Apparently, production on Jurassic Park IV is getting under way and the whole cast from the original film is returning, at least according to this article.
I wrote about some of the script details here. I can't imagine the story will actually be as crazy as reported.
Well, "Godzilla Final Wars" has premiered in America (the first time a G premiere happened here before Japan) and the reviews are coming in. And Ain't It Cool News has a review as well:
This past summer, I got really tired of hearing people try to defend VAN HELSING as “just fun,” because it didn’t feel to me while watching it like Stephen Sommers actually had fun making it. It just felt like he had a release date to make and thought that biggerlouderfaster was the way to cover any narrative flaws. Here, you can feel Kitamura giggling behind the camera as he piles up the insanity, and it’s infectious.
...
From the moment Godzilla wakes up to the end of the movie, Kitamura kicks out the jams and just bombards you with one fight after another. Some of them are frustratingly brief, like when he butts heads with the miserable American Godzilla in Sydney Harbor. Just about the time the real deals holds down the pale imitation and starts recreating a scene from DELIVERANCE, the sequence is over. Other fights pick up in the middle, like when we see Godzilla whup up on Hedorah, who was actually one of the toughest monsters to fight in the original series. These are minor nitpicks, though. There’s something like an hour of sustained monster action, intercut with kung-fu and spaceship dogfights and a kamikaze STAR WARS scene and did I mention that Minilla drives a car? Seriously. And he wears a seatbelt. It’s gloriously batshit, and I loved it all.
Fantasy and science fiction artist Bob Eggleton has written a nice summation of Godzilla's career at Locus Online. It won't be anything new for Godzilla fans, but it's a nice way to get literary science fiction fans to check kaiju films out. Eggleton is a great artist and is very active in Godzilla fandom. His most recent work is the cover of Japanese Giants, which can be seen at the Locus site.
Today, Nov. 3, my favorite giant monster is 50 years old. The theatrical release of the original "Gojira" opened in Japan today. (It would be another year yet before his American sibling, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" would premiere.) Half a century of giant irradiated reptile goodness, that's quite an achievement. Here's to another 50!
According to this little snippet from USA Today (found at Digital Monster Island), the original Gojira will be put out on Region 1 DVD by Classic Media! It's about time. This follows up Rialto's theatrical release of the film that beat Van Helsing on per theater receipts this summer (it opened on the same weekend). No date yet. I can't wait!
And while I'm at it, Media Blasters has set Jan. 25 as a release date for The Mysterians, a classic Japanese science fiction film that includes the first appearance of Mogera. There's also talk of the same company bringing out Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People) which is my favorite Japanese fantasy film. This is truly a good time to be a fan of Japanese fantasy films.
Jim Knipfel, a Godzilla fan himself, reviews "Godzilla on My Mind: 50 years of the King of Monsters." He likes the book saying that while it is filled with fannish references to the movies and bad attempts at humor, it captures the personal experience of loving Godzilla movies.
And while I'm at it, let me continue to mention "The Buzzing," Jim Knipfel's novel. For any giant monster fan, it is overflowing with references to daikaiju and the plot hinges on one well known Godzilla film as well.
New "Godzilla Final Wars" photos have turned up. These include shots of Rodan, Angilas, King Seesar and Atragon. The shots apparently came from a Japanese magazine. I don't know about the Godzilla suit in this movie, its profile looks kind of odd.
Also, since I last checked in here, a second band has been announced for Final Wars: Zebrahead; and a release date of Dec. 14 has been announced for the DVDs of "Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S." and "Son of Godzilla."
Well the reviews are starting to come in for Garuda, a "Thaikaiju" film (I can't decide if that word is too silly or not), a giant monster film from Thailand. At Stomp Tokyo, they give it 2 out of 4 lava lamps.
