Gareth Edwards: Godzilla 2014 Director

[Monster Master]

FANS! WE'RE NOT FANS!
ONLY OCEAN IS A FAN!!!!

And show me the original post, you cowardly douche!

[Chris55]

Meh. You don't want to explain yourself then don't. You're the one that keeps pounding on this. I've seen you post this at least three times.


oh give it up already.

I've seen your back and forth's with MM and I'm not gonna have that in this thread. Take it to PM or hit me up on AIM

[Gawdziller]

Just watched Monsters, and honestly I was engrossed from start to finish. It was one of the most enjoyable indie dramas I've seen in quite a while.

Whether this film is an indication of whether he can handle a large budget film, let alone a Godzilla film, remains to be seen, but my optimism has grown quite a bit.

[Ocean]

Just watched Monsters, and honestly I was engrossed from start to finish. It was one of the most enjoyable indie dramas I've seen in quite a while.

Whether this film is an indication of whether he can handle a large budget film, let alone a Godzilla film, remains to be seen, but my optimism has grown quite a bit.

This is good news to hear. I've got it on my computer, but haven't watched it yet. I'm honestly a little scared. I'll watch it soon though.

[Gawdziller]

The only thing I can recommend is watch it as if you were watching an independent drama instead of a creature feature. Whether you are interested in the characters and their story will strongly depend on what your views of the film will be. I was very taken with them and was interested in where they would end up, but it's possible for others to view it as simplistic. It is a love story at its core, and one that has probably been told a thousand times over, just with a new setting.

But I've been skimming the special features for a better feel for Gareth Edwards. Honestly, he impresses me with his resourcefulness, creativity, and cleverness. I think we scored ourselves a winner with him.

[Chris55]

I thought all godzilla movies were B0films because they were considered low budget?

also the expected release date is july 2012.

the 29th of July is my birthday.

Pix or it didn't happen!

[omgitsgodzilla]

^No. LP hasn't gotten their priorities straightened out yet, so it would be--as Chris55 said--a rushed film if it were released in Summer of 2012. It's more likely going to be released in late 2012 or early 2013. Of course, this is just a guess; they could rush the film to pieces for all we know. However, you can't make an excellent film without giving it time.

Gojira was shot in all of three months, so who knows? But then, nowadays, especially in America, shit takes longer and is more complicated to do (actors being douchebags about contracts, CGI, what have you).

[Vinv1989]

Well I finally saw "Monsters" and I must say I really did like it in my personal opinion. My expectations where low from the fan boy point of view as I heard them saying there was limit monster screen time. But I was happy at last we saw the monsters faces at the end and it was stunning. But anyway I really do think Gareth Edwards will do a fine job making a reboot of Godzilla. Seeing that he will have a big Hollywood-budget and has Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. and Toho backing him up I’m sure the will make the big budget adaption we have been awaiting for. I just recently figured out he is in fact a fan of the series:

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/to ... p?id=17935

Looks like he wasn’t a fan of the English Dubs which is funny. I guess it also implies he isn’t writing the script anymore.

[Godzilla 1995]

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=17935
[/img]

That made me far more hopeful. He enjoys 60's and 70's sci-fi, so we know he's seen the best of Godzilla, and sounds like he knows what was the best time for Godzilla films. And didn't like English Dubs? Wonderful, I dislike many of them too.

[tma]

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/to ... p?id=17935

here is another where Gareth Edwards revealed he is a fan

[Hellspawn28]

All I can say that I'm happy that we got somone who cares for the series. Now it depends if he can direct something big as Godzilla and not skreeonk it up.

[Tormentor]

Well I finally saw "Monsters" and I must say I really did like it in my personal opinion. My expectations where low from the fan boy point of view as I heard them saying there was limit monster screen time. But I was happy at last we saw the monsters faces at the end and it was stunning. But anyway I really do think Gareth Edwards will do a fine job making a reboot of Godzilla. Seeing that he will have a big Hollywood-budget and has Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. and Toho backing him up I’m sure the will make the big budget adaption we have been awaiting for. I just recently figured out he is in fact a fan of the series:

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/to ... p?id=17935

Looks like he wasn’t a fan of the English Dubs which is funny. I guess it also implies he isn’t writing the script anymore.

