Genre: Action/Fantasy.
Studio:
Tri-Star Pictures.
Production Company:
Centropolis Entertainment/Woods Entertainment/Fried Films/TriStar Pictures.
Project Phase: In the Can.
Who's In It:
Matthew Broderick (Dr. Niko 'Nick' Tatopoulos); Maria Pitillo (Audrey Timmonds); Hank Azaria (Victor 'Animal' Palotti);
Jean Reno (Philippe Roache); Michael Lerner (Mayor Ebert); Kevin Dunn (Colonel Hicks);
Arabella Field (Lucy Palotti); Harry Shearer (Charles Caiman); Doug Savant (Sergeant O'Neal);
Vicki Lewis (Dr. Elsie Chapman); Malcolm Danare (Dr. Mendel Craven); Lorry Goldman (Gene); Christian Aubert (Jean-Luc);
Philippe Bergeron (Jean-Claude); Frank Bruynbroek (Jean-Pierre); Francois Giroday (Jean-Philippe).
Who's Making It:
Roland Emmerich (Director); Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich (Screenwriters); Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott,
Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich (Story); Dean Devlin (Producer); Ute Emmerich, Roland Emmerich, William Fay (Executive
Producers); Rob Fried, Cary Woods (Co-Executive Producers); Patrick Tatopoulous
Design, Inc. (Creature Design); Centropolis FX, Sony Imageworks, VisionArt, Digiscope (Digital
Special Effects); Fiona Bull (Digital Effect Supervisor); David Arnold
(Musical Score); based upon the Godzilla character created by the Toho Film Company.
Who's on the Soundtrack:
Foo Fighters; Rage Against The Machine; The Wallflowers; Jamiroquai; Green Day; Ben Folds Five; Days Of The New;
Silverchair; Michael Penn; Tom Morello and Jimmy Page with Puff Daddy.
Premise: After French nuclear testing produces a monstrously mutated and gigantic beast to arise from the Pacific Ocean depths, 'Godzilla' (as it is dubbed by the world) makes it way to the western shore of North America and then begins to leave a trail of destruction across the United States. However, once it reaches New York City the asexual creature does something even more horrifying: it lays dozens upon dozens of eggs. Only one man, the oceanographer who warned the French government about the mutations being caused by their nuclear testing, has the know-how to come up with a means to stop the monster and its hatchlings. If he fails...over one hundred hungry infant version of Godzilla will be born in the middle of New York City and then spill out into the Atlantic Ocean - and then soon after civilization will fall.
Release Date: May 20, 1998.
Developments:
April 2, 1997... Tomoyuki Tanaka, father of the Godzilla movies, dies. He was 86.
Comments: July, 1997... Devlin and Emmerich's take on the Godzilla mythos has been to re-create the monster. Now he's a product of nuclear testing and genetic mutation; an asexual creature with the capacity to leave hundreds of offspring during each 'nesting' cycle. In Independence Day they blew up the world; in Godzilla they're going to show audiences a monster capable of eating the world.
April, 1996...It's hard to know what the modern take will be on the big green guy. After starring in dozens of Japanese films (in which he went from the villain to the hero who winds up saving Japan from other bad guys), the Japanese populace has a special fondness for the monster - he's a bona-fide action star. In North America it's a tad different. When asked what comes to mind when you mention Godzilla to the average Joe on the street, chances are he'll remember two guys in full-body rubber suits having it out in the middle of a wonderfully constructed model of downtown Tokyo. There was a 1985 North American release of a big-budget Godzilla show - if you don't remember of it, then that's a pretty good sign of why you didn't see a sequel at your local gigaplex.
After his success with Speed cinematographer-turned-director Jan De Bont was linked to helm a new, big-budget version of the 'zilla-man, but left when the project was stalled at the conceptual stage and joined the Twister gang.
However, for better or worse, a big-budget version of Godzilla has two seperate groups of four words going for it. First: the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It has been a phenominal success financially-wise. Even if you're a die-hard 'zilla fan and we've just made you cringe in terror, keep in mind that studios often make a study of similar shows which are already out there. To a studio, the financial success of Power Rangers may give a $70 million dollar greenlight.
Second reason (and here's where the fans can open their eyes again): Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The creators of 1994's Stargate and 1996's Independence Day, the duo is fast establishing a name for themselves as genre fans and, more importantly to the ledgers of any studio, responsible for crafting epic-style films on budget and target date. And, surprise surprise, the pair have already been approached about crafting the new adaptation of Godzilla - and rumors are that they're seriously considering it as their next feature after Independence Day.
On the verge of the 21st century, any Godzilla film has to conform to the expectations of European and North American action/adventure audiences. It can't be camp to the point of ridiculousness, or for that matter completely unbelievable. Jurassic Park should be enough for any viewer to point to and expect a realistic prehistoric fire-breathing atomic-spawned behemoth of destruction. At the same time, Godzilla has a wonderfully long-lived public life, and almost everyone who's turned on the TV during a weekend knows about the big guy. I'm sure the Japanese theater audience would love to see a blockbuster American Godzilla film, one that can both terrorize the audience and provide them with enough chills and thrills without having to throw away the baby with the bath water. And besides, we'd love to see his pals, the silk-spinning caterpillar and the flying-turtle-with-jet-propulsion (ok ok, so we don't remember their names - but we still love 'em all the same!)
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
Archived Godzilla pages:
April 5, 1998... A couple of interesting scoops from readers who follow the world of comic books rolled into
CA this weekend. Apparently the latest issue of the comic book trade magazine Previews features a selection
of licenced Godzilla material avaliable in June 1998. In the magazine a 'Godzilla Attack Helicopter' shirt
is solicited. If you click on the picture to the right you'll look at the larger version of this shirt. You'll will clearly see three seperate tracks of spikes running down the back of the monster. |
Last week the fourth trailer was released and appears in front of New Line's Lost in Space. While waiting for the main event to commence, this viewer saw the new Godzilla trailer and sent us their very critical analysis of it.
