As the film celebrates its tenth anniversary, Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind the MonsterVerse-launching Godzilla…
To say the “Monsterverse” is alive and kicking would be doing the multi-billion dollar franchise a major disservice. With Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continuing to rake in the big bucks its safe to say that the “Monsterverse” isn’t going away any time soon. However, this all started with Godzilla a decade ago and as the flick celebrates its 10th anniversary, we look back at some of the interesting things that happened during the making of the film…
An indie film paved the way for Gareth Edwards’ hiring
Gareth Edwards is something of a high-demand filmmaker right now. Fresh off the success of last year’s The Creator, the talented director was hired by Universal to helm none other than the next installment of the Jurassic Park franchise that is due to hit theatres in 2025. Edwards has always had a keen eye for visual effects and its not surprising why, because the guy has been involved in the developing the digital effects on many TV shows. In 2008 he entered the Sci-Fi-London 48-hour film challenge, for which a short film had to be created from start-to-finish within a time span of two days and within confines of certain criteria.
Suffice to say Edwards won the contest and shortly after went on to write and direct the atmospheric sci-fi horror Monsters (2010), which was also his debut feature film. Being a whiz in crafting VFX he created its visual effects from scratch using off-the-shelf Adobe software, ZBrush and Autodesk 3ds Max and it took him five months to render the 250 visual effects in his fledgling effort. The low-budget indie’s success caught Hollywood’s attention and in January 2011 Edwards got his first major feature deal- to helm the 2014 Godzilla reboot from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.
Multiple screenwriters worked on the script for the movie
A great script plays an instrumental role in the success of a film, but sometimes getting to the final shooting draft can be a tedious and long-drawn out process as it was with this movie. Godzilla’s story development started in 2010, when David Callaham pitched his take on Godzilla to Legendary and Warner Bros. and was hired to write the first draft. Callaham researched Godzilla’s history, natural disasters, animal documentaries, as well as disaster plannings of local governments in order to depict the events that play out in the film as close as possible to their real-life counterparts.
When Gareth Edwards was brought on board David S. Goyer of Batman Begins fame was hired to polish Callaham’s draft. Goyer only worked for a few weeks on the script and didn’t receive any credit. In November 2011 Max Borenstein was tasked to continue retooling the script, and his contribution so impressed studio execs that he was brought on to write multiple sequels of the Monsterverse later on. After Drew Pearce was given a crack at the screenplay Frank Darabont was brought on for a final rewrite. Darabont mainly focused on the emotional aspect and fleshing out of the characters. In the end, however, only David Callaham and Max Borenstein received the “story by” and “screenplay by” credit respectively when the movie was released.
Gareth Edwards was inspired by Jaws when crafting the reboot
From the get-go Gareth Edwards opted to go with a more restrained approach which was fueled by a “sense of anticipation” and relied on “high suspense” as opposed to going for a loud OTT creature feature. Inspired by Steven Spielberg classics like Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park, the filmmaker wanted to have a very human, character driven story amidst the epic monster beatdown that was taking place. So, in order to give the human characters in the narrative adequate character development and screen time the titular monster only appears at the half-way point of the movie and is only in the film for a total of eleven minutes. Edwards also wanted Godzilla to feel “universal” in a way that it could appeal to a broader audience the world over. Because of this he made genuine attempts to keep things grounded and have a sense of gritty realism.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson underwent military training for the role
As a child actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson performed in movies such as Shanghai Knights (2003) and The Illusionist (2006) before getting his breakout performance as John Lennon in the biopic Nowhere Boy (2009). He gained a wider prominence playing the titular role in the ultraviolent superhero flick Kick-Ass (2010) and for being the MCU’s short-lived version of Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
To get in character and accurately depict Lieutenant Ford Brody Taylor-Johnson underwent a short but rigorous military training and even engaged in doing most of his own stunts. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the first to be offered the role but after he declined it a shortlist which included the likes of Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy and Caleb Landry Jones was compiled by the producers. Taylor-Johnson, however, eventually piqued the interest of Edwards & co. and was given the part.
Bryan Cranston had to wear a wig for his scenes
Bryan Cranston. Does the guy actually need an introduction? Having crafted one of the most iconic and memorable roles with Heisenberg in Breaking Bad the gifted creative became one of the most in-demand actors of his era. During the shooting of Godzilla, Cranston donned a wig for his scenes because the shoot took place immediately after he wrapped work on Breaking Bad. Cranston was initially disinterested when offered the role, as he assumed the movie was going to be “silly”. But Gareth Edwards’ infectious passion, his unique approach to the project and his past effort Monsters, convinced Cranston to read the script and join the production.
