What would a Peter Jackson 2005 Godzilla Remake Be Like?

[Jermobooka]

I recently rewatched the King Kong 2005 remake, and I was thinking how Peter Jackson would handle remaking Gojira

Would it be 3 hours long? Would Goji look like an oversized, upright crocodile? Would there be a touching scene with Emiko and Goji ice skating in the middle of a burning Tokyo?

I need ideas here, people!

[Gigantis]

The Extended Cut is a three hour and 10 minute long epic about Dr. Serizawa (played by Jack Black) visiting Odo Island, and finding Godzilla. (who looks almost exactly like the Jan de Bont design that never got off the ground) From there the movie plays out almost exactly like the original movie and The Return of Godzilla.. but with a twist. Anguirus and Rodan show up! (the latter looks like a giant Quetzacoatlus just standing upright and the former is a giant crocodile with a giant armadillo shell on the back), Godzilla fights them in New York the first round, San Fransisco in the last. Killing them both, Godzilla triumphantly walks back out to sea.

Of course, the rest of those three hours is taken up by the trip to getting to Odo Island to begin with... and it's just the crew talking to one another. It's really quite boring.

Jackson did an April Fools joke about two sequels, "Godzilla vs. Ghidorah" and "Sons of Godzilla". The former was about Godzilla and Mothra tag-teaming Ghidorah, and the latter was Godzilla finding Minilla and Godzilla Junior, as he does his last stand against Mechagodzilla. Of course, being April Fools jokes, they meant literally nothing.

[LegendZilla]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

[Malchik]

A ridiculously long film. The Jackson Kong was a chore to sit through.

[Major sssspielberg!]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

I don't think the setting hurt the movie. The set design, costumes, technology etc are some of the things I like about it.

I honestly can't see a Pete Jackson Godzilla movie post LotR. He doesn't strike me as a "kaiju" guy.

[goji89]

It'd be about as long as TLOTR on 6 discs with Godzilla appearing for about 1 hr in a 9 hr long movie.

Maybe.

[Terasawa]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

Its setting was the least of its myriad problems.

[LegendZilla]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

Its setting was the least of its myriad problems.

My question is whether or not it was a problem at all. If so, why? Was it because it was too difficult for us 21st century folk to relate too?

[tbeasley]

I think Jackson has stated, because when you make a King Kong film Godzilla inevitably comes up, that he was never a Godzilla fan so it's kinda pointless to talk about what his version would be like.

BUT if I had to wager it'd be a period set 1950s-60s style film with lots of digital effects. So, in a way, not unlike what a Takashi Yamazaki (Always 2, Godzilla the Ride) Godzilla film would be.

[eabaker]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

Its setting was the least of its myriad problems.

My question is whether or not it was a problem at all. If so, why? Was it because it was too difficult for us 21st century folk to relate too?

For me, to whatever the degree the time period was a problem, it was because Jackson ended up making a movie about a time and place that he only understood as a fantasy, and so it always felt like watching a movie about movies. Now, of course, the original King Kong has its meta elements - it's very much a movie about making movies, after all - but there's a sense of grounding in and response to the cultural moment; elements that were fresh and vibrant in 1933 are self-consciously retro in 2005.

Now that's not a damning flaw, per se, and largely a matter of personal taste. But I think it comes part and parcel with the nostalgic approach Jackson took to the movie, which in turn could have contributed to a lack of objectivity about the various self-indulgent touches which, collectively, hurt the movie for some viewers.

[Terasawa]

The 2005 Kong was by no means a perfect film, but was one thing that hindered it the fact that they had it set in '33?

Its setting was the least of its myriad problems.

My question is whether or not it was a problem at all. If so, why? Was it because it was too difficult for us 21st century folk to relate too?

I don't think the period setting is a problem, per se, I was just taking a shot at the movie and didn't fully think through what I wrote. My bad.

[ShinGojira14]

While I don't think it'd be perfect, I think if Jackson made a Godzilla movie it'd be downright awesome. Movie lengths don't hurt a film in my opinion; I don't mind the length of time taken to get from New York to Skull Island in Kong '05.

[Bigdog]

King Kong and Godzilla, at least Gojira, are vastly different beasts. One is a not too subtle [maybe satirical? idk] take on Jim Crow racism and colonialism [unless the 1933 film isn't satirizing anything and is simply just a racist part of its time], while Gojira is a sober horror-tragedy about the radical societal and cultural changes wrought by the end of WWII and American martial law in Japan, and the many devastated by the loss of life and loved ones due to Imperial arrogance, and the bombing.

