Last weekend the cast of Godzilla met journalists in New York, which is a little ironic since this Godzilla movie doesn’t attack New York. I got on the phone with Legendary Pictures’ CEO and Godzilla producer Thomas Tull to talk about the new film. You may consider some of these questions spoilers for some of Godzilla’s easter eggs, but as a Godzilla fan myself I had to ask.
CraveOnline: How long had you been trying to make a Godzilla movie?
Thomas Tull: The way it came about is Jon Jashni who runs our creative group came to me, knows I’m a massive Godzilla fan, sand says, “You’re not going to believe this but I got the rights from Toho. Do you want to do a Godzilla movie?” So of course I said yes and that was four-ish years ago, three and a half years ago.
Did that include the whole world of Godzilla, including Mothra, King Ghidorah and other creatures?
I’m a huge fan of that but for right now, we were focused on “you better get Godzilla right.” That’s been one of the rules around our place. Nobody use the “s” word. If we don’t keep our eye on the ball and deliver something great here, then there won’t be anything else to talk about.
Sure, I was just wondering deal-wise, was it the world of Godzilla or rights to remake the 1954 Gojira?
Not even a remake. We just told them here’s the story that we wanted to tell and they were excited by the direction we wanted to go in and the talent. They were really great about letting us have the creative freedom that we needed to make it.
Was New York ever on the table, or no because it had already been done?
We spent a lot of time researching this with professors and scientists and really thinking about animal patterns, echolocation and geology, all kinds of things. So we looked at what pattern would make sense. If you were going to start in Japan, what would that look like from a geography standpoint. All of a sudden just saying, “Hey, don’t worry about it, they popped up in New York” wouldn’t make sense for us in this one story-wise either.
The last time there was an American Godzilla movie, 1998, was a very different era. It was coming off the heals of Independence Day. What do you think today’s audience expects from a Godzilla movie?
Well, the only thing we can do is deliver the movie that we wanted to see as fans, and that’s what we did. So we wanted to make sure that we cared about our human characters and that it was grounded in a way that could really allow you to get immersed in the film. And then, I wanted to root for Godzilla too. That was the other thing that was important to us but it was really trying to come at this with a fresh perspective. Even in the marketing campaign, we wanted to make sure that we signal to people this is not maybe what you’re expecting. Even when I hired Gareth [Edwards] to direct the movie, I thought he was incredibly smart and interesting. I wanted to make sure we had a different voice and perspective.
The tone has a lot of gravitas. Was that a discussion or decision that was made?
If you’re going to ask a serious director, which in our opinions Gareth is well on his way to being, and you’re going to ask this cast to come aboard, then you can’t do something that’s campy and irreverent. We just wanted to make sure that it was grounded in a way that you’d be immersed in it. You’d care about the characters and the journey they were taking, and then when Godzilla showed up, he didn’t have so much screen time that it became common. They needed to be special and that the action didn’t become so mind numbing that it was just over the top. That’s one of the things as a fan that I’m not a huge fan of is you don’t want to do those beats just for that sake and show some restraint.
Was it Gareth’s idea to show some of the monster fights in news footage, or was that something you were working on before?
You know, it was a collective effort but Gareth really had a terrific sense of that. One of the things that he said to me was, “Look, in this day and age, whether it’s a natural disaster or something that happens in terrorism, all over there’s TV screens everywhere. That’s one of the ways people experience this. If you’re not there, this is a natural way that people are used to viewing things these days.”
Did that complicate the visual effects?
No, because this was all really well planned and laid out, I don’t think it made it more complex. It was just knowing and understanding and making sure that you kept track of where we were. There were many challenges, but I don’t think that made it more challenging.
What sequences in Godzilla were the most complicated for you as the producer to make sure that they had all the resources they needed?
Obviously the fight choreography in the third act was huge, important and we needed to make sure that it was visceral, that you really lean forward in your seat. So that was really important, and then I think maybe more important was those moments between Bryan Cranston’s character and Juliette Binoche’s character in which it’s really heart-wrenching and makes you feel for this family. And then when Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] comes back and is with Lizzie [Olsen] and having to go away again and all those dynamics. So on one hand, the challenge is how do you deliver this massive fight and the spectacle that makes sense? And on the other hand, it’s how do you make sure that you give these amazing actors the tools that they need? Which in this case is just the script and Gareth and get out of their way. Those are some of the challenges that you think about.
