Knowing the President

Thomas Tull: president, producer, fan of Godzilla

Written by Evan Brehany
Adapted from an article from Variety, "Legendary Pictures Dances Geek to Geek"

Last time, I overlooked the producers of this project. It is time again to look at another key member of the Legendary Pictures group, one with a lot of power. One who has recently had something published about him in Variety. Defiantly the Shogo Tomiyama of this project, we are going to take a look at Thomas Tull, president of Legendary Pictures.

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"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," said Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary. "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."
-Official Statement from Legendary Pictures on their "Godzilla" project

That comment was one thing which fans seemed to pay attention to. However, unlike just something said to please the fans, the business behind the way Thomas makes films is more in tune with wishful thinking of fans than straight business. "Outsiders arriving in Hollywood with deep pockets, a desire to make movies and a reliance on gut instinct often lose their shirts. But Thomas Tull has defied the odds… His secret: He's a fan of genre fare who's focused on creating films for fellow fan boys… While many producers have embraced genre fare as a calculated ploy, Tull does it because he proudly touts himself as one of the fan boys. ‘All you have to do is meet Thomas,’ says one Warner Bros. exec. ‘He's a total geek and makes movies geeks want to see. He's not shy about that.’" says Variety.

Another thing that Variety also mentioned was how far Thomas goes for his pictures based on fan fare. "Tull generally sticks with things he knows, which means commercial films with a sense of adventure but that can be appreciated by adults… He tends to stay away from producing romantic comedies and most dramas." The best part of the whole thing is, "That means letting films be dark in tone or R-rated when they need to be." It was also said that, "He counts "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones", "Godzilla", and "The Goonies" as some of his favorite movies." It is safe to presume that by "Godzilla", Variety means the original 1954 Japanese masterpiece. "The poor reception for "The Ant Bully" and "We Are Marshall" may have influenced Tull to veer away from traditional kidpics and dramas." With that Variety quote, we can be safe to assume that this Godzilla will not be aimed at juvenile affair.

As for the looking for a director, as I last wrote on this blog about LPG, Variety said, "In recent weeks, an abundance of idle helmers chased less than a dozen open directing assignments: …"All You Need Is Kill," "Clash of the Titans 2," "Godzilla" and "Snabba Cash" at Warner Bros." Variety also said that the people more likely to helm a picture are people who have lower quotes (rates of pay) then usual directors. This may not effect "Godzilla" though. "Not surprisingly, the wish list of filmmakers he wants to work with includes Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron." Seeing Tull’s list, the names would include other icons such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Tim Burton. All directors who have expressed influence from Godzilla from doing anything to raise money to watch the original "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" (1956) as many times as he can (Scorsese) to even going to Toho studios to option them to do the special effects for his movie (Lucas). While it is a good business decision to get a lower name, a higher name is not ruled out. As for Tull’s involvement with the film, the probable want from him to have Godzilla be dark will stick when production starts. "…he lets directors essentially run with their creative ideas and remains relatively hands-off once a project has been developed and agreed upon." If the "essential elements" are done "justice" to when the project is agreed upon, we will get a Godzilla resembling more that of "Mothra vs. Godzilla" than "Godzilla vs. Megalon".

Overall, Thomas Tull is a man who is a self declared fan boy who has made marketing on fan boy pictures from a smart business ploy to something done because the person executing the ploy is actually a fan. With Tull being reportedly a fan of the original Godzilla, we may get a Godzilla more in tune with "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack" than "Godzilla vs. Gigan" or the dreaded "Godzilla" from 1998. Things are looking good for the LPG project.