For those viewers hungry for good old-fashioned romp-n-stomp destruction, however, Garuda may well be what you crave. The monster design is certainly unusual enough, especially if you haven't read many comic books, and he proves surprisingly difficult to kill for a creature with bones light enough to allow flight. (Let's just say that if you're a fan of the "villain thought dead returns" gag, you're going to love Garuda.) At fifteen feet tall the title creature technically qualifies as a giant monster, but don't be surprised when he does more damage to the city's inhabitants than to the city itself.
Luckily, the film is made with enough style to elevate it above its Sci-Fi Channel brethren. While Garuda has its share of flaws, it gets enough things right for kaiju fans to look forward to more monster films from Thailand. Grade: B
Japanese Giants magazine has a new issue at the printer. Japanese Giants is a very irregularly published, but excellent magazine for daikaiju fans. Here's what you'll get:
Japanese Giants #10
Commemorative Issue for the 50th Anniversary of Godzilla (1954)
64 pages printed on high-quality slick paper with color cover
Featuring:
Color wraparound cover illustrated by Hugo Award winning artist Bob Eggleton
Godzilla (1954)
* Making of Godzilla by Ed Godziszewski
* Staff biographies by August Ragone and Ed Godziszewski
* Original story by Shigeru Kayama - synopsis
* Who was Gojira? by Richard Pusateri
* Deleted/Altered Scenes
* Godzilla-The Radio Drama
* Japanese Film Industry circa 1954 by Stuart Galbraith
* Haruo Nakajima interview by Steve Ryfle and Oki Miyano
* Godzilla-The Score by Jim Figurski
* Akira Takarada interview by Steve Ryfle and Oki Miyano
* Rialto Pictures-The Uncut Japanese Original by Keith Aiken
* Oxygen Destroyer Blueprints by Bill Gudmundson
Acting in Tokyo SOS by Norman England
50 Years of Movie Making and Movie Watching by Neil Riebe
Profile of Toho Production Designer Yasukyuki Inoue by Oki Miyano
Toho Production Design Roundtable Discussion by Oki Myano
Mini Reviews
* Onmyoji by Bob Johnson
* Giant Robo by Jim Walsh
* When You Sing of Love by Andre Dubois
Featuring several rare and unpublished photos, design sketches, and quotations.
Order by sending check or money order for $10 ($8 plus $2 postage), payable to Ed Godziszewski:
Japanese Giants
PO Box 30078
Chicago, IL 60630
For more information on this issue as well as back issues, please contact: edgoji@yahoo.com
Monster Zero News informs us that "Godzilla: Final Wars" will feature a song by Sum 41.
This has increased some of the misgivings Godzilla fans are having about this movie. There was a lot of excitement about all these monsters and old ideas being thrown into this movie. But now, people are wondering, how can this movie work? It's starting to sound like it will be one big mess. I'm not prejudging, I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of monster mash Kitamura can pull off. But to have a pop-punk band attached to your Godzilla film before a composer is named, well that worries me.
UPDATE: Tokyo Monsters has an mp3 of Sum 41's song "We're All to Blame" in its media section. It's the song that will be used in "Godzilla Final Wars."
In other King Kong news, Playmates Toys will be in charge of making toys for the new King Kong movie. Playmates currently make the Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Kong.
On message boards at Club Tokyo there seems to be some doubt about how well this company can pull it off. But we'll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I'm glad I have my McFarlane version of Kong looming over my computer.
So there is this pretty neat King Kong Web site called Kong is King. It looks like it will be good for news, but an entry on their The History of King Kong section has me doubting their credibility:
"King Kong VS. Godzilla" - 1962
Another addition in the "Godzilla" series, the Japanese certainly have their own unique, and fun, take on the great ape. In the Japanese version, Kong lost, but in the American version, he won.
After the wonderful reaction to the first film, a sequel was produced. Carl Denham returned, this time meeting a little Kong. The film was considered mediocre at best. (An interesting note: Both of these early films feature a character known as a "Witch king." Sound familiar?)
According to Monster Zero News, Kadokawa studios has mentioned doing a new Gamera movie. This is good news, although there is only one line in the original story stating that the president of the company is planning on continuing the series.
