Godzilla 2014 Realesed Date

Godzilla (2014 film)

Godzilla is a 2014 American science fiction monster film featuring the Japanese film monster of the same name in a reboot of theGodzilla film franchise. In the film, Godzilla, an ancient creature, is a "terrifying force of nature", depicted in a style faithful to theToho series of Godzilla films. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, written by Max Borenstein and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson,Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston.

The film is a co-production between Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Bros. will also distribute the film worldwide, except in Japan where it will be distributed by Toho.^[1] It is the second Godzilla film to be fully filmed^{[Note 1]} by an American studio, the first having been the 1998 Godzilla. This film is scheduled for wide release world-wide on May 15, 2014, in North Americaon May 16, 2014, China on June 13 and Japan on July 25, 2014 in 2D and 3D.^[4]

In October 2010, the first script was commissioned and David Callaham (screenwriter of The Expendables) was named to write it.^[30][38][39] In an interview with Fresh-voices.com, Callaham spoke about his first draft of the film, stating, Edwards conceived of the idea that "Godzilla is a pretty cut and dry, giant monster that smashes stuff. But the reason I got excited about it is because I saw themes and relationships to the modern world that I could tell in this story that was important." Callaham did research on Godzilla's history, animal documentaries, as well as natural disasters and local government disaster planning in order to depict the events as close as possible to real-life disasters.^[40]

After Callaham, four more people worked on the screenplay during the film's development. When Edwards' signing was announced, it was also announced that Callaham's first draft would be rewritten by another writer.^[36][41][42] In July 2011, David S. Goyer was attached to do the rewrite of the film's screenplay.^[43] Goyer only worked a few weeks on the script and did not get a screenwriter credit. In November 2011, Max Borenstein was hired to continue work on the script.^[44] In October 2012, Legendary announced that writerDrew Pearce would polish the script, making the principal characters older to suit the actors that Legendary intends to cast.^[45]

In January 2013, Frank Darabont (writer-director of The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Blob, The Majestic, The Walking Dead) was added to write the final/shooting script.^[46] In interviews, Darabont described his plans for Godzilla as returning it to a "terrifying force of nature". The film will add a "very compelling human drama" and that Godzilla would be tied to a "different contemporary issue" rather than the original atomic bomb testing.^[47] In addition to contributing to the script, Darabont mainly focused on the emotional aspect and further development of the characters. Commenting on Darabont's work, Edwards stated, "We blocked out the whole story and Frank did a pass at helping the characters and emotions. He delivered on that. Frank brought a lot of heart to it and soul." Edwards additionally pointed out that one particular scene from Darabont's script convinced Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche to join the film.^[48] Edwards felt it wasn't believable that a creature as giant as Godzilla could go undetected by humanity, so the writers conceived of the idea that the monster's existence had been covered up by the United States government, and as such their nuclear tests in the Pacific during the 1950's were actually an attempt to kill the creature.^[49]

Director Gareth Edwards confirmed an origin story for the film.^[50] He also confirmed that Godzilla will be an anti-hero rather than a villain or a hero. He also discussed the themes incorporated into the film, stating "Godzilla is definitely a representation of the wrath of nature. We've taken it very seriously and the theme is man versus nature and Godzilla is certainly the nature side of it. You can't win that fight. Nature's always going to win and that's what the subtext of our movie is about. He's the punishment we deserve".^[48] ActressElizabeth Olsen also confirmed that the film returns to the gritty roots of the original film and spoke about its themes as well, "There's a strong theme about the importance of family in it as well as the theme of trying to control nature and how that backfires in the end." Olsen has also stated in a different interview about the titular character that, "Godzilla is just so deserving of a good American remake, and I really hope we did it and I really feel like we did."^[51]

Actor Bryan Cranston has praised Edwards' vision, tone, and pitch for the film and titular character. In an interview with Canada's Entertainment Tonight, he compared Edwards' approach similar to Steven Spielberg's style in Jaws where the film does not immediately show the beast but rather build up to its appearance while still delivering an eerie and terrifying off-screen presence.^[52] Cranston also praised the characters in the film and cited it as part of the reason as to what drew him to the project, Cranston stated, "The most important thing about this version of Godzilla is the characterization. The characters in this are real, well drawn. He (Edwards) takes the time to really establish who these people are, that you root for them, that you invest in these characters, and that you care for them. That's the best part of it."^[53] Cranston believes that the new film will wipe out the memory of the 1998 version.^[54]

In licensing Godzilla to Legendary, Toho set down some specific conditions: That Godzilla is born of a nuclear incident and it be set in Japan. The film has a pre-title sequence set in 1954, and then moves forward to 1999 and deals with a mysterious disaster at a fictional Japanese nuclear power plant named Janjira, which causes the evacuation of a district in Tokyo. The disaster impacts on the family of Janjira-based American physicist Joe Brody (Cranston). Fifteen years later, Brody remains obsessed with finding out what really happened.^[55] Legendary rejected an origin story where a Godzilla carcass would be found entombed in Siberia. The idea was rejected after the production learned that Man of Steel had a potentially similar scene.^[56]