Monster music

I recently got an iPod, so I went searching for giant monster music on iTunes. It was a quick search, but I came up with a few things, besides soundtracks.

First of all, there is a surf rock/metal band called Daikaiju. I've been aware of them for a little while now and they seemed like great fun. I downloaded two songs from their self-titled album: "Super X-9" and "Daikaiju Die!" It's great stuff. The band is kind of interesting too. They wear kabuki masks and all their press materials sounds like words translated from Japanese by an Internet translator.

The second thing I found was a podcast by Infinite Sector Collective.

The infinite sector is a non-profit collective and netlabel dedicated to sharing and promoting free experimental music, noise, and electronica. Our members include musicians, bands, and artists from all corners of the globe.

In honor of 50 years of Godzilla, their first podcast episode is dedicated to kaiju eiga. So members of the collective do songs about Rodan, Hedorah, Biollante and others. Most of it is very experimental. If you like static and Metal Machine Music, you might like this. I like a lot of weird music, and I had a tough time with most of the songs. The song "Jet Jaguar," however, was more approachable than the rest of it. It was performed by the group Terminal Shock. The podcast is not for everyone, and clearly not intended to be, but check it out and see what it does for your ears.

I gave a search on iTunes for "kaiju" and came up with "Kaiju Babylon." It's a song by jazz guitarist Henry Kaiser. Like Infinite Sector Collective, it's experimental music, but I found it more fun. It was like some twisted combination of Sonny Sharrock and Spike Jones. I was happy to find Kaiser because I notice he has connections to other artists I like, such as Captain Beefheart, Richard Thompson, Sharrock, Bill Frisell and John Zorn, among others. And, apparently, he is a fan of giant monsters. He gives his praise to "Gamera: The Revenge of Iris" at his journal. (That just shows he has taste as well.)

Finally, something I didn't find on iTunes, but wanted to mention: King Geedorah, "Take Me to Your Leader." King Geedorah is actually MF Doom, an underground hip hop artist who has gotten much praise for his purist stylings. The album is a lot of fun and can be enjoyed even by non-rap fans. Quite a few of the songs on the album are "instrumentals" made up of sounds and clips from giant monster movies. If you do like rap, there's some great work on the album as well. Some well known rappers are here, but hidden under giant monster pseudonyms. I recommend it.

While I'm at it, I'd like to remind everybody about The Monster Project, who I wrote about here.

Jurassic Park IV, not coming soon

"Jurassic Park IV" is apparently quite a ways from happening. According to producer Frank Marshall, the fourth Indiana Jones movie is in the pipeline behind the third Bourne movie. After those two are under way, then there will be movement on JP4. No confirmations on the script, but it still includes William Monahan's name and people have mentioned dinosaur commandos. [Image found at Monsters and Critics.]


Technorati Tags: giant monsters, dinosaurs, Jurassic Park, movies

New Godzilla cartoon DVDs

Two new DVDs of "Godzilla: The Series" have been announced. Like the "The Monster Wars Trilogy" I don't think there will be much in the way of extras, but it will add more of the series to your collection. You can find my thoughts on the original disc here. I enjoy the cartoon and am looking forward to picking up more.

Slither trailer

All right, this is only technically a giant monster movie, but I must admit it looks fun. You can find the trailer for Slither here. At first, I thought this was a remake. I know there is some movie from the 1970s about an attack by earthworms, but I can't seem to remember the name of that. It used to be on the afternoon movie alongside "Frogs" when I was a kid.

Anyway, this movie is a horror-comedy starring that guy from "Firefly" and features giant worm-leech-like things that are turning people into monsters. The trailer is funny. Could be a good time.

Atragon on the way

I am so excited about getting "Atragon" on DVD. It's one of Toho's classic science fiction films and probably second only to "Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People" among the non-Godzilla films. There's a review here of the new DVD. They give it a thumbs up.

Gamera blogs

Gamera has its own blog. It's all in Japanese, so I have no idea what's being said, but there are some cute pictures of a stuffed Gamera visiting various sites.

