Not too much to talk about on the Godzilla and Japanese monster movie front, but I did discover a couple of articles that I think that everyone will find interesting.
For starters, I have a new blog post from our dear friend, Norman England, where he talks a little bit about the "Death Kappa" premiere and some of the other movie projects he has been involved with over the past few weeks.
After that, there is an interesting article about how Toho is going to produce the first ever 3D film in Japan. No, it's not a monster movie. No, it's not a sci fi film, and, no, it's not a fantasy film. Oddly the studio who made a name for themselves by producing such films has opted to make an action movie in 3D, namely the third "Umizaru" film, which is about a coast guard rescue team.
Lastly I have a story about "Godzilla: Final Wars" director, Ryuhei Kitamura........well, actually the story is about gonzo actress, Lindsay Lohan, being cast in "Black Friday 3D", but Kitamura will be at the helm. Amazingly the plot sounds a little like the director's prior effort, "Sky High".....kinda. It's about vengeance...and a serial killer.....anyway.
I don't know if this is a blog or simply a list of things I've done between time point A and time point B. I wouldn't mind writing more often and in more detail, if only time permitted. Not even sure where to begin...
Well, since my last entry, I attended two screenings at Imagica. The first was "Death Kappa," an upcoming giant monster film by director Tomoo Haraguchi. It was the premiere screening of the film and attended by the staff and cast. I was there finishing up my story on the film for Fangoria magazine.
I love watching films at Imagica. Nice, large, cushiony seats, a bright clear screen and some booming audio. As "Death Kappa" isn't a major release it was screened in the smaller theater on the lot, but even that's not bad. Still, the large theater is my favorite screen in Japan and I've seen a number of big films there over the years.
A major Japanese studio known for its "Godzilla" monster films plans to enter the booming 3D movie business this year with an adaptation of a manga series, it said Tuesday.
Recent Hollywood three-dimensional hits "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland" have scored huge success in Japan, whose first major domestically produced 3D film will be released in September, top distributor Toho Co. Ltd., said.
Toho will distribute the third installment in the live-action "Umizaru" series about coast guards to more than 400 theatres across Japan, starting September 18.
"It will be the first 3D production of a major Japanese film," a Toho spokesman said. A team led by major network Fuji Television was in charge of production and Toho would distribute the movie, he added.
'Black Friday 3-D' tells the story of a brother and his friends who seek revenge after his sister is brutally attacked, a journey that puts them in the path of a serial killer named Tyler Hillburg. The film will be directed by Ryuhei Kitamura ('The Midnight Meat Train,' 'Godzilla: Final Wars').
Written By: Ken Hulsey Sources: /Film / Heat Vision / Avery Guerra
There have been many people in the entertainment biz that have questioned why film maker, Jules Urbach, would opt to make a live-action, 3D, film based on a Japanese giant robot cartoon from the 1970s that was rarely seen on American television?
Others are also wondering why Urbach would choose to release his film, "Gaiking", in the same year as "Godzilla 2012", "The Avengers", "Star Trek 2", "Batman 3", possibly "Cloverfield 2", "Iron Man 3", and the newly announced, "Monsterpocalypse"?
True, the "Transformers" movies have made bank, and similar films, such as "Robotech", "Voltron" and "Battletech" are also in development for release over the next few years, but making a film based on a property such as "Gaiking" looks, on the outset, like a major gamble.
I'm sure that there are a good amount of us generation x'ers out there that remember "Gaiking" from the popular Mattel toy line, "Shogun Warriors", which came out in the late 70s, but that's hardly enough of a fan base to warrant such an outing........or is it?
Recently the website, Heat Vision, caught up with Urbach and picked his brain for information about his film:
HV: "Transformers" is pretty huge. and there's a "Voltron" movie in the works. Is there room for something like "Gaiking" that isn't that well known here?
