by: Chris Eaton Source: Latino Review
Sigh..
UPDATE: Well, turns out it I was kinda right. No sooner than I finish posting this story, and I find out it’s utter bullshit.
Drew at Hitfix, who not only has his finger on the pulse of pop culture, but is a very good filter for the horrible fat that sometimes course through it, got in touch with Del Toro. The director told Drew, in his own words:
“I am not involved in ‘Godzilla’ at all,” Guillermo replied once I’d explained the rumor to him. “I haven’t read it or plan to read it. Nor have I been approached to direct it.”
Figures. Latino Reviews source was fucking wrong big time on this one. Normally, I don’t bash sources, but this one really got my hopes up. According to Drew, not only was Del Toro not offered Godzilla, but the bit about the script for Pacific Rim being retrofitted for Godzilla is also utter crap too. Legendary seems to be on track with their original Godzilla scripts, and won’t be pulling a Die Hard With A Vengeance on Godzilla. Oh well. Del Toro is hard at work on his dream project. At the Mountains of Madness, and Legendary is still making Godzilla. At least that is a fact, and there is still a lot of good in those two truths.
Check out the original post below.
Damn that talented bastard Guillermo Del Toro. Everything the man touches turns to gold, PURE GOLD. So he’s been touching a lot of things. By doing so, he’s put a hell of a lot on his plate. At the Mountains of Madness, Frankenstein, Pinocchio, and on top of that, dozens of projects he’s producing. Well, today, he might have added a new project to his plate, and when I read this, I screamed like a school girl and fainted.
Lantio Review got word that Legendary Pictures has offered Del Toro the film “Pacific Rim“. A spec script that they purchased last summer by Clash of the Titans writer Travis Beacham. The story tells of badass monsters show up around the world to cause havoc, forcing mankind to come together with super weapons to face down the creatures. Well, take bad ass creatures, and put GODZILLA and crew in there, and we now have the story for Legendary new Godzilla movie. Now Pacific Rim didn’t start out as a Godzilla movie, but more as an homage, but the higher ups at Legendary weren’t satisfied with the apparent “mediocre” script that was turned in for the current Godzilla film. They saw potential in Pacific Rim and are now retooling the script to serve as the basis for the new Godzilla film. Oddly enough, this wouldn’t be the first time a pre existing script would be revamped for Godzilla. Godzilla vs the Sea Monster was originally a King Kong movie that Toho was going to make. The Kong producers felt it wasn’t up to snuff, and instead, Toho made King Kong Escapes. The original script was ready to shoot, so Toho just switched Kong for Godzilla, and the rest is history.
Two things here. 1) This shows that Legendary is taking Godzilla very seriously. They are looking to do something special and worth while with the franchise and are clearly doing everything that Sony didn’t do. AKA, not rushing the movie. 2) They’re offering it to the one man who fucking gets monsters. If you’ve lived with the fucking mole people for the last ten years, you’d still know that Guillermo Del Toro makes movies with real monsters in them. Not special effects. Hellboy, Blade 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, Mimic. All of these had not only creatures in them, but they all were characters, fully fleshed out members of the cast. All of them taken seriously.
Honestly, I know that this is a long shot, but I’m willing to wait an extra year if Del Toro takes the film. We know that he’s prepping his life long passion project, At The Mountains of Madness right now with James Cameron producing, but if Legendary is willing to wait a year, let him get Mountains out of his system, and make Godzilla, they’ll be doing the right thing. Sure there are other directors out there just as capable of making a good Godzilla film, but the one’s I was kinda hoping for are working on other projects. Zack Snyder is on Superman, and Louis Leterrier has a few projects he working on as well. Yes, they’re not as top level as Del Toro is now, but they’ve got good working relationships with Legendary, and their film styles would have made suitable Godzilla films. Del Toro on the other hand, would make a masterpiece Godzilla film. One the would bring the big guy out of the schlocky stance he has with most people to acclaim.
I doubt this will happen, but at least I can dream.
