The Kaiju/Monsterverse Thread (Kong & Godzilla)

[The Joker]

Silver Nemesis and I are probably the only two on the forum who will get anything out of this, but I'm posting it anyways.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah 2021

[Silver Nemesis]

Brilliant! I love the practical effects, miniatures and low-angle perspective photography. The opening and closing titles have a nice Showa-era retro feel, even though the production values are clearly more up to date. I hope they'll make more short films like this in the future. 

I went on a kaiju binge back in late September/early October. My seven-year-old nephew gave me the DVD set of the four American MonsterVerse movies for my birthday, and I also watched most of the Gamera films on Amazon Prime. While reading up on Godzilla vs. Kong, I was interested to note the involvement of Yoshimitsu Banno as an executive producer. Banno died back in 2017, but was posthumously credited for both Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong. Banno had acted as second unit director on the classic Kurosawa films Throne of Blood (1957) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), the latter of which was a major influence on Star Wars, but he also directed the original 1971 Godzilla vs. Hedorah.

I saw a discussion on another site where someone suggested bringing Hedorah back in a future MonsterVerse film as a tribute to Banno. The environmental threat posed by Hedorah would make him a topical villain for the 2020s. He'd also make a suitable opponent for Gamera if the two of them were introduced into the MonsterVerse, since many of the Gamera films have an environmental subtext. Godzilla, Kong and Gamera teaming up to battle an updated nastier version of Hedorah would make for a great cinematic spectacle.

It would also offer the opportunity to poke fun at some of the more, shall we say, zealous environmental activists. You could have a scene where a Greta Thunberg lookalike shows up and screams "How DARE you pollute my planet" before being promptly squashed by an indifferent Hedorah. This could be followed by a scene where Extinction Rebellion activists are gluing themselves to a road to block traffic while REM's 'It's the End of the World' plays on a car radio in the background. When Hedorah approaches, the drivers of the obstructed vehicles simply get out and run to safety while the Extinction Rebellion activists remain helplessly glued in the path of the oncoming destruction. I bet audiences would cheer a scene like that.

At any rate, it's great to see a classic monster like Hedorah back in action after all these years.

[The Joker]

Yeah, bringing Hedorah back in a future movie would be pretty amazing to see. I still wish we would have had a Shin Godzilla series of films, cause ... just imagine what a Shin Hedorah would be like! Truly the stuff of complete and total horror.

I saw a discussion on another site where someone suggested bringing Hedorah back in a future MonsterVerse film as a tribute to Banno. The environmental threat posed by Hedorah would make him a topical villain for the 2020s. He'd also make a suitable opponent for Gamera if the two of them were introduced into the MonsterVerse, since many of the Gamera films have an environmental subtext. Godzilla, Kong and Gamera teaming up to battle an updated nastier version of Hedorah would make for a great cinematic spectacle.

It would also offer the opportunity to poke fun at some of the more, shall we say, zealous environmental activists. You could have a scene where a Greta Thunberg lookalike shows up and screams "How DARE you pollute my planet" before being promptly squashed by an indifferent Hedorah. This could be followed by a scene where Extinction Rebellion activists are gluing themselves to a road to block traffic while REM's 'It's the End of the World' plays on a car radio in the background. When Hedorah approaches, the drivers of the obstructed vehicles simply get out and run to safety while the Extinction Rebellion activists remain helplessly glued in the path of the oncoming destruction. I bet audiences would cheer a scene like that.

ALL of THAT would be absolutely tremendous. 

[The Joker]

https://deadline.com/2022/01/apple-tv-godzilla-legendary-monsterverse-1234916545/

Apple TV+ Lands Godzilla & Titans series based on Legendary's Monsterverse.

In a massive deal that expands on Legendary's Monsterverse, Apple TV+ has ordered a new live-action series featuring Godzilla and the Titans.

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the untitled series explores one family's journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.

The series will be produced by Legendary Television and executive produced by co-creators Chris Black — who will also serve as showrunner — and Matt Fraction, alongside Safehouse Pictures' Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell and Toho Co. Ltd. Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita will executive produce for Toho. Toho is the owner of the Godzilla character and has licensed the rights to Legendary for this series as a natural byproduct of their long-term relationship on the film franchise.

Talks about expanding the universe via a series began after Godzilla v. Kong became one of the first big box-office hits in the pandemic era. Legendary already is developing the next untitled film set in the Monsterverse but saw potential in developing a series and began talking to buyers that were interested. Apple showed immediate interest as it looks to add more branded IP to a slate of original TV series that continues to grow, and a deal was soon struck to start development on the series.

Beginning in 2014 with Godzilla and continuing with 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, Monsterverse films have accumulated nearly $2 billion at the global box office and is expanding with a new anime series, Skull Island. The series will premiere globally on Apple TV+. alongside an expanding offering of sweeping, world-building dramas including upcoming Wool, based on Hugh Howey's New York Times best-selling trilogy of the same name; Foundation, based on the novels by Isaac Asimov and created by David S. Goyer; Invasion, a new sci-fi drama series from Simon Kinberg and David Weil; and post-apocalyptic series See, starring Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista and Alfre Woodard.

Interesting choice to basically go back in time, and explore the direct aftermath of Godzilla 2014. Godzilla King of the Monsters touched upon it, briefly, but chose to jump ahead into the-then current time frame for the story (2019).

The thing with a family finding out about a legacy linking them to the Monarch organization might be entertaining to see play out in Legendary's Monsterverse. My first thought, is that perhaps they are related to either Houston Brooks, or William Randa (John Goodman) from Kong Skull Island. If Joe Morton is cast in this, that'll likely seal it right there.

