An aspiring producer, who took the reigns of
the Godzilla series following Tomoyuki
Tanaka's death, Shogo Tomiyama became the fourth president of Toho Eiga starting in April of 2004, leading up to the release of Godzilla:
Final Wars (2004).
As a producer, Tomiyama found early success producing films for idol Yuki Saito until he was first given the chance to produce for the Godzilla series with Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989). During the 1990's, Tomiyama became the go-to producer for the company's science fiction venues, tackling the Heisei Godzilla series and other productions such as Reiko,
the Psyche Resurrected (1991) and the Rebirth of Mothra series.
The subsequent Godzilla Millennium series was also the brainchild of the producer, and it was Tomiyama's persistence that kept the series alive following
its rough start.
After Godzilla
vs. Megaguirus (2000) failed at the box
office, Tomiyama switched gears and handed the
series over to director Shusuke Kaneko, who churned
out the highly successful Godzilla,
Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All
Out Attack in 2001. By 2003, though, the
series had once again gone stagnant at the box
office with the lackluster performance of Godzilla:
Tokyo S.O.S.. Tomiyama had big things
in store for the following year, though, as he
stepped up to become the president of Toho along
with co-writing and producing the most expensive
Godzilla film to emerge from Toho: Godzilla:
Final Wars (2004). Preceding the film's
release, Tomiyama commented that Godzilla would
go into a decade long retirement following the
release of the 2004 film, and, after surveying
the disappointing box office receipts for Godzilla:
Final Wars (2004), stayed true to his word.
Following the closure of the Godzilla series, Tomiyama continued to produce movies at Toho while president, including a few remakes of Akira Kurosawa's better known productions, with Sanjuro (1962) as Tsubaki
Sanjuro (2007) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) as The Last Princess (2008).
On March 31st, 2010, Tomiyama stepped down as president of Toho Eiga and was replaced by Onmyoji (2001) producer Yoshishige Shimatani. |