Gore 4 Reel horror for real horror fans!
Looks like mammoth monsters are set to make a giant return to the big screen. With Legendary Pictures’ successful launch of their own Godzilla franchise in 2014, which will ultimately meet up with their new King Kong reboot set for next year, the Japanese studio that brought the original Godzilla to wreak havoc on Tokyo is back with their own reboot of the King of the Monsters. Toho is bringing the legendary lizard back to theaters for its 29th feature film this July in Godzilla Resurgence. This will mark the first Godzilla film from Toho since 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars.
The film is co-directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, with Anno handling screenplay duties and Higuchi in charge of overseeing the F/X. Higuchi is no stranger to big, F/X-driven films as he directed last year’s epic two part Attack on Titan. Also coming over from that film is special effects supervisor, Katsuro Onoue. The film also stars two more Titan alumni, Hiroki Hasegawa and Gore 4 fav, Satomi Ishihara (above), who managed to upstage an army of soldiers and a gang of giants with her charisma and charm. Here, she plays a Special Envoy to the President of the United States, which will require her to speak in English, no small task.
As for Godzilla himself, the film is using a combination of the beloved man-in-suit puppetry, along with animatronics and digital effects to bring audiences the most terrifying Godzilla yet. See what you think of this new version of Godzilla with his longer tail and mean-looking face in the trailer below. Godzilla Resurgence is set to open in Japan on July 29th, with other countries hopefully soon to follow.
Satomi Ishihara . . . need anything more be said?
No; however, this “Gore 4’er” can’t resist commenting upon the new Godzilla design revealed in the Godzilla Resurgence trailer. Dare it be said . . . a Godzilla worthy of Clive Barker, straight out of the Hellraiser cube!
As opposed to the aggressive, though overtly saurian, design of the Millennium-era Godzilla (a design noteworthy for its pleasantly exaggerated dorsal fins), this recent Toho reboot is shooting for something very aesthetically sinister. The gojira of the Godzilla Resurgence trailer looks genuinely evil, as if some twisted musculature was forming out of a nuclear core composed of hellfire and brimstone. But there is something more (cue Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla march) . . .
Fans of the Heisei series will recall the final film of that era, Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1999), the ending of which depicts the “death” of Godzilla as our favorite kaiju melts-down like a nuclear reactor. The energy of the meltdown was absorbed by Godzilla’s son, who had been killed earlier in the film by Destroyah. Godzilla’s son resurrects amid the glowing, backlit, radioactive smoke put forth by his father’s death, roaring that (in)famous roar just before the credits roll.
The visual design of Godzilla in the Godzilla Resurgence trailer depicts flesh and tissue growing over an angry radioactive core. Could it be Godzilla’s son from Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1999) growing into the kaiju his father was? If so, it is a clever nod to Toho’s earlier effort and demonstrates a desire to establish some sort of continuity to the most recent incarnation. If not, the retention of Godzilla’s torso and the smaller arm/hand design from Gojira (1954) is a loving, visual paean to the design that started it all and introduced international audiences to the phenomenon.
Let’s hope American audiences get a proper, subtitled release of Godzilla Resurgence this Summer. Too much of Satomi Ishihara is never enough . . .
Good news – OK, great news – Godzilla: Resurgence has an officially announced U.S. release date. Funimation, which also released Attack on Titan here in America, is set to have this new/old Godzilla stomp into over 440 theaters on Oct. 11 and running until Oct. 18, with special premiere events scheduled for L.A. and N.Y. on Oct. 3rd and 5th, respectively. While this is a rather short release window, it’s better than a direct to home video or On Demand/streaming release, as Godzilla is meant for the big screen.