The Gamera series of the '90s was quite possibly the best (and certainly three of the best) giant monster movies of all time. Now continuing the series without director Shusuke Kaneko is a gamble, but we'll hope for the best.
(And for those who are having problems with Monster Zero hotlinks, here's the Web address, just paste it into your browser: http://www.monsterzero.us/editorials/editorials.php?catID=Nws&subCatID=15&contentID=535 )
Godzilla is shilling for Honda now. The first of their commercials is online.
Actually, when I first saw the title, "Godzilla X Honda," I thought it was some cheeky name for a documentary about Godzilla director Ishiro Honda. Too bad it wasn't the case.
William Hope Hodgson was a great weird writer of the early 20th Century. He was loved by H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, and China Mieville has often mentioned his named as an influence.
He's also a great creator of giant monsters. Books like "The House on the Borderland" and "The Night Lands" were filled with giant, mystical monsters.
Recently, I've been reading his work, collected by Night Shade Books in a continuing series. In the first volume, there is a series of stories about the Sargasso Sea. I was surprised to find out that the Sargasso Sea is an actual place. It exists in the mid-Atlantic and is filled with seaweed. The Bermuda Triangle is within its borders.
Each of Hodgson's stories I've read so far have included a giant animal. I suspect most of the other stories in the series do as well.
Anyone who is interested in giant monsters couldn't go wrong picking up Hodgson's work. It's great weird fiction anyway. And Hodgson most likely had a direct effect on some of my favorite giant monster movies. His story "The Voice in the Night" was the direct inspiration for Ishiro Honda's film Matango, better known as "Attack of the Mushroom People." It's a great little horror film. I'd be curious to learn if Hodgson was regularly translated into Japanese.
Here's a site about Hodgson (edit: web site is gone) and there seems to be plenty more if you're so inclined. I also think his work is in the public domain, so you can find much of it online. Here's "From the Tideless Sea" (edit: link also gone, here's what Gutenberg has), the first of his Sargasso Sea stories. Enjoy.
At a flea market a few weeks ago, I picked up the No. 7 issue of "Tower of Shadows," a 1970 reprint Marvel comic. It's filled with wacky stories done by great artists. The first oneis called "Titano: The Monster that Time Forgot." Monster Blog has a few pictures and a description of the giant crab monster. It's a silly story, but fun. It has no credits, but there is no doubt that Jack Kirby drew it.
Titano splits boats in half and causes tremendous tidal waves over Japan, before our stalwart Navy hero comes on the scene. He paints his submarine in luminous yellow paint and gets the monster to chase him. Eventually, they embed the monster in a glacier in the arctic.
Kirby was the master of giant monster in comic books. Check out Monster Blog, which includes articles on all Kirby's giants. It's great stuff.
The "Godzilla Final Wars" info doesn't stop coming. Here's the latest, this Japanese (I assume) blog has pictures of Hedorah vs. Ebirah. They look like they were taken from a magazine. The last picture is the most interesting to my eyes.
Filmtracks reviews the Godzilla soundtrack. They are quite complimentary, although the second review seems pretty uninformed to me.
Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you have any interest in Akira Ifukube or Gojira, for the 2004 album is the definitive release of the original film's music.
Avoid it... if you do not value the history of Gojira more than the need for perfect sound quality, or if the Ifukube style has proven too foreign for your Western sensibilities.
There's a new link at Monster Zero to a Japanese television promotional clip for "Godzilla Final Wars." The clip is filled with quick shots of Godzilla, Rodan, Gigan, Monster X and Zilla. Zilla (the monster previously known as GINO) is in such a short clip, you have to pause and brighten your screen to see him.
Also at Monster Zero, the first screen shot of the new Hedorah, the Smog Monster.
(I hear Monster Zero links aren't working correctly. If you take the following links and paste them into your browser, they should work.
GFW spot:
http://www.monsterzero.us/editorials/editorials.php?catID=Nws&
subCatID=15&contentID=527
Hedorah: http://monsterzero.us/monsterzero/news/gfw/hedorah.jpg )
