New Toho Godzilla Series after Legendary

[Rodanex]

Regardless, I wish Toho would just take some cues from the American film industry and take their time with the film's production. Can you imagine how much better a movie they would make if they worked on it for 4 years? I don't understand why Japan has some of the best engineers and scientists in the world and yet their special effects always lag behind American films.

[Gman2887]

I've been wondering, as far as North American distribution goes, does Sony still get first dibs? Was a new deal made with Legendary/WB for future Toho Godzilla movies? Might seem silly to wonder about that question now, but seeing as Legendary is the new torch runner...

[Legion]

[Mac]

[jellydonut25]

Yeah, Mac's right. Not to mention that foreign films get little to no run in the US, even the best, most well-loved foreign films and a Godzilla movie will NEVER be that. So any Japanese production is heading in KNOWING it has a smaller market than any American blockbuster...you can't justify spending the kind of money that would allow for quality special effects to even be considered.

[Pkmatrix]

[kiryugoji04]

[Benjamin Haines]

[kiryugoji04]

[walshiam]

[Cookie]

Is filming in the summer then releasing in December what Toho has done.

[Jorzilla]

I don't know if you guys listen to Kaiju Cast, but August Ragone was interviewed on his reporting on the story, and he gives some good insight into how significant Godzilla-Con actually is, more than I realized especially. It's a great listen, he even gives a pretty good case for why is going to be the director. Most important detail: It fits with his current film schedule, and he does a quick 60 day film with actors and spends up to 10 months working on visual effects with his independent visual studio. He already has experience with Godzilla since he directed Always 2.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Mac]

[Cookie]

Basically Godzillas 60th anniversary celebration started on November 3rd, and runs to that same date 2016. So, if they released it December 2016, his 60th birthday has already come by.... Which leads me to believe it'll be Summer 2016. Luke Ragone said, that does fit the Director of BATTLESHIP YAMATO schedule. So if they film for 2-3 months he'll have plenty of post production time. This is what I'm hoping for.

[lhb412]

Listening to the Kaijucast episode. Wonderful stuff from Ragone!

[kiryugoji04]

[Mac]

[kiryugoji04]

[planetxleader]

Well if this pans out to be true, I would be about 90% less excited.

[Psycho Soldier]

I've only seen his Returner, and that was 10+ years ago when I did, so I remember very little about it. Anyone able to vouch for that or his other work? I can see he uses CG a lot, which is worrisome, but I wonder what it would take to convince him and Toho to go practical.

[planetxleader]

Same here. And I did quite like it; it was fun and it had a hip attitude that I would love to see in a Godzilla movie (gee, I feel like I'm talking about Kitamura ten years ago). The Always 2 scene everybody's seen was neat, but it didn't really make me want to see the movie, nor did it make me want to see Toho pursue a CGI Godzilla.

If it's a question of convincing Yamakazi to utilize practical effects, wouldn't it make more sense to bring in someone that's used to working with practical effect artists? If Yamakazi directs it, he's most likely going to be using CG.

[Cookie]

His CGI isn't terrible. I would be fine with a CGI Godzilla.. Guys, this is going to be different in someway with the vfx. Not sure if practical is gonna cut it anymore.

[Benjamin Haines]

Ten months of post-production time could be enough to produce CGI that isn't (all) terrible, so it's not as bad as the prospect of them cranking this out by next December, but let's face it, an all-CGI Godzilla produced by Toho would look like a video game.

The thinking behind going all-CGI is that special effects need to look modern, realistic, and state-of-the-art, but no amount of post-production time would change the fact that it would be just one visual effects studio with a Japanese film industry budget. WB/Legendary's Godzilla looked as good as it did because they plunked down $160 million on a film employing nine different visual effects studios. Toho's new Godzilla isn't going to sell $500 million worth of tickets worldwide so of course they can't afford to utilize resources on that scale.

I'd love to see Toho produce a period piece in the vein of Always with Godzilla brought to life via traditional suitmation and composited into digital recreations of 1950s Japanese cityscapes, with physical miniatures used for buildings that the monsters tear through. There are ways for Toho to update traditional effects techniques and produce something uniquely modern instead of just trying to chase the Hollywood rabbit.

[Mac]