2012? Slim to none at best.

Though many of my counterparts in the media seem to think that this is good design for a new American Godzilla, I disagree.....strongly.

I'll make this brief.....It's simply not Godzilla. I equate it to a different studio, other than Disney, making a modern "Mickey Mouse" cartoon that features the iconic character redesigned to look more like a 'real' mouse.

Would that fly?

Of course not, and the idea of redesigning Godzilla to look more like a dragon or dinosaur won't either.

It's "GINO 98" all over again.

Here is a list of sites talking about these rumored "Godzilla 2012" designs:

ShockTillYouDrop.com
Collider.com
MovieWeb
Dread Central
WorstPreviews.com

Oh, and here's an outside review of the new "Gamera: The Giant Monster" DVD:

Gamera The Giant Monster
Exclaim! - Noriaki Yuasa

The Japanese monster films of the '50s, '60s and '70s are said to have "cheesy" special effects, but that dismissive tag is a little too easy. Sure, we can all plainly see that Godzilla looks less like a 200-foot tall monster than a stuntman in a rubber suit, but is this really a bad thing? In an age when digital effects march ever closer towards photorealism, it's sort of charming to see these rubber monsters traipsing through model cities, knocking over hollow cardboard skyscrapers and moving with speed and agility quite uncommon amongst creatures weighing 20,000 tons. These images are so deeply and powerfully strange that they can become genuinely otherworldly. This brings us to Gamera (a giant flying turtle/"friend of all children"), who was Godzilla's chief rival at the Japanese box office, but who was always a little less slick in every way. His face was virtually immobile; his mouth opened and shut like a barn door; and his giant, painted eyes never seemed to blink. To see such a transparently fake creature stomp all over such a transparently fake city, and to see the human actors react with such grave sincerity, is a sublime kind of surrealism.

Read More

See Also: Godzilla (And Friends) In The News 05/03/10 (Part 2) / Godzilla (And Friends) In The News 05/03/10 / Godzilla In The News 04/21/10 - Big G Influences Fashion And Music, Plus The Top 5 G Films According To CNN / Godzilla In The News 04/19/10 - Obama Worried Jolly Green Giant/Godzilla Conflict Could Destabilize Region / Godzilla 2012 In The News 04/15/10 - The Angry Edition! / Godzilla 2012 In The News 04/12/10 / Godzilla 2012 In The News 04/08/10 / Godzilla 2012 In The News 04/04/10 - Happy Easter! / Godzilla 2012 In The News 04/01/10 / Godzilla 2012 In The News 03/31/10

9 comments:

  1. I am really hopping that thing doesn't end up as the design. Not like it will or anything, but, yeah.

    ReplyDelete
  2. While I was pretty sure all along that this wasn't genuine, I am personally disappointed. It looks like Godzilla. It looks feral and fierce.

    Most of all it rteminds me of a combination of the Godzilla 2000 and GMK suits, with a dash of Nightmare Gamera thrown in for flavor.

    Could there be better designs? Sure. But I'd be pleased to see this creature tearing up a city and grappling with another monster.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Granted, this is great monster design, I just am not feeling it right now.

    I'm looking for something that looks a lot more 'old-school'.

    The real problem here is it's just a bust. If there was an image of what the entire thing would look like, then I might warm up to it.

    Of course, the fact that it is just a bust is another reason that I think that it is a fan made creation.

    I'm sure Legendary Pictures would send Toho a full body sculpt.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BLOODY-DISGUSTING already Shot this Rumor Down, An Confirmed this design has NOTHING to do with the upcoming Godzilla 2012 feature film.
    An since they are the one's that first heard of the Godzilla news in August 2009.

    Ill take there word over anyone else's. Im sure they asked questions an were simply told No.

