Godzillahas been in the news a lot lately. It was announced last week that Legendary has movedKong: Skull Islandfrom Universal to Warner Bros. so that they can connect it with the AmericanGodzillafranchise and set up the highly-anticipated monster crossoverGodzilla Vs King Kong. That movie won’t arrive until afterGodzilla 2in 2018. But we don’t have to wait that long to see the giant lizard back on the big screen.Toho, the original Japanese studio responsible for unleashing this beast on the world, is rebooting their own mad creation. And production has officially begun in that country.
Toho has not official announced a production start date forGodzilla 2016, their first franchise sequel in over a decade. But it’s more than obvious that they’ve started shooting, as the streets of Tokyo become littered with debris and wreckage from the monster’s latest rampage. Godzilla: Final Wars was set to be Toho’s finalGodzilla movie. But after they saw the interest that the American reboot garnered, they decided they were missing out on a lucrative cash cow. The majority of Japan also thought the newAmerican Gojirawas too chubby. So you may expect some fat shamming jokes when Godzilla 2016 arrives next year, as Toho has a long standing tradition of making fun of the American Godzilla movies, especially directorRoland Emmerich’s 1998Godzilla, considered by some to be the worst, and trust us, there are some badGodzilla moviesout there.
Godzilla 2016, which is the current working title, is expected to be released in both Japan and the United States sometime next year. Though, no date has been set for either country. Twitter has been engulfed with locals sharing their videos from the shooting locations. One video shows a herd of stampeding tourists trying to run away at Yokohama’s Yokodai Station. Gomaru Island, a community of monster movie fans, has started to keep full track of the film’s production as it continues throughout the fall.
Toho green lit the movie this past December after watching directorGareth Edwards' reimagining of the monster take the entire planet by storm. The movie pulled in an impressive $200 million in the states, and then went onto become something of a worldwide phenomenon with a $529 million global tally. It ranks as the highest grossingGodzillamovie of all time. This is what Toho producer Taichi Ueda had to say about reviving the creature feature for his own country last year.
“The time has come for Japan to make a film that will not lose to Hollywood.”
Hideaki Anno, best known for theShin seiki evangelionanimation franchise, and Shinji Higuchi, the effects movie specialist behind this year’sAttack on Titan, are co-directing Godzilla 2016. Hideaki Anno wrote the script by himself. As of yet, Toho has remained silent about the film’s plot. And whenVarietyreached out for more info, the studio refused to comment.
Shinji Higuchi did let some info slip about the movie last August. He confirmed that he’d be using techniques similar to those seen inAttack on Titan, which include a ‘hybrid’ way of mixing live actors with CGI enhancements. This may mean that there will be no ‘man in suit’. Or rather, traditional latex monster suit, as it sounds like there will be some form of mo-cap involved. While we wait to hear more about the movie, you may take a look at some of the set wreckage here.
