by Arrow » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:14 pm
Since the old topic was stickied, I'll stickey this one as well. So let me do that...
My Godzilla Movie
(This was an old idea I once had.)
- I've thought about a movie done in the style of All Monsters Attack/Godzilla's Revenge - where Godzilla doesn't exist in that world and the characters know him through his movies. It would start with a young boy (around the ages of 4-6) and his father watching Godzilla vs. Megalon on television. They cheer at the scenes where Jet Jaguar airlifts Godzilla out of a ring of fire, Gigan retreats, Godzilla does his dropkick on Megalon. The boy exclaims to his father that one day he'll make a Godzilla movie. A montage of scenes would then flash - Godzilla battling Mothra in Mothra vs. Godzilla, Godzilla and Rodan teaming up on King Ghidorah in Astro Monster, Godzilla grappling with Ebirah in Sea Monster, Mechagodzilla's All-Out Assault in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla frying Hedorah in Godzilla vs. Hedorah - that would take us to 1998. The boy and his father find themselves in a theater, watching GODZILLA. The boy is disappointed when he sees the creature in the movie. But as he leaves he hears a passer-by say, "at least it wasn't as stupid as the guy in a rubber suit". His friend agrees, "yeah, remember when the old Godzilla actually flew? That was so stupid". To cheer him up, the boy's father takes him to Blockbuster to real a Japanese Godzilla movie. But the boy, still stinging from the words of the passer-by, is reluctant. However, he notices a Godzilla movie he hadn't seen before - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Curious, he chooses that one. At home, the boy is blown away by the movie's superior special effects and more dangerous portrayal of Godzilla (his father finds the movie boring). The snark against the older Godzilla movies is shoved to the back of his head.
- The years pass and the boy grows up. Two years later, he and his father go to watch Godzilla 2000. He falls in love with it. However, six months later, his father would die in an automobile accident. In anger, he throws aways his Godzilla movies. His mother decides to box them up and take them to the attic. The child grows - he makes friends, goes through Elementary, Middle, and High School, he learns about the world, he kisses a girl, in short, he grows up. When he sees another young child playing with a Godzilla toy, he chuckles to himself about it ("those movies are so bad"). His love for Godzilla has long gone, replaced with a new antagonism for Godzilla and all his films. The toys he used to own disappear from him shelves. The old Godzilla movies rest in the attic - long forgotten. The boy grows up into a young man with dreams of becoming a movie director. He graduates High School and leaves home to pursue his profession.
- Cut to the modern day. The boy has grown into a man, an up-and-coming Hollywood director with a couple modest hits under his belt. But he's aching to try something new. Prior to this time, the studio he works for has already acquired the film rights from Toho Studios for Godzilla. Unfortunately no big name director will take it on. Godzilla no longer has the merchandizing power he once used to. Finally, the studio offers to take the project to our hero as a last resort. Our hero is contacted and meets with several of the studio executives. At first he resists what seems to be a lost cause ("Godzilla's old news, let's move on"), but is goaded into it with the promise that if he can make Godzilla a modern success again, he'd be the most sought-after new filmmaker in Hollywood. He eventually agrees. At a press release, he mentions that he'll breathe new life into the franchise. In that release he condemns the older Showa movies, and says that the '90s Godzilla films are the ones that give him the hope that a good Godzilla movie can be done.
- The meat of the second act follows the man as he goes through the next couple years in making the movie. He goes through a variety of screenplays and rejects several that throwback to the earlier Showa films and eventually decides on a shot-for-shot remake of Godzilla: King of the Monsters ("what Godzilla needs is a truly dark and serious film that will give him credibility"). He meets other characters, the film would delve into the nature of Godzilla's popularity in modern times, the history of Godzilla, the Showa vs. Heisei vs. Millennium debate, the GMK/GFW debates, the men and who'd worked on past Godzilla films, GINO and where it went wrong, etc. Basically, it would be about him rediscovering his love for Godzilla and remembering that it was the older Godzilla movies that made him want to become a filmmaker in the past. He begins to rediscover his love for the old Godzilla titles and reconnect with the happy times when he and his deceased father would watch them. His changing attitudes reflect on the development of the movie, and he begins to order changes to the script so that it reflects a more late '60s/'70s Showa-esque tone, as opposed to the Godzilla/Heisei/Millennium-esque tone he'd insisted on.
- The film then goes on with the movie completed (I'm not telling the story) and ready to release in the summer. He comes home for Christmas and talks to his older mother about how the movie will soon premiere. His mother is reminded of the old Godzilla movies she'd stored away. Late that night, he watches Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and decides he doesn't care for it. A few months later he appears at the movie's opening night. Godzilla is now in the mainstream again and the movie's turned out quite a crowd. The movie premieres and the audience is taken with the heroic portrayal of Godzilla (as opposed to the villain he was originally going to be) and cheers the movies writing, special effects, score, and so forth. The film is a success and a sequel is immediately announced. Godzilla has become a success again. Even the former two bystanders who'd condemned the earlier Godzilla movies now say that the movie is good.
- The film bookends with the man watching his old VHS tape of Godzilla vs. Megalon in his old room, just as he did as a child.
(It's a short synopsis, but hey - there it is. I think you can see where I was going with it.)