So, he's a fan of the series. At least the better years of the it anyway, and isn't writing the script and deeply knows that this film is important, and HAS to be right? Kick-ass news! Hope has risen much much more.

[TokyoVigilante]

I'm most impressed with his apparent humility and understanding that "Holy skreeonk I got lucky".

Also, he's a general fan of 60s/70s sci-fi and a more casual appreciator of Godzilla? That's excellent. I couldn't ask for a better combination. Peter Jackson has made me suspicious of Super-Fans doing their favorite properties, but someone who is into the Sci-fi films of Godzilla's best period has me very happy.

[Hellspawn28]

Someone should upload the new interview on the main site news page.

[AVERY GUERRA]

Here's 2 more and in the first he reveals there's plans for a sequel to "Monsters"!!:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/42298/ ... l-monsters

http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=26354

[Ocean]

Alright, so I've seen the movie now. I'll give a review based on the aspects of the film I noticed. Some of this stuff is -kinda- spoiler-ish, but I'm not revealing any major plot devices. Read it if you want.

Cinematography: Wow. If this movie has one thing down pat, it's the look. It looks very pretty. There was a lot of creative use of the camera and experimentation with depth of field. I would hire this guy as a cinematographer any day. If it came out that he was SHOOTING the new Godzilla movie, I'd be very satisfied. Given that he's slated as director, I don't think we're going to have any problems with a poorly shot Godzilla movie. He will make sure that it looks good.

Editing: Here we messed up a little. I'm a bit of a picky bastard when it comes to editing, but I noticed several areas where the pauses were just too damn long. I get that he was trying to create empty space with silence and such between the characters, and the editing for the most part was helpful in that aspect. But there were several instances where I was thrown off by the sheer amount of time in between dialogue. As for the rest of the editing, there were several abrupt cuts and what I like to call indie-jumps. Indie-jumps are those little cuts that have the same character with maybe a little bit different of an angle with the character in a different position to show the passage of time. They seem to only be in indie movies cause they're artsy. These are annoying and should die. He didn't overdo it, so it didn't crawl under my skin, but it was one of those things that jumped out at me and made me go, "Oh he's doing that."

Sound: Anyone ever heard of a sound blanket? The scene in the gas station reeks of air conditioner. But the exterior shots have very good sound for being exterior shots. I know how much of a bitch those can be with production sound. Crickets are evil. Post production sound design was significantly less creative. The environments and backgrounds didn't deliver while they were in the infected zone, and there wasn't much eeriness that wasn't done with music. I would have preferred a much more creative sound design. Also, with the monsters... he went with whales. Good lord. Everyone goes with whales when they want to make some kind of gentle giant. I wish it'd been something else. I'm a little worried about the sound design on Godzilla to be honest. I hope he takes it much more seriously than he did on this film.

Writing: I thought I'd disagree with the general consensus of this forum when people said the writing sucked. Now that I've watched it, I agree and disagree. I like the general premise and the idea. The setup is quite creative. But the dynamics between the characters on the screen felt forced most of the time and the boring little conversations were just stupid. I've seen a lot of indie directors make the decision in their writing to IMPLY EVERYTHING through mundane little comments like, "No, really, I mean what are you doing." to imply some question about life rather than the immediate moment. This, to me, generally comes off as pretentious and lacks the feeling of 'real' that is the goal. This assumes that people are way deeper than we are at every single point of time and we always understand what the other person is saying. Try to pull one of these off in real life, and someone just gets pissed because of miscommunication. And then there's the moments of saying by not saying during which I got the implication but it felt a little fake as well. This film is littered with those kinds of moments and they got tiresome. Much of it felt like a Lost in Translation Ripoff (only LiT did it very very well. This movie did it so-so). However, there were many moments where it worked. The -extra dynamics- of the two characters were interesting, but the female was unsuccessful. The male's extra little issue with his son kept me interested. Also the reference to illegal immigration was... well it was there enough to make me roll my eyes.