It would've seamlessly interwoven both Gojira and the American adaptation, King of the Monsters into one solid narrative. The country is two years in protesting the Iraq War and what better would be an anti-war movie that illustrates the somber realities and devastation of war happening on those afflicted?

Just like King Kong, it follows beat after beat. Maybe it pins the blame on America more, but I feel like it would be somewhere in the middle because painting Japan as the eternal victim would piss off the countless relatives of people who were brutalized, raped, tortured and experimented on as nothing. Such a movie would be impossible to sell overseas, not to mention in the States. It would basically flop not unlike Mulan did, managing to please absolutely nobody. Painting Americans in a war fighting the Eastern equivalent of Nazis as monsters would go far worse than with vs. King Ghidorah where painting American soldiers as incompetent compared to a literal docile dinosaur practically condemned the Heisei series fourteen years before this theoretical film is made to home video.

Godzilla draws from those two films and unlike King Kong, can only go light in order to balance the darker moments of this film. Since this will be 3 hours long, it's going to need a decent balanced story to pad the darker elements and make the characters relatable.

I'll simply assume the Tristar film stays in development hell until the rights are snapped up by Universal. Not like there wasn't a second Hulk film five years after the 2003 version, but it feels more realistic. Otherwise, this would basically be a shallow Showa-esque romp that is the monster equivalent of a terrible Michael Bay Transformers film. Or it'd be seen as a ripoff by comparison unless it was far better received that 1998 makes it look Oscar-worthy by comparison.

This Godzilla looks like a mixture of Richard Delgado's and Crash McCreery's hand-drawn concept designs with the keloid scarred skin evident in the 1954 original . It's agile, but there is a weight to his presence that makes the monster not unlike a living mountain or a being created as punishment by a wrathful god. Like GMK, it embodies the rage of everyone brutalized and harmed in the Pacific Theater. Considering the fact Godzilla attacks Japan and not America, I can't not see Gojira as a subversive dig against the Japanese Empire.

Story:

A boat is capsized and the main victim, interviewed by American military intelligence, tells of this monstrous mountain rising out of the ocean before he passes.

Unlike in KOTM, Steve Martin [Adrien Brody] is a reporter working for the military, and this notion of him being part of the American military provides just enough conflict and intrigue in this emotional powderkeg to make this story interesting.

Set in a post-War Japan, they've only been a couple years from total American control over the island nation. A reporter, Steve Martin [Adrien Brody] is stranded in a country he only briefly spent time in as a young man, before the Rape of Nanking and before the War had gotten so horrendous. Again, he stays with a man he knows. Dr. Serizawa [Ken Watanabe] was an old friend and colleague. He comes to his place to deal with the layover and so on and they catch up. Martin feels ashamed he can't speak as well as he used to, but his old friend waves it off. Serizawa alongside Emiko, Dr. Yamane and Ogata are the only people in the story that don't greet him openly with susipicion, derision or any hostility. Because they too weren't for the war either. Dr. Serizawa's missing eye is testament to General Tohjo and Imperial Japan's cruelty, a conscientious objector who wanted no part in that unjust war. This missing eye and the cruelty of WWII influences Serizawa's future sacrifice alongside discovering Emiko has been having an affair behind his back. However, it's their resignation knowing deep down she only seen him as a friend.

They go to Odo Island, where they believe the creature that attakc that boat was their mythical god Gojira. A sea dragon borne from old tales that would be pacified by animal and sometimes, human sacrifices. They treat the foreigner with suspicion, but allow him and the group to observe the exorcism ritual.

As according to Martin's new position, he and the American military have a more active role in the story. As the Japanese Diet is conflicted about revealing Godzilla's existence, the American military debate about a cover up so in any case the monster hits landfall in a populated city, they would save face against the USSR. Dr. Yamane has his speech about Godzilla, and afterwards the entire room erupts into chaos and panic. Martin's job is to be the boots on the ground as intelligence, but his partner, who is Nisei and half Korean [John Cho], makes more headway than Martin does, and the pair learn plenty about this creature. While neither yet believe some god is the culprit, the research party and the military reporters/intelligence came a few days "before" the typhoon and Godzilla's first emergence on land. Unlike the original where they landed in Odo after the attack. This is done to heavily increase the stakes and to show some snippets of Godzilla's appearance. Not too much, but just enough to unnerve. Telling audiences this isn't Godzilla the hero. This is Godzilla the nuclear abomination, the living mountain, the embodiement of a natural disaster. It really puts him as the king of all monsters. This is what even the darkest Toho reboots pussyfoot around. This monster's damage and wrath and its consequences are always brushed off. None of the protagonists or any background characters are shown suffering from radiation, keloid scars or any of that. Even Shin Godzilla loses out not showing this fundamental humanity.