    Either way, Good Early start for Hype for the Upcoming Godzilla film.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Um.....well I just shot it down too......but Bloody Disgusting is a good source also.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DUDE THEY WILL NOT USE THE SAME GODZILLA DESIGN
    OK
    THEY HALF TO REDESIN AND MAKE IT MORE REALISTIC
    SERIOUSLY I WOULD LOVE FOR THEM TO JUST USE THE ORIGINAL DESIGIN TO A T BUT ITS NOT GONNA HAPPEN
    BUT U HALF TO AMIT
    ITS STILL A BILLION TIMES BETTER THAT THE 98 DESIGN
    WHAT I THANK THEY SHOUD DO
    IS USE THE ORIGINAL 98 DESIGN DONE BY STAN WINSON BEFORE EMERCRICH CAME ABORED THE PROJECT CUS IT WAS PERFECT IS WAS REALISTC AS A DINOSOAURIN DESIGN BUT IT WAS TOTALY STILL GODZIILA
    LOOK IT UP

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dude, I think that you are talking about the late Stan Winston's unused design for the never made Tristar movie "Godzilla 94" (Godzilla vs The Gryphon), and yes that would be a great place to start when it comes to making a more updated Godzilla.

    I disagree with you, I think that Legendary Pictures will use the Japanese Godzilla, they have to, the fans will revolt if they don't.

    Of course, they will make a few changes to the design. Though I think that these will be minor, and cosmetic.

    Godzilla looked a little bit different in each of the Japanese films, but everytime the different suit designs kept the traits that made Godzilla...well...Godzilla.

    In 1998 Emmerich and Devlin went away from that completly....and paid the price.

    Legendary Pictures isn't that stupid....they will use a design that looks like the original Godzilla.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I completely agree with you on every point. The instant I saw this supposed design for the 2012 Godzilla, the name "Croc-zilla" popped into my head. It looks like a real lizard with something resembling Godzilla's skin texture, and nothing more. The "realistic" approach is absolutely a bad idea because part of Godzilla's charm is that he is like nothing that ever existed in the real world; a total escape from reality, and this lends an extra air of horror to the Japanese monster because he is something completely unknown. As we have seen in the real world and in the '98 film, "real" animals run away from danger and do not withstand Military Might, as is one of Godzilla's most enduring trademarks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. i hope the new Godzilla will look like this. i really like it

    ReplyDelete

"LEGENDARY PICTURES TO DEVELOP AND PRODUCE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE BASED ON TOHO COMPANY’S ICONIC MONSTER, GODZILLA

Burbank, CA – March 29, 2010 – Legendary Pictures announced today that they will develop and produce a new film based on Toho Company’s famed GODZILLA character. Through the terms of the agreement, Legendary Pictures has acquired the rights to produce a movie inspired by Toho’s Godzilla, a franchise the Japanese company created and has nurtured for over fifty years.

Toho’s GODZILLA franchise boasts one of the most widely recognized film creatures worldwide, resulting in a series of books, television programs, video games and more than 25 films worldwide. Legendary intends to approach the film and its characters in the most authentic manner possible. The company will, in the near future, announce a filmmaker to helm the film for an intended 2012 release. The film will fall under the company’s co-production and co-financing deal with Warner Bros. Toho will distribute the film in Japan."

"Godzilla" is coming back -- this time, with Legendary Pictures taking the lead, co-producing and co-financing with Warner Bros. for release in 2012.

Legendary announced Monday it had obtained rights to the iconic monster character from Japan's Toho Co., which has overseen more than 25 "Godzilla" films. Toho will release the pic in Japan.

Legendary said it's planning to announce a director shortly.

In addition to Legendary, producers on the new film will be Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Brian Rogers. Yoshimitsu Banno, Kenji Okuhira and Doug Davison will exec produce.

"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise," said Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary. "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."

Legendary noted the film will fall under its co-production and co-financing deal with Warner Bros. Legendary's productions with Warners have included "The Dark Knight," "300" and "The Hangover."

Speculation about a new "Godzilla" has been active since last summer. The Bloody Disgusting web site reported in August that the project was in development.