Urbach: "Voltron" really took off because of the great cartoon. "Gaiking" never had that and neither did "Shogun Warriors" as a whole. The only thing we had was "Four Spies" here in the U.S. And that was only shown on the East coast for a little bit. I can only imagine how this property would have been perceived if we had a normal cartoon.
In France or Italy, this is bigger than Spider-Man. Toei understands this will do very well in Europe, where the cartoon is well-known. They approached us because they wanted somebody outside Japan to take a crack at this.
Our goal was to figure out a way that would be appealing to an American audience. And while there's a lot of people who played with the toys, we are not counting on any of that. For most people, this will be completely new.
And I think we did a good job introducing it, even from that little teaser. It's just been exciting to be introducing it to a lot of people and seeing their reaction.
HV: Are you worried about the title being a little inaccessible? Why not go with "Shogun Warriors"?
Urbach: We wanted to introduce one robot and thought it should be the focus of the film. It's like you want to introduce Superman before you introduce the Justice League, right?
The title is something that we're still looking at. It's in the mix. We are very aware of the possible limitations. I can't speak for Toei, so I can't speak how it will be used in the marketing of that film. We just want to use it wisely.
HV: There was a time when there were a lot of giant robot cartoons. And now with special effects technology being where it is, we're poised for a movement in movies. What do you think is the appeal of giant robots?
Urbach: Gaiking and those kinds of robots, you're talking about giant robots that are piloted by humans. You're not talking about Transformers, where they are their own characters. These robots are the extension of the pilots; they are really like giant suits of armor. So it's really the people inside them that are the characters. That is a huge differentiator. Gaiking is one pilot. It's really the pilot expressing himself through this giant mecha.
Here is that mega-cool teaser trailer that is mentioned in the interview:
Though the film maker doesn't touch on it in the interview, there is already interest in adding more of the robots from the "Shogun Warriors" line in a planned sequel, tentatively titled.....you guessed it...."Shogun Warriors".
Just which of these classic Japanese giant robots will make it into that film is still up in the air, but reportedly Urbach has already secured the rights to many of them and in his own words, "(Shogun Warriors)...will feature more of the robots, than the Marvel Comics series did."
Now, I know exactly what you are thinking. The "Shogun Warriors" line of toys featured a few very prominent names from Japanese pop-culture, including, The Great Mazinger, Godzilla, and, unofficially, Rodan.
Was Urbach able to secure the rights to use any of these characters in his film? Will we see Mazinger (called Mazinga in the toy line) in the movie? Could the film maker have been able to cough up enough dough to get Toho to let him use two of their prize properties, namely Godzilla and Rodan?
Urbach isn't saying, yet, which robots are going to be in his movie, except Gaiking....and that's kinda a given. Though, he does plan to reveal all at this years Comic Con, which I will be attending.
Of course, since Legendary Pictures is already making a "Godzilla" movie here in The States, so any chance of seeing the monster go toe-to-toe with Japan's greatest giant robots is all but an absolute 'no chance in hell'.
Though, that may make for the greatest movie ever!
I don't see that happening, and without Godzilla, there certainly won't be a Rodan in the mix either.
Mazinger, however, could be in the film, and that alone would be amazing.
Wonder why Urbach didn't go with Mazinger anyway? I mean, the Japanese animated show was released here in America under the name, "Tranzor Z".
Oh, well. Here is some history on "Gaiking" and the "Shogun Warriors" from Wikipeadia:
Demon Dragon of the Heavens Gaiking (大空魔竜ガイキング, Daikū Maryū Gaikingu) was a Super Robot mecha anime series produced by Toei Animation, credited as an original idea by Akio Sugino. However, in reality the original idea was of Go Nagai. Toei deliberately took Nagai out of the credits in order to avoid the payment of royalties. Because of that, Nagai sued Toei and stopped further collaborations with Toei for a long time. The legal battle lasted more than 10 years. Nagai himself confirmed that he was the creator of Gaiking in the Comicon 2007 in Naples, Italy.
