Over on io9, writer Meredith Woerner posted an exclusive video (CLICK HERE TO VIEW) that Warner Brothers sent to them explaining the background process that Guillermo and team went to in order to create the kaiju for
Pacific Rim. I urge you to go and watch it because it is simply AWESOME.My thoughts (after viewing the video like four times) start with this: Guillermo del Toro is doing to kaiju what Steven Spielberg did for dinosaurs when he created
Jurassic Park more than twenty years ago. To borrow a term from Andrew Leon in a blog post he wrote, this is a
"game changer." I still remember the lead up to
Jurassic Park. The studios and test audiences were awed by the realism of the dinosaurs on screen, how their eyes would dilate, and how their skin would move over bones, all thanks to computer-aided graphics. And oh boy have we come a long way since then.Here are some of my favorite quotes from Guillermo del Toro (who dispels any notion in me that this movie will somehow
NOT be the movie of the entire summer). Seriously, I know this is a bold claim, but I personally think
I will see this movie every single day on its opening weekend.
"When I watched a monster movie, the big money shot for me was the monster. In kaiju movies, that's what it was about." |
| This is a screen grab I made from the io9 featurette. How would you liketo be in that submarine. This moment in the film is totally what del Torois talking about when he refers to the monster as the money shot. |
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| del Toro is honoring kaijus that appeared in older Japanese films that werecheesy but fun. Here is one that bears a remarkable similarity to the onefeatured above. I like it when directors know their subject matter so wellit literally paints them as a fanboy of their own work. |
My thoughts: Guillermo totally gets this right. I've seen plenty of monster movies, and I always loved it when the monster showed up. Take
King Kong...it wasn't interesting until Kong showed up and started wrestling with multiple T-Rexes.
"Kaijus in Japan have many forms. We wanted to stick to the basics...we tried to echo real animals. We tried to echo a gorilla. We tried to echo a shark."My thoughts: I love this approach. It's basing a monster on something we are familiar with and making a chimaera: a creature that's got components of something familiar and already terrifying and doing drastic things with both its scale, its power, and its appearance.
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| In this screen grab from the io9 video, see the scale of the Jaeger robot ascompared to a jumbo jet and a T-Rex (the tiny lizard that doesn't even reachto the kaiju's elbow. Scale is going to be one reason this show is made for IMAX. |
"The moment you saw it [the kaiju] on the screen the first time, you knew they were deadly, and capable of destroying the jaeger. One of the rules I gave to the designers is to try and honor the spirit and feeling of the classical kaiju. Two-legged [just like in the old Japanese films] And once a week we would do an American idol and eliminate the silly ones."My thoughts: I think American Idol style elimination for silliness is brilliant. George Lucas could have benefited from this by opening his prequels to criticism. And as writers, many of you will no doubt agree that critical input at just the right time can make or break a story.Okay, so here's the big question I have for you oh kaiju fans. There's been no mention of Godzilla. But you know del Toro is a huge fan of Godzilla. So...do you think Godzilla will make an appearance in
Pacific Rim? If so, I think it would be too awesome for words and would most likely come at the end. Here is your moment of zen:
Note that it's being made by "Legendary Pictures" which is the same studio bringing you "Pacific Rim." Tee hee I so want a Godzilla cameo.
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