‘Godzilla Minus One’ Director Takashi Yamazaki Weighs In On Legendary Picture’s Version And Gareth Edwards Directing A New ‘Jurassic Park’ Film
Takashi Yamazaki didn’t so much reinvent Godzilla as he recaptured what made the world’s most popular giant monster so scary and resonant in the first place. He brought the big guy 180 degrees from where he was 50 years ago, let alone recurrently throughout his 70-year existence.
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The tone of Godzilla films is notorious for flipping like whiplash from dark and foreboding to light and kid-friendly and back again. Yamazaki knows this as well as any lifelong G-Fan and acknowledges the archetype of the character changes to fit the times. This was never more evident than in the later Showa period when Godzilla’s anti-nuke, anti-war allegory became less significant.
The Oscar nominated director sees this pattern playing out again on this side of the Pacific Ocean in Legendary’s MonsterVerse, but he is not cynical about his observation. On the contrary, Yamazaki called the direction the shared continuity has taken a “fun” and “interesting use of the IP” in a recent Empire Magazine interview (via Screen Rant).
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“The Hollywood interpretation of Godzilla is a very interesting use of the IP,” he said. “It can endure and survive many different interpretations. To me, it’s a more fun version of what Godzilla can be – the classic Toho version did explore something like that at one point in its history. Within that genre, I think they do a good job of [balancing] what the humans do, versus what the kaiju are doing.”
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Adam Wingard have a big job ahead of them to maintain that balance, which we will see succeed or fail at the end of March. However, if it does flop, it shouldn’t matter long-term as Godzilla and Kong will return again in some form. It’s almost a guarantee even if everyone involved with those IPs moves onto other things.
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Godzilla can’t go extinct and neither can America’s kaiju-like Jurassic Park franchise, it appears. 2014 Godzilla director Gareth Edwards, who had high praise for Yamazaki’s already acclaimed effort, is attached to the next Jurassic World movie being written by David Koepp.
Whether a fourth film in that series is called for or not, Yamazaki expressed his elation for Edwards on X (formerly Twitter) while sharing the news. “I love that Gareth is making a new Jurassic World!” he posted.
Jurassic World 4 is fast-tracked for a July 2025 release, says The Hollywood Reporter, which is a month and a year that is shaping up to be cramped real estate with Superman: Legacy scheduled for the same window. Maybe we’ll be treated to a Minus One sequel by then as well.
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