King Kong atop the world

I saw "King Kong" over the weekend. I loved it. The movie took the original King Kong and used it as an outline for this movie. Everything that was in the 1933 movie has been expanded on and enriched. This made for a long movie, over three hours, but it never felt like one.
There were a few holes in the movie. Jack Black's acting is just a touch too much. Black is a ham and he is trying to rein it in here, but only partially succeeds. I don't think he could make a subtle motion to save his life. Fortunately for him, his character is over the top anyway. The film really gives a new look at Carl Denham: ambitious, self-obsessed, adventurous and probably crazy. I liked the rebuilding of the character, it made for a deeper, more interesting guy (and probably one truer to the era.)
The scene with the insects and lampreys and all was pretty exciting, but why does the calvary turn up? As far as I could tell, the writers had just put themselves in a corner and had to find a way out, despite logic. I think that Jackson just wanted to do that scene so much, he let it override his sense of story.
And the last line, the same one from the original film, was just wrong here. It wasn't as cringe inducing as I'd been led to believe, but it certainly didn't fit. In fact, in this version of the movie, Denham should have been packing his bags as the ape was rampaging.
And the movie's length: Yes, it moved right along and didn't feel like three hours, but there was still a hell of a lot of stuff that could have been deleted to make a shorter running time. Even if you love every minute of the film, it's hard to find time in the day to see a three-hour movie.
Despite all those quibbles, it was a great movie. I had a good time and would love to see it again. Naomi Watts was terrific, as she has been in everything I've seen her in. Kong was a marvel to behold. Everything on Skull Island was scary. Atop the Empire State Building, you could really feel a sense of vertigo. I don't think any movie has ever given me such a great sense of height.
This version of King Kong was a worthy remake of the original and adds itself to a list of the finest giant monster movies ever made.

Technorati Tags: kingkong, giantmonsters, movies, review

Realism and giant monsters

Stephen Bissette argues against criticisms of the realism of the new King Kong by pointing out all the absurdities of the classic Kong. He asks why people aren't willing to accept the handwaving of the new film when they buy it from the classic? He essentially says, if I understand correctly, that there is a basic absurdity to the films that one must accept to enjoy the tale being offered, and if you're not willing to accept those absurdities in the first place, why bother going to see it?
This got me thinking about giant monster movies, and something that is very basic to all of them. The absurdity is the main reason we come out to see it. Once the giant monster has entered the scene, what can't happen? Once our disbelief has been that far suspended, why not hang it higher?
The pleasure of giant monster movies then, as I see it, is waiting to see what absurdity the movie brings along. The movie world is wide open to go anywhere after a giant monster enters the scene. This, I think, is why I enjoy Godzilla films so much; they take that absurdity and run with it, no worries of realism to bog them down.
Once Godzilla is on the scene, why not more monsters? Why not make monsters talk? Why not make a two legged beast fly with its tail between its legs? Why not make a monster out of sludge? Why not have a giant cyborg monster be controlled by roach-like aliens who own a children's theme park? Why not have a weapon that shoots mini-black holes?
And this is why the Heisei series of Godzilla films seems so dour now. They aimed for a higher level of realism. And that aim only served to bog the films down. The most enjoyable of those films was Biollante, which featured a giant rose monster that may have the soul of a little girl bomb victim trapped inside it.
It seems to me, the enjoyment of giant monster movies is all about the joy of unfettered imagination. And what could be better than that?

Bloggers on King Kong

Stephen Bissette is doing a fascinating critique of the new King Kong. He's got three parts so far, Part the First, Part the Second and Part the Third. A fourth part is promised.
Bissette writes about the special effects, the performances, the history behind the movies and the way the new movie improvises from and improves on the original. It's great writing writing, check it out.
While your at it, check out Tim Lucas's thoughts on Kong at Video Watchblog. Lucas can always be counted on for interesting movie commentary.
By the way, the movie has an 83% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It really is about time I got to the theater to see this film.

Konga review

There's a review of the King Kong like movie called Konga at Now Playing Magazine. I've never seen it and it sounds interesting.

