Lost Project: Godzilla vs. The Devil (1978)

[Zilla103192]

thats rather disappointing news

[shinmattiathekaiju]

(Yes I realize I'm going all over the place so what?)

This would have been a very cool project in my opinion. I wonder how Teruyoshi Nakano would have portrayed Satan. I would choose Riichiro Manabe to compose the score because of his past horror movie scores such as the Bloodthirsty Trilogy and Crest Of The Wolf.

I think Satan would have looked like one of the Garogas.

[Kubo]

Maybe if it was Godzilla Vs Hell's Army...that would be pretty spiffy, eh?

[Showa Gyaos]

I still say it would've been epically bizarre. Of course, Godzilla has never tackled religion, but he has informed people of pollution and schoolyard bullies. Not to mention, Hedorah is a bizarre daikaijuu himself. Satan would've just been another '70s freak.

[RodanRedux]

Yeah what a strange flick this would have been. The best part would've been watching Godzilla actually defeat Satan.

[Kubo]

Man, that would have been awesome. Godzilla is so strong, he can be Satan. Wow...there's only one other being that can do that!

[kpa]

Aw, curse you, Keith! Why'd you have to go and say that? Godzilla vs. the Devil is the most awesomest never-made movie ever!

Sorry about that!

It been said that people always remember the first news story but never the retraction, and that was certainly proven true here. Tanaka's remarks about GODZILLA VS THE DEVIL being just a rumor were printed in Japanese Giants over thirty years ago and yet fans are still asking questions like...

anyone have any idea what Satan would have looked like?

[Kubo]

-___- well I know there was no concept art but I was just asking people what they thought he would look like.

[hammysammy59]

Maaaaaaaaaaaaan this movie could have been awesome. I really like that fan-made trailer. As crazy and out there as this idea seems, the dark, almost pulpy/exploitationy vibe would have felt pretty at home following the dark-but-still-kinda-campy Terror of Mechagodzilla. I really see no reason content-wise why this didn't happen. If Toho was scared of American audiences being offended, they would have just changed Satan/Devil to demon/evil spirit or something. Which would have been lame, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

The fact that we never got Godzilla vs Cthulhu blows my mind. What blows my mind even more is that it seems like it was never even considered briefly. Somebody at Toho was not doing their job. Granted the Devil movie probably would have covered the same ground as Cthulhu... but it's not like it'd be the first or last time in the series we got two similar movies in a row. Hell (pun intended) they could have had one be a semi-sequel to the other.

[kpa]

-___- well I know there was no concept art but I was just asking people what they thought he would look like.

But...how is anyone supposed to know if this was a project that was nothing but a rumor? At this point what else is there to say?

Exactly.

I really see no reason content-wise why this didn't happen. If Toho was scared of American audiences being offended, they would have just changed Satan/Devil to demon/evil spirit or something. Which would have been lame, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

In the 1970s the "gloom and doom" scenario was very popular. There were big budget movies like EARTHQUAKE; best selling-selling books like The Late Great Planet Earth; documentaries on Armageddon prophecies, Nostradamus, ice ages, killer bees, and on and on. Movies like THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN tapped into people's fears and were enormously successful, and that just spawned more movies, and TV specials and books.

Considering what was happening at the time, it's only natural someone would start a GODZILLA VS THE DEVIL rumor... after all, "Godzilla vs ______" has been a common joke for decades. But Tanaka said the rumors were just rumors, so concerns about offending people with such a movie would never have been an issue. By 1977-78 Toho wasn't making Godzilla/kaiju movies at all because they were no longer box office draws.

The fact that we never got Godzilla vs Cthulhu blows my mind. What blows my mind even more is that it seems like it was never even considered briefly. Somebody at Toho was not doing their job.

Chthulu was created by HP Lovecraft and would not be a public domain character. There seems to be some debate over who owns what rights to Lovecraft's works, but Toho would likely avoid using anything that 1) they would have to pay for, and 2) could get sued over.

[Kubo]

@ Legion1979: Just say what you think the Devil would have looked like IN YOUR OPINION. I'm not asking for any concept art, it's just a rumor.

