Last summer, one of the biggest movies to make a noise on the floor of the San Diego Comic-Con didn't have a cast, release date or had even officially gone into production. And yet the brief presentation of Gareth Edwards' "Godzilla" caused an uproar, with social media lighting up moments afterward and Warner Bros. quickly unveiling a poster and confirming a release date last fall. Now, as it heads in front of cameras this spring, it looks like a monster battle is brewing behind-the-scenes.
Let's get the good news out of the way first — "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Mist" and "The Walking Dead" writer/director Frank Darabont is coming on board to do a final rewrite on the movie. The original script, by Max Borenstein, has already seen "Iron Man 3" scribe Drew Pearce do some tweaks, but it seems that Darabont might be more involved. Last we heard, the characters were being aged up as the script went out for casting, but it remains unclear what Darabont will be tinkering with. With the logline under wraps, we'll just have to sit tight and see.
Meanwhile, it looks like conflict might be looming between producers and the production company Legendary. Apparently Dan Lin and Roy Lee, who shephered the project, are being ousted by Legendary who are exercising the pay or play option on their contracts after they refused to take lowered fees on the gig. They would get no credit on the movie, with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and Brian Rogers getting their names on the scroll. Lin and Lee are peeved, and there are inklings this might go to court, but given Lin's longtime relationship with Warner Bros. ("Gangster Squad" is one of his projects), we'd wager the studio might try and patch things up, as they don't want to bad buzz to hit a movie that hasn't shot yet.
All that aside, everything else looks all systems go. "Godzilla" stomps into theaters on May 26, 2014. [Deadline/HitFix]
