It’s only been a couple of weeks since the most recent Godzilla trailer, which we had director Gareth Edwards break down for us, video-style. You can’t keep the big G down, so here comes the latest promo, with one or two new clips sprinkled among some returning favourites.
There is, of course, Bryan Cranston’s physicist Joe Brody battling the authorities to find the truth about the big beast his son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Ford's wife (Elizabeth Olsen) and son (Carson Bolde) and scientist Ken Watanabe. Plus plenty of other people and places that are none too happy about being visited by Godzilla. After all, he’s not the most conscientious tourist, is he?
Edwards has also been speaking to Popular Mechanics about the movie, which includes lots of inspiration from a certain Manga-turned anime. “I think one of the most visually breathtaking films ever made is Akira. In terms of films you’re jealous you didn’t make, Akira is in my top ten for sure,” he says. “My concept designer, it’s his favorite graphic novel. We pulled all our favorite moments from Akira and had this library of reference, so whenever we got stuck, or we ever felt like a sequence wasn’t inspired enough, or we didn’t know exactly how to give it that edge to made it feel as epic as we could, we would always thumb through the Akira imagery and suddenly get a wave of excitement or a new direction.”
And he was happy to be able to get the support of Godzilla’s creators for the new effort. “Toho was a partner on the movie, and I was very lucky that I got to go over there before we started pre-production and meet with the whole studio. I had the whole tour and even got to hold the Oxygen Destroyer, which is what killed Godzilla in the original movie. They even gave us the original sound files for his roar for us to base our roar off. For more from Edwards, head here.
With David Strathairn, Juliette Binoche and Sally Hawkins also among the cast, **Godzilla **hits screens on May 16. You can find lots more about the movie in the current issue of **Empire, which boasts the beast on its cover.
Gamera, meanwhile, visits his local comic shop to hunt down the Manga he believes could inspire his big screen return. He also stops by the phone store to make sure his mobile is working.