The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene

I've been meaning to buy one of horror writer Brian Keene's books for a while. I've read his blog, Hail Saten, regularly and he seems to be a fun guy with some writing skills. I've read a few short stories and enjoyed them, I've even put The Rising on my gift lists for Christmas.
Now I have another reason to buy a book of his. The Conqueror Worms, his new novel coming out in May. Here's the description at Shocklines:

One day the rain just didn't stop. As the flood waters rose and coastal cities and towns disappeared, some people believed it was the end of the world. Maybe they were right. But the water wasn't the worst part. Even more terrifying was what the soaking rains drove up from beneath the earth---unimaginable creatures, writing, burrowing...and devouring all in their path. What hope does an already devastated mankind have against... THE CONQUEROR WORMS.

(If you order it in advance from Shocklines, Keene will sign the book.)
So I'm expecting giant worm madness! How can that be bad. You can read an excerpt here. There's a thread on the book at Keene's Web site message board.
Looking further into this, I think this novel was previously published through Delirium Books in hardcover as Earthworm Gods. There's another thread about that edition here.

Primer for giant monsters

The Morning Sun points out to the world that there are other giant monster movies besides King Kong. (You'll need to register to get in to the article. Use Bugmenot for an easy, anonymous password.) Among the movies they list are: Gamera, Mothra, Them!, The Blob and 20 Million Miles to Earth. A good selection and a nice primer for people new to giant monster movies. Although, why no Godzilla? Well, nobody's perfect.

Giant monster creates havoc in Legoland

Kathryn Cramer finds this cool giant monster made out of Legos; it's even posed tearing down an elevated train! I'm loving it. It comes from this site, which seems to be made up of mostly Star Wars Lego sets.

A few Kong links

I'm sorry, I've been lax in my coverage of King Kong news. You can find a ton of it out there, however, so I hope I haven't left you too stranded. The trailer for Peter Jackson's film looks terrific.
I should point out that the original movie is out in two beautiful editions. I'll be picking up the second one, which includes Mighty Joe Young and Son of Kong with it.
Thanks to a blog I read, I did pick up some Kong news you probably haven't heard elsewhere. Violet Crown Radio Players are putting on their own radio adaptation of the original movie. Check out their Web site, join their mailing list. They seem to have some interesting stuff there. Besides their Kong adaptation, I'm also interested in their pulp-style hero show, the Blue Menace, among other series characters.
And if you're still hungry for Kong, here's a Kong related story at the soon to be late, lamented SciFiction.

Deep Sea Monster Reigo

Fangoria has a list and brief descriptions of films screened at the American Film Market. Among them is this:

"With Toho on a Godzilla sabbatical (sob), DEEP SEA MONSTER--REIGO stands out as the closest example of an old-school Japanese giant monster mash for sale this time. A humongous aquatic creature battles the WWII battleship Yamato in this low-rent period production, directed by kaiju fan Hayashiya Shinpei."

This sounds exciting, so I started looking into it. And voila! They have an English Web site. It calls it "A heartrending love story that sinks into the beautiful blue south seas."
Apparently, the story will be an alternate history of the Yamato, Japan's great battleship that sank. (The Web site has some interesting facts about the Yamato.) It will show off what armaments the ship could have had and how it would stand up to a monster.
Here's what the Web site says about the monster:

The enemy, REIGO, is a creature that propels itself through the seas like a dragon. Director Hayashiya Shinpei has specially created this new monster for the film with extensive creative input from Amemiya Keita and Haraguchi Tomoo.

And here's a little more behind the scenes:

First, the character of Monster REIGO:
It was designed by Amemiya Keita, who is known as the director of SF film "Zeiramu" and as the designer of characters for a number of special-effects films.
Based on his design, the character was made by Haraguchi Tomoo, well-known for the Heisei "Gamera" series.
This is the first collaboration of Amemiya Keita and Haraguchi Tomoo, a combination that special-effects fans have been longing for.
The deep-sea fish monsters that appear along with REIGO were made by Japan's leading plastic arts character specialists and Wakasa Shin-ichi, who is known for the Godzilla costume.