"Wow...this has the potential to be a very badly done movie...oh there it is, same guys that did the cheesy Independence Day...never mind, that explains the weak special effects. Anyhow, lots and lots of water scenes. Godzilla pulling a group of commercial fishing boats under by their nets (hooked a big one), Godzilla taking out a sub, Godzilla scaring a ship, and any other water scene they could imagine Godzilla's head coming out of the water enhancing. Then the cool part: Day, New York City, we are looking at a cab lined, twisting corridor of buildings. We hear a Jurrasic Park-footstep, but instead of a mere cup of water being disturbed, every cab on the street hops a couple feet straight up with every beat of the big guy's foot...this was way cool. New Yorkers, being fairly dumb when Hollywood puts them in large groups facing large enemies, wait around the scene to see just what these giant footsteps will bring to them. Not smart, but it's a movie, if they ran away I guess we'd have nobody to see getting crushed under a green toe. In the distance we see a building being leveled, and enter the dragon....well his foot anyhow. They must have spent a pretty penny on the foot, it's in about twenty quickly spliced together scenes...I'm sick of the foot already, we've seen it, show us the damned monster already! You'd think King Kong would have provided a lesson, instead it seems to have served as a training film to these boobs. Maybe it should be re-titled 'Godzilla's Foot!'...seems to be more fitting. The effects, though attempted at a grand scale, were very cartoonish, the kind of CGI editing that makes me cringe (see: Lost In Space, the family pet was like a bad Roger Rabbit-acid trip). This movie will make these two half effort kings of the silver screen a lot of cash, the hype machine is going full tilt. But honestly, it's not done well, at least not effects wise! Interesting to note that Broderick was not in the preview...he IS in the movie isn't he? Maybe he's a toenail or something." [Sent in by monster hunter 'Mr. Tibbs'.]
April 7, 1997... Not a single email was received about the t-shirt image we posted up a few days ago but plenty of comments regarding 'Mr. Tibbs' negative assessment of the film's fourth trailer. Although some of you suggested we ignore the comments of scoopers who view a film as totally negative, we still feel that 'Mr. Tibbs' very critical assessment of the trailer should remain on the page. (Which makes us wonder how the '20 Reasons Why Godzilla Will Bomb' email we received a month ago would've gone over, had we posted it up right away...)
And in the effort to maintain a fair and equal representation of the emails we receive about this film, we picked four to show as a sample of the numerous emails defending the new trailer from the attack of 'Mr. Tibbs'...
"...even people angry with this film because of the changes to Godzilla admit that it was an excellent trailer, and that this movie will be good, if not a true Godzilla film..." ['ca4150a'.]
" I just want to provide the opposite perspective on the Godzilla trailer. I only went to see LIS for the G trailer. I wasn't disappointed. Highlights: The pacing was fast and tight. The scenes of wreckage were awesome, and you got a good sense of the carnage G can cause. The effects were great! Godzilla's motion was perfect (his foot anyway). The sound of the roar brings it all together. BTW, the stomping effect (the cabs) RULED!!
"Anyway, I was pleased, and I think this is EASILY shaping up to be the best movie of the summer. I still don't see how they are going to have him move at 200 MPH, since everything they have shown so far was him moving relatively slow...Oh well, it is cool if they are holding it back!" ['The Honeybear Pipe']
" I do not know what that 'Mr. Tibbs' is talking about! The special fx are no where as bad as he says they are!!! Their as good as they possible can get. They used the latest techniquies and cgi equipment!! ILM and Ditgital Domain couldn't make them any better. This is as good as they can possible get right now! You can tell that most of the scences are computerized, but it is still really cool! Also, the audience absolutely went wild when the trailer was played. They loved it!!! (I think 'Mr. Tibbs' doesn't like Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, and would not say anything postive about the movie no matter what it look like!)" [Anonymous.]
"Hey, love your site.. a daily stop for any movie fan! But there is one thing I am really sick of: people bashing the new Godzilla movie, set to be released in May. Nobody has seen it. Nobody knows what Godzilla's new look is. Just wait and see it, already! You know, if Toho, the people who CREATED Godzilla, are behind the new look.. maybe it is better. If the creators of him like it, that has to tell you something! Oh, and with the latest Godzilla scoop, I can't believe the guy who wrote in. The reason because Godzilla isn't being shown is due to the fact that the movie makers want to keep his new design secret until the day it opens. My mind boggles with the wait for his new body! The movie makers are also trying to use Godzilla's star power to build the movie. Did people go see Jurrasic Park for Sam Neill? Nope. With the comments about the special effects, come on! For the second or two you see his foot, you can't make a fair judgement. That'd be like judging Star Wars by seeing a second long clip of a laser fight: it wouldn't look good. And you can't compare LIS to Godzilla, Godzilla is still a couple months out. 'But honestly, it's not done well, at least not effects wise!', you simply can't judge a film by it's trailer.. as you can't judge a book by its cover. I would encourage everyone to keep in open mind about the new Godzilla movie. People must have cringed when they saw the trailers for Star Wars... please.. everyone.. give it a chance! It hasn't even opened yet! Thanks for your time." ['pmeyers'.]
On more solid ground, we can report there will be two soundtracks released to Godzilla. The first, a compilation of songs with perhaps one or two tracks of David Arnold's score, will be released around the time of the film's release. The second, the orchestrial score of Arnold, should appear in stores in late June. [Atomic email delivered by 'C'.]
