In Las Vegas this evening, the WB CinemaCon panel took place. There,
Godzilla director Gareth Edwards presented an extended look at his new film. One scene was described as "emotional." It involved Bryan Cranston and Juliette Binoche, who play husband and wife. It's set a a nuclear power plant that has been damaged by some unnatural (Godzilla) event. Cranston's character is pushed to the breaking point as he decides the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, even if that involves his wife.
It turns out that Bryan Cranston is an engineer at a nuclear power plant, where he works with his wife, Juliette Binoche. It seems like a normal day... until a strange seismic event shakes everything and a meltdown begins, and Binoche is right in the middle of it. Cranston runs down to the evacuating area only to see a radioactive cloud rushing at him. He knows his wife is still in there, but he has to slam shut a containment door or risk contaminating everything. She comes running to the window of the door just as further steel doors close, cutting them off and leaving her to die. The nuke plant goes on to completely collapse.
But Cranston knows that the seismic event wasn't an accident or an act of god. He knows something else was behind it, and that drives him as Godzilla begins to attack coastal cities.
Another piece of footage that was showcased involved tsunami-like imagery. I think that is a brave and smart choice by Edwards as the globe has encountered the horrific effects of those events in recent years. 2004 Indian Ocean, 2009 Samoa, 2010 Haiti/Chile, and 2011 Japan are still fresh in our minds and the scene described below should carry some emotional weight.
Next extended sequence began on the beach of what looked like a Pacific island where a young girl wearing a lei was staring at the ocean. All of a sudden the waves start to get bigger and bigger and panic starts to spread around the beach as alarms start blaring. Cutting to the city, we see a huge tsunami come pouring in between skyscrapers, with people in the streets panicking, running over cars and screaming. When the metropolis is entirely flooded under what looks like 20 feet of water, a military troop on top of a building launches flares into the sky and reveal the chest of the King of the Monsters: Godzilla.
Legendary Pictures: Godzilla -- An epic rebirth to Toho's iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world's most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence. Gareth Edwards directs Godzilla, which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, and Juliette Binoche, with David Strathairn and Bryan Cranston. The screenplay is by Max Borenstein, Frank Darabont, and Dave Callaham. Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing with Mary Parent and Brian Rogers. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher are the executive producers, alongside Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira. The film is from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures. - Cinema Blend
GODZILLA will stomp into theaters May 16, 2014.