[Goji]

@ Legion1979: Just say what you think the Devil would have looked like IN YOUR OPINION. I'm not asking for any concept art, it's just a rumor.

..Really dude?

[Kubo]

..okay whatever...just ignore me and my ideas.

[Goji]

No dude, I'm not trying to be mean here, I'm really not. But your response just seems to ignore both Legion's AND kpa's responses. The film has always been a rumor and nothing more, so who knows what the creature would have looked like? You get me?

[Kubo]

^ The Showa Spacegodzilla had actually gone into production?

[hammysammy59]

If Godzilla vs The Devil was never even in consideration why is it on the website in the "Lost Projects" section?... I'm sure I'm not the only one misled by that. Does every rumor that picks up steam get listed as a "Lost Project"?

While yeah, I can't see Toho shelling out cash for Cthulu, they could always make their own similar monster, like how the mini-Destoroyahs were pretty blatant nods to the Alien series' xenomorph. I think the closest we've seen is Dogora (in design only, he's just a space monster, right?) or the fact that Space Amoeba is also known as Yog, the Monster from Space ("Yog" being a reference to the Lovecraft monster Yog-Sothoth).

[Kubo]

@ Legion1979: Ah...that makes a world of sense now. Well since this movie never even was considered, I agree with you guys (i had no idea that was the case before seeing this thread) that it should be removed from the site.

[Monsterzero 1965]

Seeing that this movie was proven to be a hoax, did anyone alert Arbok about it?

[kpa]

If Godzilla vs The Devil was never even in consideration why is it on the website in the "Lost Projects" section?... I'm sure I'm not the only one misled by that. Does every rumor that picks up steam get listed as a "Lost Project"?

I think that's a little uncalled for. The "Godzilla vs the Devil" story has been written about in various English language books, fanzines, websites, etc for many, many years and it was always described as an unmade project. I always thought that's it was until I read the comments from Tanaka stating otherwise. Ive checked through some of my Toho books and read a few interviews with Henry Saperstein of UPA and couldn't find anything that showed such a project was being considered by Toho or UPA, either. That doesn't mean evidence doesn't exist, but the only official word I've seen on the subject is what Tanaka said.

So it looks to me like the original rumors caught on and were passed along while the correction was not. But complaining that Toho Kingdom misled you because Arbok wasn't aware of a sentence or two from an article printed in a fanzine (with a circulation of maybe a few hundred copies) 31 years ago is just wrong. From firsthand experience I can tell you it's a lot of work to create and maintain a site like TK, particularly when dealing with foreign language productions where info is often very hard to come by. I think Arbok and his team have been doing a great job for years, and suggest that everyone who comes here and enjoys the time and effort the TK crew do for free should not be so quick to criticize if and when a mistake is uncovered.

I'm big on facts so I don't have much respect for those sites that don't do their research and therefore treat every rumor like it could be legit news... that recent "2 Godzilla movies in 2012" story is a perfect example; anyone who knows anything about Godzilla should have been able to see how full of holes that thing was. But TK has never been one of those sites. And sometimes you do the research and check with sources and the story still later turns out to be wrong. As long as TK makes a real effort to be accurate, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

[Arbok]

I'm in the office right now, so don't have access to any hardcover sources.

I'm curious where the Tanaka interview was published?

Also, just to make it clear, "Lost Projects" are very hard to confirm by their very nature. It's hard at times to divided rumor from fact at certain points. Heck, at one point we had "Little Godzilla's Underground Adventure" on the site before the Kawakita interview was well published disproving that.

In direct regards to Godzilla vs. the Devil, it's a well published concept in America. Japan's favorite mon-star and other sources list it. That doesn't dictate that it must be so. What we do know, though, is that there was going to be a Godzilla film in 1978 that was going to be jointly produced by Toho and H.G. Benedict Productions. We know that because Toho released an LP that listed it as an upcoming title, however all it was called was simply "Godzilla" so the exact project it was talking about is unknown. Might have just been Godzilla vs. the Gargantuas though...