April 11, 1998... This just in from one of CA's readers in Hong Kong who says they've seen one of the licensed Godzilla toys! "This note is regarding the February 7, 1998 scoop CA posted: the one with the pictures of the maquettes showing Godzilla. If I'm not wrong, the producers emailed you later to tell you that they were of a rejected design.
"Well, my scoop is: I have seen the new Godzilla, well, sort of. I saw one of the official toys. It even had a logo saying that it was an official Godzilla toy. I live in Hong Kong, and most if not all the Godzilla toys are being manufactured in southern China, just a few minutes north of here, so it was just a matter of time before someone would procure a spare one from the factories making them. I saw one today at a local toy shop. It was a 'Godzilla - Monster Pose' by Equity Toys (???), and it was a doll about 12 inches tall, most of which was soft (cloth covering foam) but with some 100% plastic parts: the head and neck, both arms. It was mostly a dark military green in color, but the lower half of the head and jaw was lighter, sort of bone-white, and YES, it was almost completely identical to the maquettes from the 2/7/98 scoop. The one thing that differed was that it had three rows of triangular shapes/ridges (is that the correct word?) on its back, and the triangular thingies were quite large around the shoulder area. It was very humanoid for a lizard, standing on its two hind legs in a boxer's pose (without the clenched fists, of course), and it was quite slim, i.e., no large bulging middle like the old, Japanese Godzilla. Its hands/claws had four fingers and the feet/claws had four toes with one of them facing back. I was definitely not impressed... and I doubt the Japanese will like it." [Submitted by Harry Chen.]
Live in the Big Apple? There's a billboard in Times Square and 42nd Street that's an entire city block long promoting this movie. The billboard reads 'He is longer than this sign', which prompted our scooper 'Boyd' to assume Big G is a guy and not a gal. If so, he's an egg-laying guy. On either end of the massive billboard are two posters that read' Size Does Matter'. "Gotta love the hype," 'MosesX' had to say. [Thanks to NYCers 'MosesX' and 'Boyd' for the scoop!]
April 12, 1998... Since today is Easter we figured it would be fitting to show you the upcoming Hershey's Godzilla tie-in candies that will soon be avaliable for you to munch on. Besides being fixated on chocolate, the other fact that makes these Hershey's products interesting for us are the small images of he creature on the products and wrappers. Products featuring Godzilla's eye, it's four-fingered clawed hand and it's tail can be seen on the packaging, but that isn't the main goodie that interests us. Take a look at the Godzilla 'Reese's Pieces' box there on the left -- you'll get another look at those mysterious ridged plates (looking more and more like stalagmites to us) running down Godzilla's back. We can also get an idea about how intelligent the creature will be in the movie -- he's lured the helicopter pilots to gaze hypnotically at the floating candy, allowing him to make a quick off-camera exit. Could this be the rumored 'chameleon' ability earlier scoopers spoke of? |
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To view the whole page containing eight different snapshots of Godzilla candy from Hershey's, click here.
These pictures were sent in by Dace, creator of the forthcoming movie gossip website Olympus. We're sure that the big G isn't going to be the same hue that he is on the candy wrappings...c'mon, who'd believe in a giant purple prehistoric monster selling products to kids?? [Thanks to Dace at 'Olympus' for the photos, and for making us hungry.]
April 14, 1998... Phil Tippett Studios is working right now on CGI scenes showing Godzilla's rampage scenes. As a CA scooper told us back in late February, various effects companies had been contacted for 'farm-out' work when it became obvious that the ambitious FX slate was dropping the movie behind schedule, and the picture wouldn't make it's May release date. [Thanks 'Mr. Clark', for making us a plaster-of-paris foot cast of the big G.]
April 15, 1998... On the Godzilla.com G-board, producer Dean Devlin posted a denial of yesterday's CA scoop from 'Mr. Clark'. Devlin said that Tippett Studios was not handling any FX work for the film; Devlin listed the only FX studios working on the picture as Centropolis FX, Sony Imageworks, VisionArt and Digiscope. [Sent in by Barry S. Goldberg.]
April 16, 1998... Although this scooper also told us that Tippett Studios "could not be doing the CGI work, they are a model and puppetry studio," we'll still post what else they had to tell us. According to this fellow, two companies called IKON and Metafor Imaging are doing the work developing the film's posters. (And incidentally scooper -- you may want to rent a little film out on video soon that Tippett Studios did the CGI work for. It's called Starship Troopers, and they realized the giant human-squishing bugs.) ['PC Whoo Hoo' has been sent a Blockbuster Video rental card membership form.]
For any tourists in the NYC area looking for the big Godzilla billboard, 'MosesX' provides us with the cross-streets: 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. Just look up. [Thanks 'MosesX'.]
No strangers to controversy, we've got two points of view to present concerning the April 11th scoop from Harry Chen. As you'll recall, Harry said he spotted Godzilla toys being manufactured in China. Both scoopers have strong sides to their respective arguements.
This scooper, 'HomerJ338' has doubts to believe Harry Chen spotted a Godzilla toy manufactured by a company called 'Equity'. We already know TrendMasters has the licence for the action figures, Toy Biz will be producing remote controlled toys, and ReSaurus (designers of the 'Duke Nukem' action figures) will be producing Godzilla hand puppets. This scooper didn't hear a single item about Equity toys at the '98 Toy Fair expo in NYC, and the Godzilla toys there were off limits. "The description of the lizard by your scooper was most likely imagined," our scooper concludes. [Sent in by 'HomerJ338'.]
On the flip side of the coin is Barry Goldberg's thoughts on Chen's comments:
"Chen mentions that the 'official' Godzilla toy he saw looks 'almost completely identical to the maquettes from the 2/7/98 scoop' [pictures of which originally showed up on my page]. He then goes on the elaborate by saying 'The one thing that differed was that it had three rows of triangular shapes/ridges ... on its back, and the triangular thingies were quite large around the shoulder area.'