It ran from April 1976 through January 1977 and consisted of 44 26-minute episodes. Gaiking was notable for being one of the few super robot series to take place in real places outside of Japan, and for being the first Super Robot series to have a mobile carrier for the chief robots. In the USA, Gaiking was part of Mattel's popular Shogun Warriors import toy line of the late 1970's and Jim Terry's Force Five anthology series. In 2005, a sequel titled "Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu" was produced. On March 28, 2010, a Live-Action Movie based on the series, simply entitled, Gaiking, was announced at the 2010 Tokyo Animation Fair. In international production will be helmed by American filmmakers, Jules Urbach and Matthew Gratzner. Gaiking is being prepped for a 2012 world-wide release.
Shogun Warriors were a line of toys, licensed by Mattel during the late 1970s that consisted of a series of imported Japanese robots all based on then-popular giant robot anime shows. They were originally manufactured in three sizes, the 24-inch (610 mm) plastic versions, the 3.5-inch (89 mm) diecast metal versions and the slightly taller but much more detailed and articulated 5" diecast versions. There were also several vehicles offered and a set that could be put together to form Combattra (Combattler V).
The most attractive features on these toys were the spring loaded launcher weapons such as missiles, star shuriken, and battleaxes. Some robots were able to launch their fists. The later diecast versions of these toys were also attractive for the ability to transform into different shapes. Raydeen, for instance, was changeable into a birdlike spaceship. These "convertible" editions were the precursors to the "Transformers" line of toy robots but unlike the later toyline it was not unusual for minor dissasembly to be required to achieve the secondary form. There was even a robot named Megatron in issue #18 of the comic, then the name was used multipe times for the leader of the evil Decepticons from Transformers. Also, the second form was not always an apparently useful one, a "giant skull" for instance.
Like certain other toylines of the 70s, the Shogun Warriors came under pressure due to safety concerns regarding their spring loaded weapons features. Children would launch the weapons and hit other children or pets in the eye, or else they would swallow the plastic missiles. Toy manufacturers were facing new regulations due to reported child injuries as a result of playing with these toys. Consequently, many toy companies were forced to remodel existing toylines with child safe variations (such as spring loaded "action" missiles that would remain attached to the toy). For this reason, as well as decreasing sales, the Shogun Warriors toyline disappeared by 1980.
Several of the anime from this toyline were seen in the 80s as part of Jim Terry's Force Five series.
Shogun Warriors was licensed in 1979–1980 for a 20-issue series by Marvel Comics, which was written by Doug Moench and featured art by Herb Trimpe. In the comic, the Shogun Warriors were created by a mysterious group called the Followers of the Light. Human operators were chosen from all around the world to operate the massive robots in order to battle evil.
The series is firmly rooted in the Marvel Universe, as evidenced by their interactions with Doctor Demonicus in issues #12-14 and the Fantastic Four in the last two issues of the series. Issue #15 was a fill-in issue written by Steven Grant with art by Mike Vosburg. The series took a dramatic turn with issue #16, as the Shogun Warriors' mentors were destroyed by the Primal One and his followers. This alien force decided that Earth's technology had outpaced its morality, and so it was their duty to destroy the Shogun Warriors as well as other powerful humans, including Reed Richards and Tony Stark.
Though he never appeared in the comic series, Red Ronin (a robot created for Marvel's Godzilla comic) was mentioned occasionally and was frequently talked about in the letters pages.
It seems that I may have been duped? Earlier today I posted an article about the possible hiring of Keith Melton as the director of Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros upcoming "Godzilla" movie.
Now, that I have had time to do some research, it seems that this report was in error......or was it? Frankly, I'm not sure, there seems to be some confusion.
Now, first off, my source for the Melton hiring, was IMDB, which I have learned
from fans, is about as reliable a source for movie info as a drunk at a party.
So, I was naive there.
