In the world of surprising yet fitting news, it has been announced that Gareth Edwards, the British filmmaker who was thrust upon the movie scene with last year’s indie hit Monsters, is close to signing a deal to develop and direct a remake of Godzilla for Legendary Pictures. The film will be co-produced by Warner Bros., who will also help with financing and distributing the film.
Edwards’ Monsters made its premiere at South by Southwest last March and was quickly picked up for distribution by Magnet Releasing — given a limited theatrical run and made available on video-on-demand. The movie, which features a blossoming romance as two Americans attempt to navigate a jungle overrun by giant alien monsters, showed that the young director has what it takes to mix real human emotion and giant monster mayhem. Even more impressive was the fact that Edwards created all the film’s special effects on his personal laptop and worked on a budget in the low six figure range.
Hiring Edwards to direct Godzilla shows Legendary is not going to make the same mistakes Columbia Tri-Star made with its 1998 Roland Emmerich directed adaptation of the monster movie. Edwards is a fresh voice in Hollywood and I can’t wait to see what type of Godzilla movie he dreams up. A new script will be developed and possibly written by Edwards in the coming months.
Last summer at Comic-Con, a poster was released offering a preview of what the new Godzilla might look like. You can check it out here.