"I just thought I would point out that the 'maquette' in question was obviously damaged (probably as a result of being thrown out), and if you look carefully you can clearly see that it originally did have three rows of back plates/ridges. Mr. Chen's information merely confirms what I've believed all along, i.e., that the 'maquette' was the real deal [or, at worst, a slightly outdated design], and not based on a 'fake' design as Mr. Devlin claimed." [Sent in by Barry Goldberg.]
You gotta admit the current poster/billboard ad campaign is damn clever. A CA reader in Las Vegas reports that the Bally's building currently has a sign that reads 'He is this tall' -- and that's a whopping 18 to 19 stories high, the scooper estimates! Another sign, this one lengthwise, reads 'His tail is this long', and that seems to be approimately 200 feet long. "Vegas would not stand a chance..." our scooper declares. [Scooped by 'growlr'.]
April 19, 1998... The unofficial Foo Fighters webpage Howling Wind states that the new Fighters song in Godzilla is titled 'A320'. This song marks the first collaboration of all current members of the band in the studio together. Other acts on the soundtrack include: Rage Against The Machine, The Wallflowers, Jamiroquai, Green Day, Ben Folds Five, Days Of The New, Silverchair, Michael Penn, Tom Morello and Jimmy Page with Puff Daddy. [Thanks to Vince Yim.]
We've also been told a rumor the big G's 'atomic breath' is more of a 'power breath' sort of deal. According to the scooper, the PB will knock people down and flip over tanks. [Anonymous.]
In Chicago there on signs on the subway cars that read 'His tail is as long as four train cars.' ['cantwaltz'.]
Harry Chen has been validated. There is a company called Equity Toys, and they do have the license to make Godzilla toys. We were tipped off by an anonymous scooper who sent us a Yahoo! press clipping that stated Equity had a three-year worldwide deal with Sony Signatures to manufacture products based on Godzilla. After a little digging we found proof. You can check out this online Forbes magazine page here that will confirm Chen's scoop. [Thanks to anonymous for the assist.]
April 21, 1998... Patrick Sauriol, the Creator/Director of Coming Attractions would like to speak:
"Last Friday I received an image of the new Godzilla. It was a picture of one of the new toys available for sale after the movie's release. Plain and simple, the image revealed what the creature looks like.
I've spent the last five days wrestling with a decision about whether or not I should publish this picture here on the Godzilla web page on CA. I've tried to look at the question from all sides. Does CA have a journalistic responsibility now to publish the picture a full month before the movie's release? Should CA feel pressured not to run the photo (or any others) by the show's massive marketing campaign? And by publishing the photo, are we serving the reader's best interest??
This was a hard question for me to decide upon. On one hand, CA has broken news and images about other projects before. We've been running the five images that Barry Goldberg scooped to CA since February, and have continued to report on what the creature may or may not look like. CA's Godzilla page is now our most popular movie page, eclipsing the Star Wars, Episode One page for the moment. And the interest level in seeing what the new Godzilla will look like is already high and still building.
On the other hand, the show's producer and co-writer Dean Devlin told us back in February that although there are no existing images of the creature online, should they emerge he hoped we would not spoil the surprise. Regardless of your experience or knowledge with the film business, it remains a commercial venture. This is Sony Pictures tentpole release for the summer, and of course they hope you'll go see the film and it will be a smashing success. If the picture is a success, of course Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich fortunes will rise a couple of notches. And the cornerstone of Sony's marketing campaign is the fact that no one has seen what the new Godzilla looks like.
It's ironic that tomorrow, Wednesday, is the third anniversary of Coming Attractions going online. Since I posted my first update, CA has broken key summer movie scoops: confirming the casting of Schwarzenegger in Batman and Robin, breaking the news that the last third of The Lost World takes place in San Diego; being the first in the world to scoop the storyline and post pictures from the sets of Eyes Wide Shut; and last week we were the first to break the news about the new writing team on Mission: Impossible 2. I've also never been afraid to back down from a scoop that's important to the film: I've been told by contacts I have in various studios in Hollywood how some of what I've posted has irritated, or in some cases even angered the studio or the film's creators.
By running this photo, am I simply reporting the news? Is that what Harry Knowles did when he placed the Starship Troopers bug images online back in January '97, or what Matt Drudge did when he published the issue of 'The Drudge Report' that claimed a White House official was also a wife beater? Must CA now subscribe to the same principals of journalism that traditional media must abide by? Is there a line that can be crossed between being excited to see a forthcoming movie from its theatrical trailers to learning all of the film's climactic moments on the Internet days or even months before the film is to be released??
I thought about this a lot, and I made a decision. There is a line in the sand, and I choose to draw it.
I know fully well that this is going to dissapoint some of you out there. It may even anger you that I get to decide what you see and read about on CA. Nevertheless, I am not posting the image (or any that reveal the entire creature) on the site until after the film is released. I'm telling you now because I think it's the right thing to do. There's no secret deal between Dean Devlin and me. There hasn't been any payola, no free stuff, nor has anyone at Sony or Centropolis offered me any perk or privilege to keep me quiet or issue spin control. This is my choice and my choice only, and I make it for two reasons:
Am I sacrificing the opportunity to break this year's biggest scoop? Probably. Will I continue to still report about the picture, including the controversy surrounding what it looks like? Yes, I will. Two months from now we'll all know what Godzilla looks like -- and we'll be trying to break news and post images for other projects. Who knows if I'll like the film or hate it -- I still don't know and I've read the script. But if you want to understand me, picture this: you're a kid and it's the night before Christmas Day and you manage to find the place where the presents are hid (of course not the ones Santa is bringing!) In scenario #1 you wondrously gaze upon the many differently sized boxes, shake them about and listen to the puzzling and delightful noises that come from inside. In scenario #2 you peel off the tape at a corner and look at what's underneath the wrapping. When you look back on your memories of Christmas Day days down the road, which scenario do you prefer?