When Godzilla is fighting the MUTOs, is that all computer generated? Is there any plate work of an actual city?
There certainly is plate work. We would’ve loved to have done a full scale organic Godzilla but that didn’t work out, so all that’s CGI but there’s definitely plate work in there.
What was the talk about when to say “Gojira” and when to transition into saying “Godzilla?”
Well, there’s a very specific scene in the movie where the first actor to utter that word, appropriately, is Ken Watanabe. It’s a big moment for us in the movie and it was very deliberate in the way it was done and that it was Ken who delivered it.
Do you have any cool DVD or Blu-ray plans for Godzilla?
Yeah, a lot of times just speaking as a fan when I get something and I look at the DVD deleted scenes or extras, I’m kind of like, “Yeah, I get why they were deleted in the first place.” I think in this case that there really were a lot of hard choices and interesting things that were shot and done. I think fans are going to be able to go a lot deeper and see a lot of this stuff on the DVD.
Are there any completed visual effects sequences?
Yeah, I think, now these are Gareth’s choices and he’s in the middle of doing that right now. There’s a couple of things like that that I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up on DVD.
I understand Warcraft wraps shooting shortly but doesn’t come out until 2016. Is two years of post longer than usual?
Well, part of it is getting the date right. As you may have noticed, these next two years, there’s pretty big titles coming out. We wanted to make sure that we got that right, but there are some sequences and some things that Duncan Jones has done that are truly on the cutting edge. You want to have plenty of time to make sure that we dial those in. So by the time they get home and set up, it’ll be a little less than two years. It’ll be about 20 months but we really want to take our time and get this right because the technology that’s employed really is some next generation stuff.
So they’ll use the time.
Correct, absolutely.
Duncan’s last two movies were mind-benders. Is Warcraft more of a straightforward story for him or does it have that element too?
I would say it’s a linear story, but at the same time, it’s Duncan Jones. That’s what we wanted, was again that different flare, not just straightforward fantasy and everything. Look, it’s a privilege. Being able to go from Interstellar’s our fifth movie with Chris Nolan into Guillermo del Toro and Gareth Edwards and now Duncan Jones. It’s really a privilege to work around these folks.
With Jurassic World, how did you solve the development hell that movie was in?
We definitely cannot take credit for that. We jumped on a moving train at Universal and that’s Frank Marshall and Colin [Trevorrow] and the great Steven Spielberg. But, incredibly excited and I think fans will be too. The first one is one of my favorite movies and I really think you’re going to see that DNA.
Is Spielberg delegating to you as a producer on Jurassic World?
No, this is one, we didn’t obviously develop it. It’s not our property so it’s much more of us working with them and financing it and helping where we can. Steven and Frank, I think they’re in pretty good shape.
Since you worked on Man of Steel, do you get to work on Batman Vs. Superman too?
No, sadly our 10 year run with Warner Brothers and being in the Batman/Superman business has concluded, so we moved over to Universal/Comcast and I will be there as an ardent supporter of Zack and Henry and everybody opening weekend.
What does the Universal move mean for the 300 franchise?
You know, right now if there were some other story to tell it would certainly be at Warner Brothers but that’s definitely not on our radar today.
I spoke to Sarah Gadon for Belle and talked a little bit about Dracula Untold. Is it planned to be a PG-13 film?
I’m not sure. That, again, normally we develop and produce and do all these things and so forth. On these first few titles from Universal, we’re sort of jumping on their ship. So that’s one that we didn’t produce. We’re just financing it for them. I think that’s where it’s going to end up but I don’t know for sure.
When will we see Seventh Son?
In January, now that we got it moved from one studio to the other, and we’re really excited about it.
Was it already finished by the time that happened?
Yeah, it’s just complicated. We were finishing the shots but what complicated that is when we moved from Warner Brothers over to Universal, we had to redate it but we’re really excited it. Jeff Bridges did an amazing job.
You have Angelina Jolie’s second movie as director. Is she even more sure footed on Unbroken than her first In the Land of Blood and Honey?
Yeah, I mean, she’s an amazing talent and that’s an incredible tale so we’re very fortunate to be involved with that as well. We’ll keep moving forward.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
