The jaw-dropping Legendary Films presentation of the Pacific Rim panel on Saturday gave the Comic-Con Hall H fans a huge hunger for Japanese style giant monsters. Bless ’em, Legendary was going to surprise us with an unannounced something that would only increase that hunger.
After the Pacific Rim panel left the stage, Legendary‘s Thomas Tull remained, and panel moderator extraordinaire (seriously, he was far and away the best Hall H moderator of the Con) Chris Hardwick asked Tull if there was anything new he’d like to present, maybe something people aren’t expecting to see… “Well there’s one thing we could show. Let’s just show it and see…” and the lights dimmed for the teaser.
What we saw was a gray-brown citiscape that was mostly destroyed, covered with dust and dirt and haze, while the soundtrack was the famous quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer about what happened when the Manhattan Project successfully split the atom. “I knew the world would not be the same. A few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the lines of scripture, Vishnu takes on multi-armed form, and says ‘Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Then the screen flashed to a wonderfully enormous profile of Godzilla.
Yes, the roaring crowd sounded like it was under attack by the giant kaiju itself.
We don’t have the very short teaser, which, just like the trailer for Pacific Rim, was prepared just for Comic-Con, but we do have the artwork:
I know, sorry, no monster in the artwork.
Tull then introduced Godzilla director Gareth Edwards. He said “we’re just gonna take it very seriously. I’ve wanted to see Godzilla like this all my life, really. The idea is, if this really happened, as crazy as it sounds, what would it really be like? There’s nothing sci-fi about this movie; it’s very grounded, realistic.”
Hardwick asked Edwards how he felt about the wildly supportive audience reaction and the fact that there were about 6500 people in the hall. He replied that he couldn’t actually see the audience (during panels the hall lights are dimmed except for the stage), so the Hall H lighting people immediately obliged by turning up the house lights. “You really want to make me cry, don’t you?” Aww. He went on to say that he hadn’t worked “this hard, this long, and been this emotionally invested in something that lasted a few seconds since I lost my virginity.” Aww again.
Considering that they used the Oppenheimer quote, it seems that the origin story of Godzilla will remain the same, that it’s a result of the detonation of nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The giant city-destroying size of the monster also appears to remain the same as most representations. I’m not exactly sure how they’ll have a kaiju movie without sci-fi, but maybe Edwards just defines sci-fi differently than I do. The realistic portrayal could be really interesting. Above all, however, is the fact that Legendary and director Edwards are dedicated and enthusiastic, so I can’t wait to get more information about the project.
We’ll of course keep you posted.
The premiere date for Godzilla has not yet been announced.