That's the end of my speech and now it's back to work."
[Written by Patrick Sauriol.]
The front page of the June 1998 Scholastic Arrow Book Club News newsletter has a photograph of the Godzilla 1998 Scrapbook.
The front of the scrapbook features Godzilla's head with his body continuing on the wrap-around cover of the book. [Thanks to 'Xtreme' for sending us
the photo and 'GojiraX' for backing the material up.] MTV premiered The Wallflowers remake of Heroes yesterday. While the video didn't show any new clips from the film it did have Godzilla attacking a street in NYC, but still just the quick glimpse of the tail and foot. "The CG looked OK, the foot was better than the one in the LiS trailer, but it still isn't the greatest CG I've ever seen." 'GojiraX' told us.
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The final battle between man and creature happens on the George Washington bridge in NYC. A squadron of
F-18 Hornets unleash their deadly arsenal of missiles against Godzilla...but are they enough to stop him?
A possible new release date was not echoed by our other scooper, but they did say every FX house is "working like mad" to make the deadline so 6000 prints can be created. [Thanks to 'Tommy Smith' and another anonymous scooper.]
April 24, 1998... Godzilla producer Dean Devlin has responded to our April 22nd post regarding a possible new launch date of June 5th. Devlin says reports of the June opening are completely false; he also said that they are in fact running ahead of schedule and the film will open on its promised date. [Thanks to Dace W. for the heads up.]
April 27, 1998... For Jaws, it was Quint. For free-floating apparitions and extra-dimensional demi-gods, there were the Ghostbusters. And upholding the fine tradition into the '90s is Barry S. Goldberg. His Temple of Godzilla site continues to countdown the days until the release of the Sony film, but Barry also keeps a close eye on the latest media blitz for the film.
Last weekend the fifth trailer debuted on television. In the 30-second ad there are more quick glimpses of the creature walking and stalking NYC denizens. We've been receiving a lot of mail from readers both supportive and against our decision not to run the Godzilla toy image until midnight opening day, with some readers wanting to be surprised at Godzilla's new look in the theater but still interested in reading this page. And so, even though there's not a damn thing we can do if the new commercial comes on while you're couch potatoing, we're going to leave the decision up to you. Click on the hyperlinks below if you so wish (with smart-assed commentary courtesy us.)
Image #1 -- Stalagmite or stalagtite? You be the judge.
Image #2 -- "I hear with this new form of urban transit you don't need to worry about rush hour."
And for those of you who wish they could see all this monster mayhem in full motion video... click here to download a brief montage of the three scenes from the commercial. Why, thank you -- you're welcome.
[Big thanks to monster hunter Barry S. Goldberg, Esq., for providing scale patrol duty.]
Bus signs also sport the tag line "His claw is as big as this sign." These have shown up all over North America. [Thanks to our many sharp-eyed transit customers.]
Last week on Thursday it was reported that Godzilla will close the Cannes Film Festival on the evening of May 24th. One scooper from France who gave us the Cannes Festival online site address said the picture's running time was listed at 2 hours, 6 minutes, but when we surfed the site we couldn't find any running time info. [Thanks to 'fortner1', 'Pango', anonymous.]
On the official Godzilla site Dean Devlin has said that the running time of the film will be 2 hours, 20 minutes. This was confirmed by another indendepent scooper who told us the film is seven reels long (on average, one reel equals twenty minutes of film.) So the lone report from the French scooper should be considered to be in error or perhaps there is a shorter version of the film for European markets (it's been known to occasionally happen.) [Thanks to anonymous for the corrobulation, and to Barry S. Goldberg, 'Carcass Corpse', Dace and 'Daboltz'.]
That same anonymous scooper above also told us the film will make its release date no problem. They claim that a source close to the production has told them that less than 70 effects shot have to be still done. [Credit anonymous.]
April 28, 1998... There we go. Our main man Adam found us the exact URL on the Cannes site that lists the running time of Godzilla (www.festival-cannes.fr/cannes98/va/calendar/theselection/outofcomp/index.html) Guess what? It's listed as two hours, six minutes. [Big thanks to Adam for the retina assist.]
May 7, 1998... If this scooper is telling us the truth, a major, major flaw in Sony's marketing campaign has happened.
According to 'Daigo', The Official Godzilla Movie Magazine has been released by Starlog Press -- and it's on sale right now. Here's how our scooper started off their email:
" I just picked mine up at Suncoast Video today. It is put out by the Starlog Magazine company and costs $5.99. It does reveal Godzilla's design, along with the baby zillas and their eight foot tall eggs! Pages 12-13 have an excellant shot of Godzilla's head just as he surfaces from underground to confront Nick (Broderick) in the famous 'stare down' scene. It can finally be put to rest that the Fruit of The Loom pictures were REAL! What's funny about this is the fact that Starlog is having a promotion where readers can send in for an 'exclusive' Godzilla movie trading card #0. It's the same exact picture of the Fruit of The Loom pic where Godzilla is shown crouching down on both feet, looking to the left (not with the train in mouth picture). Basically, Centropolis and Tristar lied to everyone about the pictures being fake. Something I don't think bodes well for their public relations department!".
Further on, the scooper added: "Why make Trendmasters, Resaurus and Galoob wait to sell the toys until May 20th when the design as already been released? Unless of course Starlog and/or Suncoast jumped the gun and weren't supposed to release the magazines yet......oh..oh! :)"
If the magazine rumor pans out as true, the best laid plans of Sony and Centropolis have been demolished.