Shinkichi is orphaned and Dr. Yamane adopts him. Further research and observations of the massive footprints lead to a terrifying plausible conclusion that this might just be this Godzilla the islanders are afraid of. A conclusion that's possibly proven as this leviathan reveals itself with a cow in its mouth, once it gulps the cattle down, the blood trickles down the sides of its mouth. Letting out its bloodcurdling roar, the villagers and the research party trample each other in order to get as far away from the monster as they can possible. Emiko trips, and the creature roars once more, only to be helped onto her feet just before Godzilla breaches the cliffside and plows through.

This more or less is a retelling of the classic film, and it pulls no punches whatsoever.

The American military alongside the JDSF, attack Godzilla off the coast of Tokyo, but it's for naught. Not unlike 1984 and 1954, Godzilla practically stomps them down and destroys everything in his path. The military and the JDSF place an electrical fence around Tokyo's borders, hoping that would work to fend the creature off.

However, Godzilla practically makes the electrified fence merely string.

Godzilla's devastation in Tokyo and Steve Martin's harrowing account of the attack as Godzilla devastates the city, leaving many citizens including a mother and their daughter victims in their wake. Some blame Americans for it, and for this reason, both Martin and John Cho's characters are ushered by Yamane and lay low for the moment until they can fully correspond with the military.

The rest basically happens relatively the same. I was considering that maybe, Godzilla could fight Anguirus in Tokyo before promptly defeating and killing the monster to revert back to laying waste on Tokyo. Or even simply just ripping off the Gryphon's origin from Godzilla vs. the Gryphon as Plot B, to really drive home how horrifying it is. And then transition to Godzilla destroying the city. The one thing Godzilla 2014 lacked was having a Godzilla with no sympathy, and in this story, Godzilla simply returns to torching Tokyo and burning it into ashes until he's killed by the Oxygen Destroyer.

Not like any of this would be anything but a pipe dream as it assumes Peter Jackson would do a straight remake and not simply a different film altogether.

[Masterofsome01]

The Extended Cut is a three hour and 10 minute long epic about Dr. Serizawa (played by Jack Black) visiting Odo Island, and finding Godzilla.

Jack Black as Dr. Serizawa is an idea that gives me nightmares and simultaneously makes me laugh

[DirektorSplennic]

The Extended Cut is a three hour and 10 minute long epic about Dr. Serizawa (played by Jack Black) visiting Odo Island, and finding Godzilla.

Jack Black as Dr. Serizawa is an idea that gives me nightmares and simultaneously makes me laugh

[Gigantis]

I now crave for a Godzilla parody staring Jack Black and him wearing this same exact outfit.

[realinvaderdesign]

It would be 3 hours of andy serkis chasing people in a skin tight leotard with ping pong balls attached to it

[OrnithopodaistheBest]

The destruction scenes would be rather rad-looking. I really liked how Kong wrecked plenty of stuff in New York in the 2005 film.

[Creature22]

I’ve often thought about this concept. Peter Jackson is a HUGE Kong ‘33 fan and I think that his love for the original plays into a lot of how the movie would look and be delivered.

At least for me, it would likely be set in 1954 and have many references and “Easter Eggs” to non-Godzilla Toho stuff sprinkled in. I can totally see Ogata taking Emiko on a date to “Seven Samurai” or the name-dropping of real life Toho crew members like they were coincidentally making an atomic monster film during the same period.

I think reporter Steve Martin would likely play a big part in connecting the US affairs to what happens in Japan as well. His friendship with Serizawa in college and maybe a past war experience that impacted it. All the while an added subplot of Martin trying to get back to the US to his pregnant wife while having no choice but to report what’s going on for the international press in Chicago. And it would be something of a survival story for him and give an insight to how the US (and the rest of the world) would react and respond to the Godzilla disaster.

I think I’d cast Brian Tee as Serizawa and Jon Hamm as Steve Martin. Godzilla would resemble the 1950s one but if it were adapted in motion capture for the modern age. Maybe like the new version from “Godzilla the Ride” or “Always 2”. I honestly don't know how Toho hasn't given Takashi Yamazaki the reigns to do his own feature-length Godzilla yet.

Oh well. It’s a nice thought at least