The principal cast had high-praise for Gareth Edwards’ approach
One of the primary reasons that drew Bryan Cranston to the project was Edwards’ approach to the IP and to its characterizations. In an interview Cranston stated that, “The most important thing about this version of Godzilla is the characterization. The characters in this are real, well drawn. [Edwards] takes the time to really establish who these people are, that you root for them, that you invest in these characters, and that you care for them. That’s the best part of it.”
Sally Hawkins also showered high-praise on Edwards by saying, “He comes from the performance first, rather than how it looks. I never expected I would be cast in a film like this – and that’s all thanks to Gareth. His cast is really unusual and interesting, and people you wouldn’t normally see in this type of film, and I hope it makes for a different type of monster film.” Taylor-Johnson revealed that Edwards brought a level of “intimacy” to the film and praised him for treating it like a “big budget art film”. He further added that, “I’ve probably been more emotionally challenged in this film than in any independent drama or thriller”.
The producers wanted to stay true to Godzilla’s original design
Legendary Entertainment CEO and producer Thomas Tull was absolutely adamant about keeping Godzilla’s design consistent with that of the Toho version, revealing, “We had to make triply sure we got it right. Godzilla had to look like Godzilla. Period.” Even director Gareth Edwards was determined to keep the design of this iteration of Godzilla closer to that of the original, “It was important to me that this felt like a Toho Godzilla” and concluded by wishing, “I’d love ours (Godzilla) to be considered as part of the Toho group.”
However, Edwards and his design team reviewed all previous incarnations of Godzilla’s design in order to draw some form of inspiration. During an interview the young filmmaker revealed about this process in depth saying, “The way I tried to view it was to imagine Godzilla was a real creature and someone from Toho saw him in the 1950s and ran back to the studio to make a movie about the creature and was trying their best to remember it and draw it. And in our film, you get to see him for real.”
SEE ALSO: Godzilla Minus One and the Essential Toho Godzilla Movies
Andy Serkis did some consulting work on the film’s motion capture sequences
Motion capture and Andy Serkis are virtually inextricable from each other. Ever since he blew people away with his brilliant performance as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy Serkis became a highly sought after actor for his unique skill set and expertise as a motion capture artist. In the film Godzilla is brought to life through CGI and keyframe animation, with partial motion capture provided by stuntman T.J Storm. Serkis offered his expert opinion on how to make Godzilla and the MUTO’s movements more realistic and natural.
A major box-office smash & a critical hit
From the very outset box-office analysts in the entertainment industry didn’t have a favorable opinion of the new Godzilla reboot. John Furrier of Forbes magazine predicted in January 2014 that the film would flop, citing the past financial duds of the franchise. Legendary Entertainment estimated that the movie would need to gross $380 million worldwide to just to break even. However, much to the relief of all involved the film performed better than expected with its opening weekend breaking the highest weekend debuts for a disaster flick and a creature feature, surpassing The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). By the conclusion of its theatrical run the kaiju monster mashup ended up raking in a respectable $529 million on a production budget of $160 million.
Godzilla also received generally positive reviews from critics the world over. Chicago Sun-Times Richard Roeper summed up his thoughts by saying, “Edwards and his team produce consistently stunning visuals”, but admitted that he “would have liked to see more of Godzilla” but stated that the film is “leaps and bounds ahead of the 1998 bomb” and awarded the film a B+ rating. Keith Uhlich of The A.V. Club named Godzilla the second-best film of 2014 while Alex Pappademas of Grantland called the film “the first truly joyous popcorn action movie of the season”.
The beginning of the MonsterVerse
To say Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. MonsterVerse is thriving would be something of an understatement. The latest installment of the mega-franchise Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has so far grossed an impressing $550.3 million, and a sequel has already been fast tracked with Godzilla writer David Callaham attached. A decade prior Legendary conceptualized this shared cinematic universe as a kaiju version of the MCU, replete with iconic monsters such as King Kong and Toho IPs like Ghidorah and Mothra. The endgame of the franchise? To finally have Godzilla and King Kong duke it out on the big screen.
Starting with Godzilla which was followed by Kong: Skull Island (2017) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) the culmination of this epic vision came with Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). But the unanticipated success of the sequel made the studio rethink their strategy and instead they doubled down by branching off to the small screen with Netflix’s animated adventure Skull Island and Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters last years, while developing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire for the big screen. With Monarch: Legacy of Monsters already renewed for a second season and a new instalment of the MonsterVerse already in the works with a Godzilla x Kong follow-up it’s safe to say a kaiju-free future is not gonna happen any time soon.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
