Godzilla - The novelization of the 1998 film by Stephen Molstad - I picked this up because, although I don't collect Godzilla toys, I do try to collect Godzilla-related books (as I can find and afford them here in Brazil). I was hoping at the very least there would be something in the book that wasn't in final film product, something in the script that had been cut or glossed over by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The book itself is an adequate, workmanlike product, telling the story in the first person (from Nick Tatopoulos's POV). No great shakes in Molstad's writing. Only three things stuck out to me in this version:
1. The Nick Tatopoulos character feels less like a Matthew Broderick character and more like an arrogant, cynical, conspiracy theorist. In other words, this is the Nick we'd have gotten had they been able to bring on Jeff Goldblum to play him as had been the original plan.
2. Dr. Elsie Chapman, the female paleontologist who was supposed to be Nick's "boss" in the Gojira Project, was written as something of a sexpot. The way Molstad describes her, you think that the part was written for Christina Hendricks or Scarlett Johansson circa 2012 when she was sporting her Black Widow look...or for someone working in film in the late 90s, Julianne Moore or Angie Everhart.
That brings me to the final observations:
3. Dr. Mendel Craven, the third scientist on the Gojira Project team. In the movie, his character serves absolutely no purpose at all (and don't try to tell me that his presence in the movie was justified by his development as a character in the later animated series). The book does give him some background, letting us know that he's a scientist (or some sort) best known for publishing a series books about different ways the world could end and how each scenario would play out. While that's more background than he got in the film, it doesn't really justify his being called by the military. And then, in the book's epilogue, we learn that he's writing a book about the possibility of a second nest of Godzillas, which he intended to title "Cretaceous Era Park, or something*." So that implies that the character was created as a parody of Michael Crichton, which would make sense, considering that even the book points out how much like velociraptors that baby Godzillas behave. If that's true, that all of it was lost while bringing the script to the screen, and what might've been a reaction or parody of the previous year's Lost World: Jurassic Park ended up looking more like a desperate rip-off.
* - The title of Craven's book doesn't make any sense in the contexto of the novelization, as he was the most vocal opponent of Dr. Chapman's theory that Godzilla was an embiggened allosaurus
Godzilla 1998 Novelization
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Re: Godzilla 1998 Novelization
I didn't know Jeff Goldblum was originally supposed to play Nick, where did you find that bit of info?
All very interesting thoughts, looks like I'll have to dig this up (never read it). There's actually a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Does this novelization mention the corpse that falls out in front of Nick during the japanese ship scene? Or the gas canisters thrown at Godzilla during the first fish bait scene?
I would have LOVED Julianne Moore as Elsie actually, always thought Nick should've ended up with her instead of going back to Audrey (kinda too idealistic)
All very interesting thoughts, looks like I'll have to dig this up (never read it). There's actually a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Does this novelization mention the corpse that falls out in front of Nick during the japanese ship scene? Or the gas canisters thrown at Godzilla during the first fish bait scene?
I would have LOVED Julianne Moore as Elsie actually, always thought Nick should've ended up with her instead of going back to Audrey (kinda too idealistic)
Platypus Prime wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:21 pm I realized today that thanks to a few animations and manga she's appeared in, Biollante is an anime girl.
miguelnuva wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:47 pm With this being an Oscar for best visual effects you can also joke and say Godzilla really did win the oscar.
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Re: Godzilla 1998 Novelization
I feel like the novel is far superior to the film. It also makes you fee really, really bad for GINO at the end imo.
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Re: Godzilla 1998 Novelization
I originally heard about the Jeff Goldblum thing in this podcast.Omegamorph wrote:I didn't know Jeff Goldblum was originally supposed to play Nick, where did you find that bit of info?
All very interesting thoughts, looks like I'll have to dig this up (never read it). There's actually a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Does this novelization mention the corpse that falls out in front of Nick during the japanese ship scene? Or the gas canisters thrown at Godzilla during the first fish bait scene?
I would have LOVED Julianne Moore as Elsie actually, always thought Nick should've ended up with her instead of going back to Audrey (kinda too idealistic)
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Re: Godzilla 1998 Novelization
Thanks H-Man!
Platypus Prime wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:21 pm I realized today that thanks to a few animations and manga she's appeared in, Biollante is an anime girl.
miguelnuva wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:47 pm With this being an Oscar for best visual effects you can also joke and say Godzilla really did win the oscar.