[The Laughing Fish]

https://deadline.com/2022/01/apple-tv-godzilla-legendary-monsterverse-1234916545/

Apple TV+ Lands Godzilla & Titans series based on Legendary's Monsterverse.

In a massive deal that expands on Legendary's Monsterverse, Apple TV+ has ordered a new live-action series featuring Godzilla and the Titans.

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the untitled series explores one family's journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.

The series will be produced by Legendary Television and executive produced by co-creators Chris Black — who will also serve as showrunner — and Matt Fraction, alongside Safehouse Pictures' Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell and Toho Co. Ltd. Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita will executive produce for Toho. Toho is the owner of the Godzilla character and has licensed the rights to Legendary for this series as a natural byproduct of their long-term relationship on the film franchise.

Talks about expanding the universe via a series began after Godzilla v. Kong became one of the first big box-office hits in the pandemic era. Legendary already is developing the next untitled film set in the Monsterverse but saw potential in developing a series and began talking to buyers that were interested. Apple showed immediate interest as it looks to add more branded IP to a slate of original TV series that continues to grow, and a deal was soon struck to start development on the series.

Beginning in 2014 with Godzilla and continuing with 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, Monsterverse films have accumulated nearly $2 billion at the global box office and is expanding with a new anime series, Skull Island. The series will premiere globally on Apple TV+. alongside an expanding offering of sweeping, world-building dramas including upcoming Wool, based on Hugh Howey's New York Times best-selling trilogy of the same name; Foundation, based on the novels by Isaac Asimov and created by David S. Goyer; Invasion, a new sci-fi drama series from Simon Kinberg and David Weil; and post-apocalyptic series See, starring Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista and Alfre Woodard.

Very curious to see the next Monsterverse productions are going to Apple TV+ instead of HBO Max. I assume Legendary must've been so pissed off with the whole same day release plan and how it affected GvK and Dune that it decided to take all the Monsterverse follow-ups to another streaming service? I do remember reading speculation that Legendary considered taking legal action against WB when the HBO Max streaming plan was announced.

It's either that, or WB's finances in such bad shape that it couldn't afford to co-finance this productions. Whatever the reason is, HBO Max has missed out on money-making content. Yet another reason why Discovery must replace all of those execs running all levels at WarnerMedia.

[The Joker]

Very curious to see the next Monsterverse productions are going to Apple TV+ instead of HBO Max. I assume Legendary must've been so pissed off with the whole same day release plan and how it affected GvK and Dune that it decided to take all the Monsterverse follow-ups to another streaming service? I do remember reading speculation that Legendary considered taking legal action against WB when the HBO Max streaming plan was announced.

Legendary's a producing company, and not a distributor like Warners, and it was Legendary that has taken on the bulk of the financing when it comes to the Godzilla/Kong Monsterverse films. At one point in time, Netflix made a financial offer towards Legendary for GvK, which apparently Legendary wanted to explore, but WB was able to block that negotiation, and supposedly settled out of court with Legendary to the tune of $250 million due to Legendary being blind sided by the same day release on HBO Max decision by Warners. 

It's either that, or WB's finances in such bad shape that it couldn't afford to co-finance this productions. Whatever the reason is, HBO Max has missed out on money-making content. Yet another reason why Discovery must replace all of those execs running all levels at WarnerMedia.

Despite the bad blood, I am not entirely convinced Legendary will sever all ties with Warners as a theatrical distributor (especially with the Merger on the horizon and a "fresh" start with different execs could definitely be had), but they are absolutely free to shop around the Monsterverse property (as long as the deal with Toho remains intact) with other streaming platforms for stuff like a series (Godzilla series on Apple TV+, Kong Skull Island Anime on Netflix).

[The Laughing Fish]

Despite the bad blood, I am not entirely convinced Legendary will sever all ties with Warners as a theatrical distributor (especially with the Merger on the horizon and a "fresh" start with different execs could definitely be had), but they are absolutely free to shop around the Monsterverse property (as long as the deal with Toho remains intact) with other streaming platforms for stuff like a series (Godzilla series on Apple TV+, Kong Skull Island Anime on Netflix).

I didn't even know there was another anime series going onto Netflix. Come to think of it, that reminds me of the Pacific Rim: The Black anime show that's already on the service, and as you know, Pacific Rim is owned by Legendary. Still, the thought of a live action series going to another streaming service is a pretty big deal, compared to anime's niche market in the west.

I agree with you over how Legendary might wait and decide what to do with their relationship with Warner. Let's see Discovery fulfills their goals once the merger is complete and repairs the studio's damaged image.

[The Joker]

Pretty sweet cross promotion.

[The Joker]

https://deadline.com/2022/06/dune-part-two-moves-to-pre-thanksgiving-2023-godzilla-kong-event-sequel-dated-1235054755/

Meanwhile the next Godzilla-Kong sequel from Legendary has been dated for March 15, 2024. Warners previously had the date on hold, but for an untitled DC movie. Godzilla vs. Kong filmmaker Adam Wingard returns to direct. Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing.

[The Dark Knight]

Top Gun: Maverick has been entertaining the masses as proven by the box office. But we can't forget about GvK. The screening I saw was packed and going bonkers, with a full house lined up outside ready for their turn. It was a crowd pleasing movie, and what people needed at that particular time. Nothing pretentious. Just big action. If they can deliver more of that, I'll be back.