The scooper also provided their commentary on the pictures showing Godzilla and other creature designs seen in the film. A HEAVY SPOILER WARNING is now being issues; swipe at your own discretion. We will say this: the scooper doesn't reveal much in the way of the new Godzilla design, but a description of the 'other' creature designs is given...
"Getting back to the designs, the baby zillas are a bit of a let down. They basically look like the baby T-rex from The Lost World except for a fatter, more bony
head. They do look pretty mean though. The baby zilla eggs are very creepy. They're about 8 foot tall and resemble the
Alien eggs. As for the big guy himself, trying to make out as much detail as I can with the two page photo of
him (pages 12-13) he looks like a variation of the original 1954 Godzilla, design wise."
Y'know, we've always believed a little bit of parody never really hurts anyone or anything. Take Mad magazine, for example. Without it, just how would all of those little boys got their mean streak without Mad's brilliant parodies of popular films? Well, the pioneering spirit of Mad is alive and on the 'net through the endeavours of 'TPFilmworks'. With all those ads for Godzilla sprouting up faster than a third eye on fish in Springfield River, you knew something like this was soon forthcoming. Click on here to see the scooper's parody of the Godzilla bus signage, but be advised: a minor ADULT CONTENT warning is issued. (Like that will discourage people now...) [Parody sent in by 'TPFilmworks'.]
May 10, 1998... "Right about now, I figure the suits at Sony have their lips wrapped around the barrel of a shotgun," said Jason, one of our scoopers about the events of the past few days, and that statement may indeed sum up the situation. All pretense of keeping the final design of the new Godzilla secret until the movie's opening are out the window as nearly a half-dozen known products that feature the creature's likeness are avaliable at the present time. We've had reports from Florida, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Kansas, Texas and California that Godzilla products are on sale right now.
The various breaks in the marketing plan that Sony Pictures and Centropolis Entertainment have so carefully erected came crashing down more or less at the same time last week. However the biggest blow is undoubtedly the release of the Trendmasters Godzilla action figure. At the beginning of May a Florida Toys'R'Us store put out their shipment of Godzilla action figures for sale even though the shipping containers say the product must not be sold before May 20th. When local Florida resident Gary Tabar Jr. walked into the store and saw the figures for sale he immediately purchased one of the 'Superme Godzilla' figures, took it home, and scanned in the front of the box (still containing the figure inside it) as well as the back of the box. Tabar's images reveal the creature in complete detail and have circled around the world. So far two major Web sites that track the Godzilla film have chosen to run the Trendmasters images.
We've contacted Tabar through his email address and still haven't heard back from him. One scooper told us they heard it was an employee of T'r'U did it (Tabar's name was not mentioned by this scooper), and as a reward for notifying the store about their error, the company sold him one of the toys in advance. This information hasn't been confirmed. Nor has the reports of another similar incident with a different Toys'R'Us outlet and another web page showing the packaging of the figure. Whether this is another report of Tabar's purchase that's been altered in the telling is unknown at the present moment. The URL of this second webpage (a user of 'www.fortunecity.com' webpages) reported to show the figure doesn't connect now.
The May 7th scoop from 'Daigo' has been confirmed. Last week the Suncoast Motion Picture Company mistakenly released for sale Starlog's Official Godzilla Movie Magazine which contains pictures from the movie, as well as a complete plot breakdown, through their video store chain. Images showing the CGI Godzilla and its offsprings are all over the 'net. Last last week a fax was sent to all Suncoast stores and sister companies advising the store owners to immediately remove all Godzilla merchandise presently on sale."The reasoning behind that instruction is unknown to me but I can tell you that it is uncommon to get a street date (sell date) for a magazine," reports a CA scooper who wants to use the pseudonym of 'Don Ho'. "Videos have rather strict street dates, but for magazines it not usually an issue."
Then, somebody posted pictures of the official Godzilla poster book that has also managed to make it onto the shelves somehow. The front of this book shows a fully colored image of the old Fruit of the Loom picture that was officially called a "fake" by Centropolis.
The Mediaplay Godzilla Sticker Album is also avaliable for sale right now.
Target stores are selling the 1999 Godzilla Calendar. Design sketches and pictures of the film's creatures are in this product.
There is a report of a Blockbuster Video store in Houston selling the figures as well as Wal-Mart stores in Brea, CA selling the 'Supreme Godzilla' figures.
Reports of t-shirts showing the whole creature have been received. The best one comes to us from 'Superfly' who had this report: "I was in line at the theater Saturday in Tallahassee, Florida for Deep Impact, and the little kid in front of me — looked to be about a 7th grader — was wearing a Godzilla T-shirt that featured a very clear, unobstructed full-body picture of the new Godzilla design. It had the official Godzilla logo as well. True to what other scoopers have reported, this design did indeed bear a strong resemblance to the supposedly 'fake' designs that came out earlier."
Curiously, the official Godzilla website's G-Board message forum has been unaccessible since at least Thursday evening, prompting some to speculate that the images were posted to the G-Board forums and that they have been shut down by Centropolis or Sony. There has been no official word from anyone at Sony, Centropolis or from Dean Devlin, Centrpolis' primary spokesman for the picture.
