Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

There's a big interview with Takashi Miike in the last issue of Rue Morgue (not the one with Godzilla on it that is the current one). Its mostly about his banned episode of Masters of Horror, but at the end they ask him about Daimajin.

What can you tell us about your upcoming Daimajin film?

Miike: The Daimajin project is actually going on. It is a tough challenge to bring back the strongest dark hero in Japanese movies. There are a lot of humps to get over. You might see it in Spring 2008 at the earliest. Please look forward to seeing it.

AWESOMENESS. You can tell he's very enthusiastic, and his little description of the Majin character shows that he really likes and understands him and the old films. This will be great.

It's a decade later and I'm still pissed that this movie wasn't made. Daimajin is one of my favorite kaiju, Miike's terrific and seeing his Ultraman Max episodes last year fully sold me on him working the genre.

... but with the enormous success of Shin Godzilla (and Godzilla anime and resurgence of Ultraman popularity) bring kaiju back to Japan here's hoping that one of the country's most notable and prolific directors will get another chance to make a kaiju movie. I hope it happens!

All of Miike's remakes, regardless of genre, are pretty derivative of the original (Hara-Kiri is a SCENE FOR SCENE remake). The television series we got was the best case scenario. A new, colorful direction.

Yokai War has very little in common with the original.

^Yeah, it's a radical reinvention through-and-through.

His two Ultraman Max episodes experiment with the conventions of the show almost to the breaking point, and both in entirely different ways and with entirely different tones.

^ They both have Yokai, and Kappa is comedy relief?