Over the weekend a commenter asked if I would be doing a top ten list of movie remakes in preparation for this weekend’s release of Clash of the Titans. As a result I put together a list of films that either myself of David Frank will be tackling, hopefully for release this Wednesday, but at the latest on Thursday. One film that will not be on that list is Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla from 1998, a terrible movie if you ask me, but one I could probably watch and laugh at rather than hate if I popped it into the player right now. Then again I don’t own it so I would have to try even harder to watch it in that case.
With that said, it seems Columbia and Emmerich’s remake of the film won’t be the last time the radioactive beast wrecks havoc as Legendary Pictures is co-producing and co-financing with Warner Bros. another remake of the 1954 Toho feature for release in 2012. Legendary will release Godzilla after obtaining the rights from Toho, but Toho is remaining in the mix and will release the remake in Japan. It also sounds, according to Variety‘s report, like a director has already been signed and will be announced shortly.
This isn’t the first time news of Legendary’s attachment to the project has been announced as this is more a confirmation of Bloody Disgusting‘s report from back in August 2009 when they had just as much information as Variety now has, which is to say very little.
It will be interesting to see how a Godzilla film will be received considering the recent success of Cloverfield, which was described by producer JJ Abrams as a monster movie from America. Following the $170 million worldwide receipts for Cloverfield a sequel was said to be in the works, but recently Cloverfield director Matt Reeves told MTV the film may happen and their have been “spikes in activity” and “things [they] keep talking about” but as of yet no movement. If Paramount wants to stay in the monster movie game they had better think of something quick.
What I’m also interested in is just how much will Legendary and WB spend on a new Godzilla. One of the more fascinating things about Cloverfield was the $25 million budget and grass roots online campaigning. Will WB follow a similar trajectory or will they simply go for a big monster movie in 3D, a la their seeming current marketing for Clash of the Titans? My assumption is the latter, but we’ll have to just wait and see.
