Godzilla is so massive that the only thing that can cast a shadow on him is… another Godzilla. And that’s exactly what happened between Godzilla Minus One, the Toho-released Oscar-winning smash hit, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse sequel coming to theaters March 29. Minus One, even before its release, helped improve New Empire.
While both films were being made completely separate from each other, to the point that New Empire director Adam Wingard didn’t even know what the Toho one was about, he did admit that when he saw some footage from Minus One, it instantly impacted and changed a scene in his movie for the better.
“I knew that they were working on a Godzilla film, but I didn’t know concretely anything until everybody saw the trailer at the same time we did,” Wingard told io9 over video chat. “I can’t remember what time that was last year, but we were well, well into post. We were over halfway done with the movie at least. And I do remember being inspired when I saw the trailer.”
What inspired him just from the trailer? Wingard explained. “There’s a shot in our film where Godzilla is stomping through Rome, and there’s a close-up of his foot crushing a building with a mural of him painted on the side of it,” the director said. “And I remember we kept doing that sequence and something about it, I was just like, it doesn’t feel that strong. I mean, yes, he’s crushing the building, but it didn’t have the power to it. So I just kind of put it in the back of my head because we’re doing a million different other things.”
“And then that Godzilla Minus One trailer came out and there’s that fantastic shot where it’s a close-up of Godzilla’s foot, but he stomps down and it pushes the ground up in front of him. Like his footstep is so heavy it pushes the ground up. And as soon as I saw that, I took my iPhone into the VFX supervisor Alessandro Ongaro’s office. And, I showed him that shot and I was like, ‘That’s what we need to do with our shot.’”
“So we basically paid homage to Godzilla Minus One right out the gate. We kind of did our own version of that shot,” Wingard concluded. “It’s very quick in the movie. But if you compare one to one, I think you’ll see it.” And, of course, when he did finally see Minus One, he truly loved it. “It was really great to see,” he said. “That movie is such a Godzilla-focused film and it’s such an ominous version of Godzilla. I just love the movie. I think it’s great. They do such cool stuff in that film.”
They do some pretty cool stuff in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire too, and you can see it March 29.
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