Godzilla’s history is littered with the bones of ideas that never went anywhere as a movie and, for all the attempts by Hollywood that failed before 2014 (Zilla in 1998 included), they pale in comparison to the pitches Toho never put into production for its domestic audience.
Among those, one stands tall above the rest — even taller than Batman vs. Godzilla and A Space Godzilla — in its bizarreness and ambition that would have reunited producers on both sides of the Pacific, and given the King of the Monsters his greatest test to date against the Prince of Darkness.
Called “Godzilla vs. the Devil,” the project was being developed in the late 70s by the team of veteran Godzilla movie producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, American film producer Henry Saperstein, and screenwriter Reuben Bercovitch. The three had previously collaborated on War of the Gargantuas, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Frankenstein vs. Baragon.
Bercovitch was uncredited in all three instances but was nonetheless working on a script for the next outing that would have done more than take Gojira to the depths of Hell.
“The evil in the world gives birth to a number of monsters, among them a gigantic spider, fish, and bird, all of whom do battle with Godzilla. The climax will supposedly involve a confrontation with Godzilla and Satan himself,” reads a noteworthy summary in the fanzine Japanese Giants from 1978.
Japanese Giants added the budget was set at $4 million and the runtime was said to be 110 minutes. In ‘79, Fangoria reported the film would be out by the end of the year. This, of course, never came to pass but updates about Godzilla vs. the Devil’s progress continued to appear in publications until 1981, according to Wikizilla.
References to the project can be found up to today in books about the history of kaiju cinema including The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films by John LeMay (2019) and Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star by Steve Ryfle (1998). However, LeMay had to make inferences based on available information, and Ryfle noted that “details were sketchy.”
But why? How come Godzilla vs. the Devil was never made, and why are the facts surrounding the thing so scarce? This is where it gets complicated.
You see, the pitch might be more myth than legend as according to Tomoyuki Tanaka shortly after it was announced, it was never real. In a statement printed in the September 1980 issue of Japanese Giants, he shot down the rumor that such a film was being made.
Saperstein allegedly submitted two treatments to Tanaka in 1978 and, although fans have debated ever since about what they were, we don’t know for sure what they outlined.
Call that a shame if you wish, but the story has a bit of a satisfying ending. Like many concepts designed to break ground with the monster, Godzilla vs. the Devil came to fruition in a way: first, in the form of the demonic-looking Destoroyah. The final boss of the Heisei saga is considered by most fans to be the epitome of a kaiju from Hell as far as execution (myself included).
But if Destoroyah isn’t direct enough, Godzilla would journey through the pits of damnation in the IDW miniseries Godzilla In Hell. During that arc, the KOTM would come face to face with an entity akin to the Devil, a form of God, twisted denizens of Hades, and versions of his most powerful foes — Destoroyah among them.
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