Recently, Frank Darabont (
The Walking Dead,
The Shawshank Redemption) was hired to write the final draft for Legendary Pictures'
Godzilla reboot, which is currently targeting a March production start date. Now, in an interview with
io9, he discusses his take on Godzilla, as well as what attracted him to the legendary monster. Darabont says that this version will not be campy, which goes along with prior comments of the film being more realistic/contemporary.
"What I found very interesting about Godzilla is that he started off definitely as a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And some of the atom bomb testing we were doing in the South Pacific in the subsequent years. The giant terrifying force of nature that comes and stomps the shit out of your city, that was Godzilla. Filtered through the very fanciful imaginations of the Japanese perception. And then he became Clifford the Big Red Dog in the subsequent films. He became the mascot of Japan, he became the protector of Japan. Another big ugly monster would show up and he would fight that monster to protect Japan. Which I never really quite understood, the shift.
"What we're trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy. We're kind of taking a cool new look at it. But with a lot of tradition in the first film. We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it. It's not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It's different, it's a different set of circumstances than you're used to seeing. And that's tremendously exciting as a writer when you're asked to do something else." Additionally, Darabont confirms that he's looking to connect
Godzilla to a contemporary issue,
"but I'm not going to give it away."
Godzilla is currently in the casting phase, with
Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson reportedly being the frontrunner for the lead role. Directed by Gareth Edwards (
Monsters), the film is set to hit theaters May 16th, 2014 in 3D.