Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have made it clear in the last year or so that one of their biggest priorities in plugging the gap left by the end of the “Harry Potter” franchise, alongside amping up production on D.C. Comics adaptations, is to revamp the Godzilla series. The stink of Roland Emmerich’s 1998 take on the classic Japanese monster still lingers today, but WB picked up the rights from Toho in March this year, and artwork for the picture made a brief appearance at Comic-Con, but other than that, things have been a little quiet, and we were wondering if the film was on target to make its mooted Summer 2012 release date.
Latino Review, however, reported some movement on the project yesterday. First of all, they suggested that the studios had been unhappy with recent script drafts, and that Legendary were considering turning another of their projects, “Pacific Rim,” into a Godzilla picture. The script was bought from a 25-page treatment by writer Travis Beacham (“Clash of the Titans”) back in May, and is set in a near future where ‘malevolent creatures’ threaten earth, and humanity must use advanced technology to fight them off. It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to see that forming the basis of a Godzilla picture — indeed, one of Deadline’s commenters appears to have called this one at the time.
The site also reports that Legendary have offered the project to Guillermo Del Toro, who’s now free of his obligations to “The Hobbit.” They stress that it’s only an offer, and the story’s somewhat unclear on whether he was offered “Godzilla,” “Pacific Rim” or an amalgamation of the two, but it suggests some serious interest on the studio’s behalf.
But wait! Drew McWeeny at HitFix got in touch with Del Toro himself, who responded: “I am not involved in “Godzilla” at all. I haven’t read it or plan to read it. Nor have I been approached to direct it.” Either Latino Review managed to print the offer before Del Toro’s agent received it, or this is one of those being-on-a-wishlist-gets-translated-as-an-offer-having-gone-out stories, but either way, it looks Del Toro won’t be anywhere near giant city-stomping lizards any time soon, particularly as he’s gearing up to direct passion project “At The Mountains Of Madness” for Universal in the same time frame.
McWeeny also suggests that there may not be any truth to the Beacham rumor — he says he’d heard some confidence about the “Godzilla” scripts from executives at Legendary, although stresses that there could be new information, so it’s not outside the realms of possibility. With a summer 2012 release being targeted, we imagine Warner Bros. and Legendary will be keen to sign someone sooner rather than later, so keep your eyes peeled for the “Noomi Rapace and Natalie Portman On Short-List To Play Godzilla” rumors any day now.