Directing: On set, directing has mostly to do with actors. And I don't think that he lived up to the challenge on this one. Like I said earlier, there were times when the moments seemed forced. This was not entirely to do with the writing, a lot of the acting made the writing seem worse when it could have been 'saved'. The fact that it wasn't throws me off a little. As for the rest of his directing ability, I hold him responsible for the issues with the other stuff, as well as the successes. He's very much a visual director, and I think we're going to get a visual film unless someone hires a beast of a post-production sound designer. Also the fact that he did everything himself in this movie makes me wonder if he plays well with others.

OMFG CG: I got very tired at the complete lack of practical effects in this movie. Signs were CG, trucks were CG, every tank or helicopter in the film was CG, wrecked vehicles were CG... even the busted airplane engine on the back of a real cart was CG. it wouldn't have pissed me off if it wasn't so obvious every single time. I was pointing at signs on counters going... well there's another CG sign. That wrecked train is CG. Then I noticed that not only was he the CG guy (i know he did it all on his computer, it's nice for a one-man show but practical effects would have looked much better) but he was also the physical production designer. Which means he didn't even hire an art director to figure out how to make some of these fake-looking CG shots more real. Not a good decision in my opinion. This is another thing that makes me worried.

The Monsters: Well... I couldn't help but think octopus when I saw them. Just... walking octopi. Wewt. He threw in some curious stuff about them in the last scenes to make me curious, but not enough to save the monster aspect from being a side-dish. Also WHALES? Biollante did it, Jurassic Park did it, and Cloverfield JUST did it. Give me a new friendly giant noise. What little monster action there was though was pretty cool.

Godzilla: Given this film, I think the filmmaker is smart enough to know that his approach to Godzilla is going to have to be very very different than his approach to this film. He's going to have to take off his artsy indie director hat and put on a whole new one to deal with this kind of monster. Godzilla isn't a mysterious background character to a light romance, he's center stage. It'll be interesting to see how he handles it. I really don't know if I approve. He has about as many minuses as he has pluses. But he'll be able to be controlled by the producers and that's probably what they want the most. Plus he's cheap. Someone else is probably -really- running the show here.

[Hellspawn28]

Edwards admits that he is a fan and is very happy that he is working on this project. I doubt he is going to use the same ideas from "Monsters" (2010) for the new movie. Not to mention he said the movie is going to have a big budget (Maybe around 100 to 200 million) and if he can pull off great CG at a budget around $6 million then think what he can do with a budget around the amount that the "Transformers" live action movies have.

[Monster Master]

Sorry, but I don't buy the whole "I BE A FAN" thing from anybody until I see some real results. Again, I won't comment on the man doing the movie simply because I didn't see Monsters yet...

But back in '98, I remember some other big names mentioning how they're also fans...
So... yeah...

Until we get a design, story, trailer, etc...

[Hellspawn28]

Since when has R&E said that they where fans. I see fans saying it but I see nothing to back it up. And that Edwards seems more honset and I doubt he will lie to us to make money.

[Ocean]

Edwards admits that he is a fan and is very happy that he is working on this project. I doubt he is going to use the same ideas from "Monsters" (2010) for the new movie. Not to mention he said the movie is going to have a big budget (Maybe around 100 to 200 million) and if he can pull off great CG at a budget around $6 million then think what he can do with a budget around the amount that the "Transformers" live action movies have.

I'm not saying the CG won't be good this time around. The movie's going to look good overall. But I disagree with his decision to make EVERYTHING CG. I'm a pro-practical effects kinda guy. It always looks better, especially when it's part of a set or a wrecked something. Production designers go ga-ga over making that kind of stuff. It's easy to get quality work on that kind of thing.