“Size counts” is more than an advertising slogan for the makers of the new $100 million movie “Godzilla.”
Roland Emmerich, “Godzilla’s” director, co-writer and executive producer, and Dean Devlin, its producer and other writer, in the past have created fantasy sci-fi extravaganzas where size clearly mattered – most notably 1996’s “Independence Day,” which featured an alien spaceship larger than New York City. Luckily, size here also corresponded to box-office intake, as the movie became one of the highest grossing of all time.
When the filmmakers took on Godzilla, they knew from the outset that they wanted to do a major update of the 1954 Japanese-born monster that became an instant cult classic worthy of no less than 21 sequels. Not only had technological advances improved special effects exponentially, helping them create a more realistic creature than ever before, but it was also possible now to come up with a larger monster than anyone had previously imagined.
Bigger by far, for example, than the T. rex that populated “Jurassic Park,” which, according to Devlin, “would reach Godzilla’s ankle.”
In the original 1954 “Godzilla,” the 400-foot tall creature came out of the sea and did its level best to level Tokyo. Forty-four years later, it once more emerges from the lower regions of the Pacific, destroying ships by the dozen as it makes its way toward Manhattan.
“The size of the monster is the fun of the movie,” Emmerich says, “but everybody falls short in trying to describe the new Godzilla, because up to now what you used to see is the limitation of the man in a suit, which has very short and thick legs. The suit is so big that the beast can only walk so much. . . . But we insisted that Godzilla be real and therefore should have a real muscle structure that can make him run. When he takes a footstep, it’s five city blocks long, and he can run up to 380 m.p.h. — so he can easily outrun a helicopter. . . .
“I like slow disclosure, and that’s what we did here. At first we start slow as Godzilla is probing, checking out things. But the moment it turns into a confrontation, he’s extremely fast . . . And there’s a delicious contrast between this baroque lizardlike creature and the modern technology that suddenly surrounds him — from cars and buses to tanks and helicopters.”
Godzilla is the product mostly of computer imaging and some animatronics for the extreme closeups and the creature’s interaction with the damage it wreaks. When the filmmakers considered the original Godzilla, they were fully aware that at the time technology didn’t allow for a more realistic-looking beast. “They didn’t even have stop-motion animation, which Ray Harryhausen had just used in the 1953 `Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.’ They used a guy in a rubber suit.”
Although the Japanese production company Toho retains the copyright to the creature, its head honchos approved the beast’s new look as updated by Emmerich and Devlin.
The human element wasn’t neglected in the story either. Just as “Independence Day” included people from all walks of life, “Godzilla” features a wide range of folks who cooperate to defeat the danger that looms over them. These include an insurance investigator (Jean Reno), a devoted scientist (Matthew Broderick), a hotshot reporter (Maria Pitillo), her intrepid cameraman (Hank Azaria) and their pompous boss (Harry Shearer), the mayor of New York (Michael Lerner), a stoic police officer (Kevin Dunn) and his overwhelmed assistant (Doug Savant) and a brilliant doctor (Vicki Lewis).
In the 1950s, most monster movies — including Godzilla and its sequels — were seen as cautionary tales against the dangers of nuclear warfare and tampering too much with nature. If these movies managed to mesmerize audiences and keep adrenaline rushing, it probably is because times were simpler and people were more naive. Today, some would argue, viewers are more jaded and may not fall so easily under a movie monster’s spell.
“Nuclear war is not such a threat today,” admits Devlin, although India’s recent surprise tests certainly won’t hurt the premise of the movie. “But I think nuclear waste, nuclear contamination, nuclear spills are even more on the forefront than they were at that time. Roland and I have been going over old footage of nuclear tests, where people were just standing there photographing it — they had no fear of it. Now we realize the harm we do to nature every time we test one of these things or what happens with a spill or accident at a power plant . . . so we have changed the origins of the new Godzilla to the modern equivalent of what was going on back then.”
Emmerich points out that his movie, like the original Godzilla, belongs to a genre that’s quintessentially American, one that boasts King Kong as an archetype, followed by the likes of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Gorgo.
“There was a time when people said, `This is a fascinating idea, (that) the human race gets confronted by something which all of a sudden gets mutated in size, so it becomes dangerous.’ We did something to nature and nature strikes back; it’s a very old theme and it makes for good, entertaining movies — only lately nobody has done it. And I’m always a big believer that if something hasn’t been seen in a long time, the technology and the way the story gets told in movies has changed so much that when you retell it, it feels totally fresh and new,” Emmerich says.
“We kind of said the same thing about `Independence Day.’ The last UFO movies were `E.T.’ and `Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ and nobody remembered the 1950s invasion movies so much anymore, so we thought, `Why don’t we make an invasion movie again?’ And it was like `War of the Worlds’ told for the ’90s — that’s exactly how we approached it. We said, `How would a filmmaker like George Palc do this film now?’
“And the same goes for `Godzilla.’ At first we were very reluctant to make it, because a lot of money had already been invested in it before we took over from (`Twister’s’) Jan De Bont, and we wanted to change the script completely, to actually reinvent Godzilla.”
Filming, which took place in New York City, was difficult on many counts. Much of the action had to be lit during night shoots without the beast being present — car chases, stunts and action all went ahead while the main subject was glaringly absent from the frame. Add to that unexpectedly harsh weather for New York in May — it rained every day — which explains why the entire film looks drenched. During what Emmerich calls a “mini twister,” he managed to shoot some real lightning bolts hitting the Empire State building. “But the irony is the real ones don’t look as real as the special effects,” he says.
Although Godzilla is one of the most expensive films ever made, it seems a logical next step for this filmmaking team following their “Independence Day,” which cost $75 million and looks twice as expensive.
“What we’re trying to do is to always stay 20 percent under everybody else,” explains Emmerich. “We really make a point to do that because we never want to be on the frontline of what’s expensive — and this time it was really hard because we went with a much higher technology level.”
Costs aside, Emmerich and Devlin are so enchanted with their new subject that they intend to make Godzilla the first part in a trilogy. In fact, they say they’ve realized “there’s a whole other way to approach it.”
