Geek Bits: Godzilla Raids Again!!!

Godzilla, the legendary beast that has spawned over 25 feature films worldwide, has been resurrected by Legendary Pictures (300, The Dark Knight) and Warner Bros. for a projected 2012 release date! Rumors circulated in August 2009 concerning a new American Godzilla project in the works, but Variety just recently confirmed it.

In the official press release, Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, stated: "Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise. Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."

All I can say is: YES! YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!

Now I don't want to get too giddy, but this is fantastic news. With Toho Co. Ltd. not really all that enthusastic resurrecting Godzilla back in Japan (monster films, and Japanese productions for that matter, don't make much mullah compared to American productions), I'm even more excited with this announcment. Hopefully this film will be a success, and a new age of monster movie craziness will be upon us!

Probably not, but here's to dreaming.

Also worth noting is that amongst the producers behind the project, Godzilla vs. Hedorah director Yoshimitsu Banno is listed! So with his involvement, I'm going to make the guess that Banno's Godzilla in 3-D project is on the back burner, and its fate entirely depends on the reaction of this new Godzilla production.

Although I wager there's not many Godzilla fans left in the world - Ryan evidently being one exclusion - I'll nonetheless be updating with any big/major news surrounding the project, including the (hopefully) soon-ish announcment of director. Personally, I'm still intrigued what Jan De Bont and the Rossio/Elliot script could turn out to look like, but I wager Legendary is going in a fresh direction. Either way, I'll be there midnight showing 2012. It'd be a nice End of the World present.