“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is on the horizon, and it’s shaping up to be one of the more exciting entries in the MonsterVerse to date. Not only is the film clearly channeling the weird, psychedelic, absurdist charm of the Shōwa Era Godzilla films, but “Godzilla vs. Kong” director Adam Wingard returns to push the boundaries and scale of Legendary’s cinematic universe and the legacy of the King of the Monsters himself as “The New Empire” is the first Godzilla movie filmed for IMAX. In fact, audiences will see more of Godzilla (and Kong) than ever before as the film features 49 minutes of true IMAX footage.
READ MORE: ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’: Adam Wingard Says He’ll Likely Do A Trilogy
As part of a forthcoming conversation with Wingard about “The New Empire,” we asked the director about the process of bringing Godzilla and Kong to IMAX. “When you’re doing a big monster movie, the given is that you’re going to have big monster fights, and that’s obviously very fun to do as a director,” said Wingard. “It’s like playing with toys in slow motion over years because everything takes so long to develop in terms of the animation, but it’s such a pleasure. It’s a sandbox that you can’t play in with any other genre.”
“Out of the 49 minutes of expanded IMAX footage, most sequences were selected based on creating more immersion for the fully CGI monster-driven parts of the movie,” Wingard added, elaborating on the ratio of practical effects vs. CGI in the film. “However, there is a fair amount of overlap with the live-action elements, especially as our actors journey through Hollow Earth in their high-tech, anti-gravity vehicle. We specially designed the canopy of the vehicle to give an expansive IMAX view of the surrounding environment.”
However, for all of the Kaiju-sized spectacle that demands to be seen with a packed house on the largest screen possible, Wingard emphasized that his mission as a filmmaker – one he’s been working towards since the end of “Godzilla vs. Kong” – is to utilize spectacle to drive character and story, specifically for the monsters. “What was really exciting to me was creating the world around those fights, the emotional drive of the monsters, and seeing the moments in between fights and them relating to each other,” said Wingard. During the release of “Godzilla vs. Kong,” Wingard expressed a desire to let the monsters carry the film, to let their perspective be the film’s. With “Godzilla x Kong,” he was able to push that even further, affording real emotional weight and empathy to two of cinema’s greatest icons like never before.
“That was really the main drive for me, and I think that that gives the movie an even more expansive feel because there’s really never been a monster movie like this.”
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” arrives in theaters on March 29th, 2024. Stay tuned for our full interview with Adam Wingard. For more Wingard and IMAX, check out this related IMAX video below.