For the record, the images that have splashed across the Web in the last week are different than the one image we were sent last month. That image is of the Equity Toys design, and we will post it (along with any other full images of the creature from the film) upon the film's general release. We've been scooped that the film's release may get bumped up one day for sneak previews, making the date the image goes up on CA the 19th. No official announcement has been made by Sony of such a sneak preview -- yet. Fallout from the revelation that the maquette sculpture pictures Barry Goldberg broke on his Temple of Godzilla site are indeed the real deal has already begun. We've received dozens of emails from people that claim Godzilla producer Dean Devlin was lying to the Internet all this time. "I must say I'm upset that Devlin lied to us all about the nature of those old images and their valdity because while leafing through this magazine it becomes painfully obvious that we were right all around," said one of the letter writers. We've sent off an email to Dean Devlin and Centropolis hoping to hear their side of the story.
[This information was first broke by the scooper 'dumbdog'; subsequent scoops were sent in by Barry S. Goldberg, Andy, Christopher Kemple, 'M. Talon', Aaron's 'Monster Zero' webpage, 'Jara', Jason, 'Long Duc Dong', 'Ronin115', 'Don Ho', Bob Roberts, 'Snowman', 'JNTKM', 'Xtreme', 'King Kong', and anonymous.]
Friday's Daily Variety featured a test audience screening report of the picture. Variety said the audience gave the film high marks for its special effects but said the story and the characters when judged against Independence Day. [Anonymous.]
May 12, 1998... The Godzilla image secrecy campaign continues to rapidly unravel. Sunday's New York Post ran images of one of the toy Godzillas, splashing the image of the beastie all over newsstands in NYC. [Thanks to Bill Watcher and anonymous.]
It's confirmed. Special advance screenings will take place on the evening of May 19th. ['Hawkeye', Stephen Davidson, 'M.Talon', 'Gojira X', Mike, 'drcreaux', 'GHaub', 'elchaiser', 'bartelby', anonymous.]
Whoops! Looks like we picked the wrong time to access the Fortune City server. It's still up and running the Trendmasters images. [Thanks to anonymous.]
Godzilla merchandise is everywhere in North America. Waldenbooks is carrying the magazine and it seems the Zellers chain in Canada is selling all the Godzilla toys. In addition to the Trendmasters action figures there is an assortment of micro machine-like toys that can be removed out of a Godzilla head playset. One report comes from a browser walking through the Frank & Sons collectors market in Hacienda Heights, California. There they spotted a vendor with "practically ALL Godzilla Trendmaster toys, from a large to medium to smaller prototypes of the monster." [Thanks to Jeremy, Liam J. Scanlan, anonymous.]
Mark Lockwood reports that of the images he's seen of some of the Trendmasters Godzilla toys, because some figures come with a "clear blue rod projectile", this is indicitive that the film Godzilla will have atomic breath. [Sent in by Mark Lockwood.]
And a very interesting scoop was received yesterday concerning some possible marketing research information someone is conducting in schools in America. "This might not be a scoop, but at my son's middle school, some classes were required to answer a short survey this morning. According to my son, the survey consisted of some questions about your daily activities including what videos or movies you have seen recently and how often. Then I learned that on the backside of the survey, all the questions were dedicated to the new Godzilla movie, like do you want to see it, how did you find out about the movie, or have you seen the new Godzilla body? This survey sounds more for corporate use rather than for educational services."
Damn interesting about the scooper's mention of the question concerning leaked images of Godzilla to the kids, dontcha think? [Scooped anonymously.]
And finally, we haven't heard any response from Centropolis or Dean Devlin concerning the leaks in the secrecy campaign. As of Tuesday evening, the official Godzilla site's G-Board was still offline.
May 18, 1998... Tonight at 7:00 PM the world premiere of Godzilla will be held in Madison Square Garden, and
the world media will be on hand to see if size does truly matter. Tickets to the event are understandably hard to aquire but
one of the fortunate few will be Barry S. Goldberg. His Temple of Godzilla site was the first to release the
infamous maquette sculpture images (avaliable in CA's first Godzilla archieve page.) Since we're keen on
sharing this kind of fun stuff, Barry was kind enough to scan in an image of the exclusive Sony/Centropolis tickets.
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Speaking of the actual movie, last week the final number of prints for Godzilla was released. The film will show on a record 7,363 screens (in this day of multiplexes that translates to 3,310 individual theater locations) on the 20th, smashing last year's previous record-holder The Lost World: Jurassic Park. [Nods go out to Joe Hanna and the rest of the you-know-who-you-are troop.]
Guess what's on the side of the Carlton Hotel in Cannes these days? Yup: a huge, green, double-sided arrow banner which reads "He's longer than the Carlton Hotel" at the top, with the movie's logo at the bottom. [Thanks to Liam.]
Advance screenings were held last night in Hollywood at the Cinerama dome. Two of our scoopers attended and they provides us with their mini-reviews of the film. Swipe below if you want to read it:
"I gotta tell you, I was pretty much bored through the whole movie, and the rest of the audience seemed to have the same response.
There was next to no applause or cheering during the movie, and silence afterward. It really surprised me, because every time I've
seen a trailer screened, it has drawn cheers. Unlike Independence Day, there's not much humor (Jean Reno gets all the best bits),
and the characters are nowhere near as intelligent, heroic, etc. The effects are fine, and the design of the creature is all right
(what you can see of it; most of the movie takes place at night in the rain). I came away feeling like I never got a good look at
Godzilla!"
[Sent in by Don.]
"I'm a fan of Independence Day and Stargate, but I thought Godzilla was boring. The characters aren't as interesting, there isn't as
much humor. And I don't think I was alone; the audience was silent throughout the movie... no clapping, no cheering. And when it was
over they just walked out.
"The effects are fine. But I never felt like I got a really good look at Godzilla. Most of the scenes with Godzilla take place at
night in the rain.
"Oh well, there's always Armageddon..."
[Anonymous.]
Last but not least, tomorrow's edition of USA Today will print the very first authentic, full-body Godzilla art -- that being an actual still from the film. We've been told the image is more accurate in the depiction of Godzilla than any that have been seen, stolen or leaked so far. [Thanks to 'aseiler' for the heads up.]
