Godzilla:Final Wars -coming Dec 11th
 

The 28th and final Godzilla film (well, for awhile at least) will be released in Japan on Dec 11th (with an expected premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in November, as is the usual practice) directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus, Azumi). According to Sanspo.com (the Babblefish English translation of which made my brain hurt, as usual) the film will gueststar at least 10 other kaiju, including the new "Monster X". Not content with destroying Tokyo or Yokohama, the film will also feature some chaos in New York City, Paris, Sydney and Shanghai. The film is due to be completed in November (just under the wire for the premiere as usual!). Here is the Japanese article:

http://www.sanspo.com/geino/top/gt20...004030302.html

Looks like we are going to have ourselves a Destroy All Monsters for the 21st century. :up:

I'm starting to save up for my plane ticket now. :D

Cool! :thumbsup: Will this be a follow up to the most recent film with Ghidora, Mothra, and Baragon? (direct sequel)

Cool. Nice to see that they're spreading the monster destruction around the world.

Lets hope for Titanosaurus!!!!!!!!

Sort of sucks there won't be a Godzilla film for at least 5 years. I've never really put them in any sort of Oscar contender category storywise but they were always fun to see Big G smash buildings.

If they're going to show New York, there's a small (demented) part of me that would like GINO to show up, if only for a few minutes before getting bitca-slapped by Big G.

They actually addressed that briefly in the most recent Godzilla film. I marked out for it being the geek that I am. :D

I think it's cool Toho went with Ryuhei Kitamura as director. Hopefully this movie will rank up their with Kaneko's GMK which is my all time favorite G-film.

Better have Varan and Rodan in it.

Rodan was huge, why they didn't use him more in the last decade is a mystery to me.

And GMK totally sucked. G was way to mean, a murdering machine. And having Ghidra as a good guy is just impossible to stomach.

I want aliens comming to earth, taking over a few bad monsters (Ghidra) and G and the rest of them ass kicking him.

And can somebody please kill off Mothera?

I want Gamera to show up!

Sounds good.

any chance of a gargantua or updated Megalon or Gigan? I hope we get Anguirus!

Yeah, we almost got Anguirus and Varan for the GMK film but Toho backed out (oh well, at least we got Baragon). I've heard rumours about one of the Gargantuas (Gaira or Sanda), and Gigan would be cool. Hey, Kameba (from Yog, Monster from Space) kinda showed up in the last film, and there will be 10 kaiju in the new one, so who knows?

BTW, even CNN has a story now:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movi....ap/index.html

10 years until a new one? Hmmm, we'll see. I agree that maybe Toho should take it easy for a while and come up with some fresh ideas, but I couldn't wait 10 years for a new one. :(

Just remember, G. v. Destroyah was supposed to be the last one ever. After it was over, they paved over the big pool and everything.

Of course, they were expecting the American G movie to be a huge success and have a whole series of sequels of its own. After all, the japanese had been hearing for the last 40 years how bad their movies were, and surely the Americans would make a better one, right?

Thats true. I had a strong feeling at the time that G vs Destroyah would not be the last G film ever, but the time span between that and Godzilla 2000 represented the longest period of time between Godzilla films since the gap between Terror of Mechagodzilla and Godzilla 1984/5, and who knows how long the gap will actually be this time. Oh oh, does this mean that we will be treated with more Mothra kiddie movies starting next year?

Well if there is a 10 year break, hopefully Toho will use that time to finally make some decent R1 DVDs of the classic Godzilla films.

On a related note, for those in NYC, there is a Godzilla film poster exhibit now at Columbia University in honour of Goji's 50th anniversary. Wish I could go see it.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ealac/dkc/calendar/godzilla/

I'm not sure what will happen, but the news out on Yahoo now is saying there will be no more movies after this one:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ovies_eo/13638

maybe they could get some new fans if they released quality dvd's to the world. I know I would love to buy some great Dvd's with Godzilla.

Amen to that.

Quality R1 DVD's please TOHO!

