Background and Trivia |
- The Japanese title for the film is "Godzilla-1.0" (ゴジラ‐1.0). While this could be written out as "Godzilla Minus One" (ゴジラマイナスワン), promotional material in Japan utilizes the numeric naming for the movie. There are some exceptions, but these tend to be in English, such as "Minus One" appearing on the IMAX poster in Japan.
- The movie opens with a message noting Godzilla Minus One as the 70th anniversary production for Godzilla, which is in 2024.
- A black and white version of the film, called Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, released in Japanese theaters on in January 12th, 2024. This version was later released in the US on January 26th, 2024.
- In an interview with Chris Mirjahangir, director and writer Takashi Yamazaki noted that he always intended for Godzilla to be the only monster in the film. This intent even predated the prior Godzilla film from Toho, as Yamazaki mentioned: "...even before Shin Godzilla (2016), I had actually been in talks with Toho about a Godzilla movie, but I kept asking them to wait until the technology, the digital technology could be where I wanted it to be at. So, my Godzilla was always going to be a solo Godzilla movie with the setting in a postwar setting. And everyone has to just scrape together their leftover weapons to try to battle Godzilla."
- During the film's climax, the audio recording of Godzilla's roar used to lure in the titular monster was only possible thanks to the new crew which covered and ultimately died from Godzilla's advance through Ginza. This is referenced in the novelization as well as Takashi Yamazki's interview with Chris Mirjahangir.
- Director Takashi Yamazaki notes that they wanted to emulate the suitmation look for Godzilla's final form. In an interview with the Academy, Yamazaki stated: "...we wanted to emulate the rubber suit. We also wanted to pay homage to many of the original Godzilla, so we didn't do any muscle simulation, which is very common in animating creatures. The first, smaller Godzilla was supposed to be more creature-like, so we did muscle simulation in that instance."
- On creating the new Godzilla's roar, Takashi Yamazaki relates who they used a large outdoor setting to achieve something that sounded more spacial. "Take Godzilla's roar, for example. We wanted to play it in a vast, open space, so we rented a baseball stadium and brought about 10 sound guys. We set up speakers and mics, used the baseball stadium's own speakers, and played the original Godzilla roar. We recorded that roar as it was played through these speakers. The echo and the way the audio bounced created this sense of a massive creature roaring in a vast, open environment. That was fun and very interesting, showcasing Godzilla's size and scale. In some ways, it was so big that we got a lot of complaints afterward from the neighbors who lived near the baseball stadium, saying, 'There's a massive monster roaring near my house!'" Mentioned in an interview with the Academy.
- For creating the CGI model for Godzilla, Takashi Yamazaki notes that there were concerns about getting it to properly render due to the amount of detail put into it. " If you zoom in even more, there's a very complex pattern happening, and this level of detail, perhaps the resolution of both the color and the bumps, makes Godzilla feel all the more real. [The modeler] used an incredible amount of polygons to achieve that look. For the head alone, it was 200 million polygons. The chest area is another 100 million. At one point, we were concerned about whether we would be able to render this thing onto the screen, because of the sheer amount of data that needed to be computed. Luckily, we employed various techniques to lighten some of the polygons and ensure Godzilla was renderable." Discussed in an interview with the Academy.
- Won the Oscar for Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards.
- Won the Best Use of Visual Effects award at the Chicago Film Critics Association.
- Godzilla Minus One won the "Best international Film" award at the 52nd Annual Saturn Awards.
- For some of Godzilla's head concept art, Takashi Yamazaki drew the monster with bonier spines and a pale white face. In other sketches where part of Godzilla's face was blown off due to the mine, an idea to have an "error" occur during the regenerative process would have had extra fangs growing out of Godzilla's cheek instead of flesh. These early ideas would also appear on 3D concept models. Concept art and information can be found in the 2023 book, The Record of G-1.0 (published by Toho Visual Entertainment).
- Early concept art for Godzilla's body depicted it with a slimmer build in both vertical and horizontal stances. Another close to the final design had only one side of its body malformed due to direct exposure to the atomic bomb. For the climax of the movie when Godzilla is forced to the surface of the sea, one of the sketches shows extended spines and extra arms sprouting from Godzilla's body as it suffers the effects of decompression. Atomic rays also leak out from its body. This information can be found in The Record of G-1.0 (published by Toho Visual Entertainment).
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