Let me explain a bit. While searching for news on "Godzilla 2012" I happened to stumble upon the IMDB listing for "Godzilla 3-D". The page listed the film as 'In Development', it's release date as 2012, and Keith Melton as director. Certain that I had stumbled upon the page for the Legendary Pictures "Godzilla" movie, I posted the info.
What it seems that I did find, is the modified page for Yoshimitsu Banno's "Godzilla 3D to the Max" film.
Unknown to me, at the time, Melton was attached to direct that film.
So, I'm sure at this point that I screwed up 'BIG-TIME'!
Still, I have to wonder why the page for the "Godzilla 3-D" film has been updated to now list 2012 as it's release date.
So what gives? Is Yoshimitsu Banno's 3-D Godzilla movie still on? Is Melton directing it? WTF!
Adding to this ball of confusion, is the fact that Melton's IMDB bio also lists "Godzilla 3-D" as his next film, with a notation that it is 'in development'.
Weird!
I also just discovered another page on IMDB for "Godzilla (2012)". That page doesn't have any director listed for it, and is also listed as 'in development'. My money is on this one being for the Legendary Pictures "Godzilla" movie.
Here are the possibilities, as I see them. One, since Yoshimitsu Banno is a producer on Legendary Pictures "Godzilla" movie, both the "Godzilla 3-D" and "Godzilla 2012" pages on IMDB have been merged somehow, that would explain the 2012 date for both.
Another far-fetched possibility is, that since Banno is on board, Legendary Pictures fronted him some money to produce "Godzilla 3-D" and it is now a go, with Melton at the helm. Maybe both films will be released in 2012, together?
Possibly Banno talked Legendary Pictures/Warner Bros to give Melton a shot at directing "Godzilla 2012"?
Truth is, all of this stuff is just rumor, conjecture, and guessing. Odds are, all of it is just a bunch of misinformation posted on IMDB by God knows who.
If any of this turns out to be true, well, I for one will be surprised.
The only reason that I bring any of this up, is the however slight possibility that there may be a grain of 'real' news in there somehow.
Such is the job of reporting on movie projects, there is just so much information out there, that turns out to be false. It is really hard to figure out what is the lies, and what is the truth.
You also need to understand that back in the day, IMDB was a 'rock-solid' source for accurate information. Now, I guess that things have changed.
I'll try not to get too worked up by any more changes to these pages. Lesson learned, I suppose.
Here we go, the first of the "Godzilla 2012" movie rumors, and these two points come from a Japanese website.
The Japanese entertainment blog, Japan Zone, mentions that the upcoming Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros joint Godzilla movie project will be shot in 3D and will also screen at IMAX theaters.
The article cites that the inclusion of Japanese director Yoshimitsu Banno, as a producer on the film, is directly connected to both of these facts.
You see, Banno secured the rights for both the use of "3D" and the rights to release a "Godzilla" movie in IMAX format, back in 2004 for his unmade "Godzilla 3D to the Max" film.
By adding the film maker to the staff of "Godzilla 2012", Legendary Pictures, now, in most likelihood, owns the rights to make their movie in 3D, and release it to IMAX theaters.
Here is what Japan Zone is reporting:
Back in 2004, Banno said that Toho had given him the rights to make an IMAX Godzilla film, provisionally titled "Godzilla 3-D to the Max." It later became clear that he wanted to make a sequel to his 1971 movie that the studio had blocked. It was reported that it would feature the Showa Era original Godzilla fighting a pollution-based monster called Deathla in South America and New York City. However it has been speculated that Banno's involvement in the 3D movie is simply part of the deal to acquire the IMAX rights.
At this point I would still label this as a rumor, simply because it has not been confirmed by Legendary Pictures or Warner Bros, but the Japanese site mentioned these items very matter-of-factly.......maybe they know something we don't?
Check out their headline - "Godzilla Coming in 3D".
Written By: Ken Hulsey