Could it be that Toho, usually angry with America, would rather end the franchise rather than give it a chance at a good run in the states? Yeah, I know Godzilla 2000 was released over here, more or less to capitalize on the recent press from the American version, and to show us all they're better at it...which they certainly are. I think if they gave the states a REAL opportunity to love these movies complete with marketing and wide releases theyd make plenty more money, and if the DVDs had been put out here in a timely manner more people could have followed the latter day Toho resumption.......but again.....Toho does NOT like what we do to the big green fella's adventures.

Toho angry with america? WTF? If it wassn't for us, how popular would these movies be?

We have so many of them, if they want to quit, do it and stop braggin about it. Children.

Godzilla's success has nothing to do with the American market. The first Godzilla movie was one of the biggest grossing films in Japanese history and is considered to be one of the best films of the period, second to Kurosawa's "Seven Samauri". King Kong v. Godzilla held the all time attendance record for any film in Japan well into the 1990's, and may still for that matter. Godzilla is Superman, Mickey Mouse, and Frankenstein all rolled into one in Japanese popular culture and merchandising.

Toho has a poor opinion of the US because they were continually shit upon by distributors like American International. The early movies, of course, were "americanized" by adding new footage to make the stories more appealing to pre-integrated America. Sometime it worked okay, such as the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters, which added Raymond Burr as a reporter in japan witnessing the events as they unfolded. The worst treatment any of these films received was King Kong v. Godzilla, which not only added an idiotic narrator courtesy of the United Nations, but replaced the incredible original soundtrack with stock music from the Universal studio's library. There's certainly nothing wrong with the soundtrack from Creature from the Black Lagoon, but it
s wholely inappropriate when used in a japanese monster movie. Later, it was too expensive for US distributors to bother to add footage, so they simply released quickie dubs (often jettisoning Toho's superior International Dub) to drive ins and second run theaters, or dumping them on late-night TV.

Plus, Americans in general have no respect for the genre or the movies. Terms like cheesy and guilty pleasure surround these films although many of them, for their time, featured some of the finest special effects in any sci-fi/fantasy films anywhere. Sure, the 1970's films hardly helped Toho's image, and the lack of money and talent expended on these movies is entirely their fault, but the classic films of the 60's are still as entertaining and worthwhile today as any "classic monster" movie released in the US.

Just read a bit about this yesterday. They promise to really, really, really retire Godzilla for awhile after this one. Even if it's wildly successful, they really, really, really promise to retire. We'll see.

I thought Godzilla 2000 was release here in the US as part of the deal that let Sony makes its version.

Just an update, Monster Zero has posted a list of some of the kaiju that are supposed to appear in the new film:

"Thanks to a source who has visited the set of Godzilla: Final Wars, I now have the names of the kaiju who will be appearing in the film, although there might be MORE who are not listed. Monster X's identity is still a secret.

The kaiju are:

Godzilla
Monster X
Mothra (larva form)
King Ghidora
Rodan
Angilas
Gigan
Manda
Gorosaurus
Kumunga
Kamakaris
Ebirah
Minya
King Seasar


I'm baffled by the inclusion of Minya and King Seasar, and a little surprised that I havent heard Baragon and Varan's names come up. There's always the possibility that these two will appear in the film, however.

I'm not surprised by the fact that Mechagodzilla is nowhere to be seen, since I think we can all live without seeing that kaiju again for a while. I was also right in assuming that Space Godzilla, Biollante and Destroyah would NOT be in the film.

Lastly, I've been told that King Ghidora would have 4 legs in the film, so make of it what you will."

http://<br /> http://clubtokyo.org/...&contentID=434


Very cool and surprising choices (both in a good way: Gigan, and in a bad way: Minya :lol: )

And I'm not sure what the deal is with Ghidorah having four legs (will he look like Death Ghidorah?)

Anyway, I can't wait to see this. And I can't wait to see all the different toys and figures Bandai will make in conjunction with the film. They really have their work cut out for them this time.