May 19, 1998... Sneak previews of the film begin airing today in theaters everywhere at 7:00 PM; in effect, the film has opened. That means now is the time for us to post the image of a Godzilla toy that arrived in CA's mailbag last month.
On Friday April 17th we received a letter that contained an image of what appeared to be an official Godzilla toy. The message, from a scooper wanting to be known as 'Gogo', informed us that this image had already been readily avaliable in Hong Kong; indeed, The Oriental Weekly magazine had already published the toy image. The magazine ran the image along with a story asking local Hong Kong celebrities whether they recognized this toy as the new Godzilla design. According to our scooper, most of the celebrities interviewed preferred the old Godzilla.
What the image shows is a plastic and plush toy that strongly resembles Barry S. Goldberg's five 'maquette' designs. If you recall, at the time these designs were refuted and said to be of an outdated design that had been used to detect leaks within the Godzilla licencee companies. At the time, 'Gogo' theorized that this could be a prototype of one of the forcoming toys being manufactured for the film. "Maybe they have not decided the material to use, or the exact details of the bodyparts were not finalized at the time," 'Gogo' said.
But 'Gogo's image corroborated with what our April 11th scooper reported to us. In his email, Hong Kong resident Harry Chen said:
"I have seen the new Godzilla, well, sort of. I saw one of the official toys. It even had a logo saying that it was an official Godzilla toy. I live in Hong Kong, and most if not all the Godzilla toys are being manufactured in southern China, just a few minutes north of here, so it was just a matter of time before someone would procure a spare one from the factories making them. I saw one today at a local toy shop. It was a 'Godzilla - Monster Pose' by Equity Toys (???), and it was a doll about 12 inches tall, most of which was soft (cloth covering foam) but with some 100% plastic parts: the head and neck, both arms. It was mostly a dark military green in color, but the lower half of the head and jaw was lighter, sort of bone-white, and YES, it was almost completely identical to the maquettes from the 2/7/98 scoop. The one thing that differed was that it had three rows of triangular shapes/ridges (is that the correct word?) on its back, and the triangular thingies were quite large around the shoulder area. It was very humanoid for a lizard, standing on its two hind legs in a boxer's pose (without the clenched fists, of course), and it was quite slim, i.e., no large bulging middle like the old, Japanese Godzilla. Its hands/claws had four fingers and the feet/claws had four toes with one of them facing back."
Already we know that the images Goldberg sent CA showed the 'maquette' with some of the 'ridges' on Godzilla's back snapped off, which further supported the arguement that these images were all connected to what was the 'real deal' Godzilla design. Now that multiple images of the creature have surfaced all over the 'net, the authenticity of the Goldberg and 'Gogo' scoops have finally been revealed. The only question left should be is it an Equity Godzilla toy we're looking at, or another licencee's design? Time will tell: after tonight the remainder of the Godzilla merchandise goes on sale.
We've got a theory as to why Sony Pictures, Centropolis Entertainment or someone(s) else within the Godzilla umbrella would deny that these were authentic images for the new monster design. Picture this: for the better part of a year your film's entire marketing campaign has centered on what the new Godzilla will look like, whetting the public's curiousity with a whip of a tail here, a flash of an eye there -- and then the whole image gets out. It may be in the form of a mold someone casually tossed away, or that someone with access to the Internet lives in a section of the world where the factory that is manufacturing the toys (weeks in advance so they're ready for sale on May 20th at midnight) is right across the street. Suppose word got out and the One Big Secret that cements the multi-million dollar advertising campaign for a studio's tentpole release is in jeopardy of being revealed...
But it's just our theory and nothing other than that. One thing's for certain: the rules have changed in the secrets game for Hollywood. Any studio that was simply using the Internet as a tool to promote their mega-blockbuster would now be foolish to not realize the potential for catastrophic consequences to arise during the countdown for their next event film...
To view the toy image 'Gogo' sent to us, click here.
[Tri-Star/Sony/Centropolis people, make your cheques payable to 'Gogo'. CA thanks this individual for remaining patient and understanding our moment of journalistic confusion and realization. Anyway, we think the toy looks neato.]
Reviews are spilling in from people who've seen an advance screening of the film (some of us have to work on websites, ya know?) We'll be posting these up in a seperate page, Godzilla reviews. If it wasn't obvious -- SPOILER WARNINGS for you if you so choose to enter that domain!
If you haven't shopped for groceries all week, this week's Entertainment Weekly issue is devoted to covering the release of the Tri-Star mega-picture.
Barry S. Goldberg's comments and pictures from Monday's New York premiere are up on his Temple of Godzilla site now. We're really upset with Barry not because he got invites to see the film, not because of the film actresses in their swanky evening dresses he got to photograph...but because he had his photo taken with Chow Yun-Fat. To read abour Barry's night out on the town and see his numerous pictures of the event (Chow Yun-Fat! Damn!), point your browser to www.stomptokyo.com/godzillatemple/premiere. [Barry S. Goldberg, man of tuxedo and HTML.]
The Tag Lines:
"Guess Who's Coming To Town."
"Size Does Matter."
Official Web Site: www.godzilla.com
Related Sites:
Temple of Godzilla -- Devoted to maintaining an online presence for all things Godzilla. Includes a seperate section for the 'American Godzilla Movie'. Created by Barry Goldberg.
Godzilla Online -- An unofficial web site celebrating the new Godzilla picture. There's images, sounds, cast and crew information and a message board all on here for fellow Godzilla-o-philes to come and see.
Monster Zero -- Everything, and we mean everything Godzilla related is on here, including pics and info about the 'zilla's buddies (Mothra rules!)