Godzilla 2000 (1999)
Audio Commentary by Mike Schlesinger, US version producer & writer; Mike Mahoney, US version editor; and Darren Paskal, US version supervising sound editor
Sony DVD - 2000
Sony BRD - 2014
After Sony & TriStar's 1998 Godzilla reboot failed to catch on with audiences, they decided not to proceed with a sequel, so Toho went right to work on their next Godzilla flick. Godzilla 2000 opened in Japan in December 1999 followed by a US theatrical release courtesy of Sony in August 2000.
Sony's edited cut was produced and written by Mike Schlesinger, who spearheads the discussion in this audio commentary. He is accompanied by editor Mike Mahoney, who removed about nine minutes of footage from Toho's cut and rearranged a number of scenes and shots, as well as Darren Paskal, the supervising sound editor who completely overhauled the film's sound effects and created an all-new sound mix.
Schlesinger has the most to say and he talks fast but all three of these guys are clearly enthusiastic about the film and the work they did on it. This is a very unique commentary, because how often do you get to hear the team that edited a Godzilla film for its US release offer their perspectives on the process as the film is playing? They had less than two months to produce the US version from when Sony acquired the film to when it was playing in North American theaters. One interesting tidbit is that Schlesinger didn't write the English-dubbed dialogue by translating it from the original Japanese but by writing a new script in place of the international English-dubbed version, that elusive Hong Kong dub that has never been released because of how much Toho liked Sony's version. That's why Schlesinger refers to the recording process for Godzilla 2000 as looping rather than dubbing, because it involved no translation from a different language.
After I rewatched Godzilla 2000 with this commentary, I found it cool to reread Steve Ryfle's 2014 article on SciFi Japan, "" in which Mike Schlesinger describes his unmade pitch to Columbia to exercise the sequel option that Sony paid for with GINO'98 by instead producing a much cheaper sequel to Godzilla 2000 to be directed by Joe Dante. Schlesinger wrote a complete script titled Godzilla Reborn, envisioning the movie as taking place in Hawaii, starring a mixture of American and Asian actors and featuring traditional suitmation & miniature effects by Toho. The article is a fascinating read and although that sequel to Godzilla 2000 never came to be, the article kind of reads like a follow-up to Schlesinger's audio commentary.