The director of the movie is Hayashiya Shinpei, who directed the fan film "Gamera 4." (I wish I could read Japanese, because his Web site looks cool.) So we have a real giant monster movie fan directing this one.
Hotaru Yukijiro will appear in this film. He's the detective who appeared in all 3 of Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera films. He was also in Battle Royale, Zeiram and Godzilla: Operation Tokyo SOS.
There is also going to be a famous Kabuki actor in the film. That should be interesting.
Also on the Web site is a trailer with English subtitles. It looks pretty good. Some of the effects seem to be cheap CGI, but it looks like there is a lot of respect for both war and giant monster movies here.
The Web zine Twitch
seems to be keeping up on the film here, here, here and here.
This is fascinating. The first truly new kaiju, unrelated to any other series, in a while. I can't wait to see it. I hope it comes to these shores.

Not Godzilla, but cool

Scientists have discovered an ancient 'Godzilla'-like sea creature. Actually, it's nothing like Godzilla, outside of being amphibious. Still, the creature is pretty large and threatening looking. Check it out.

The Big Bugs Project

Big Bugs, an art project sure to scare the crap out of anyone who has seen "Them."

Gamera cartoon on Cartoon Network?

Monster Zero is reporting that there is going to be a Gamera animated series on the Cartoon Network in 2007. There are no details as yet, so this could all just disappear in a puff of smoke. But I hope it's true. Besides Adult Swim, CN has done some great stuff with shows like "Justice League Unlimited" and "Samurai Jack" as well as the "Clone Wars" cartoon. I have high hopes they can do something good here.

Halloween G

At Four Realities, Bob has posted a Steve Bissette sketch of Godzilla for Halloween. Be merry! Don't forget to check out Bissette's blog.

The Monster Project, a band

Check out The Monster Project, it's the Web site of a band that plays faithful versions of music from monster movies. Most interesting to people who come here would be "Kaiju Daisenso," the group's take on Akira Ifukube's Godzilla scores. There are samples of the music and it really is good.
Here's how the band describes itself:

An evolutionary offshoot of the New York City progressive art-rock collective, the Project presents creative but faithful rock arrangements of monster movie scores. Influenced by such ground-breaking acts as Fantômas, John Zorn and Mr. Bungle, the project's current songbook includes: Swan Lake, Act II Scene X (from Karloff's The Mummy and Lugosi's Dracula); The Slasher Suite (a medley of themes from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Halloween); and most significantly, an extensive survey of Godzilla music from 1954 to 1975 all from the original acclaimed composer, Akira Ifukube.

You can download the Godzilla music at these links: Godzilla Comes Ashore; Namikawa on Planet X; and Battle on Mt. Fuji. Enjoy.

UPDATE: For those in the New York area, The Monster Project will be appearing Wednesday, November 2, 2005 at 9:00 PM at
Knitting Factory
The Tap Bar
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013
Tel: (212) 219-3132
http://www.knittingfactory.com/kfny/
Admission: $8.00
Write me if you go.

Giant monsters and the Hummer H3

A new advertisement for the Hummer H3, "Monster", pays tribute to my favorite genre. If you haven't seen it, it features a giant monster (sort of reptilian, but with hair) and a giant robot meeting and falling in love. The product of their love is the H3, a "little monster."
It's a cute ad. The monster is an odd design, but the giant robot looks great. I can't tell if they are suits and miniatures or if everything is done with computer animation. Either way, it's good stuff, check it out.

King of Kong Island

King of Kong Island (just called Kong Island in the film and was originally released as Eve the Wild Woman) is a true stinker of a film. I own it in my 50 Movie SciFi Classics box. I wouldn't be reviewing it here if it weren't for the descriptions I've seen of the movie. Here's John Stanley's summation in the book "Creature Features Strikes Again":

King of Kong Island (1968). Also known as EVE THE WILD WOMAN. With remote control devices, giant gorillas become robot killers. A descendant of the King himself happens along and decides enough is enough already and starts crunching skulls -- and remote-control devices. Left to its own devices, this Spanish-produced job (made as EVE THE WILD WOMAN) would fall flat on its ugly kisser. Directed Robert Morris. Brad Harris, Marc Lawrence. (VCI)

Wow, a giant ape "crunching skulls", how could that be bad? Here's the one on the DVD box:

A diabolical team of scientists land on Kong Island determined to implant devices in the brains of the gorilla population that will transform them into an unstoppable army. Their plan for world domination runs amok when a descendant of King Kong arrives and the mayhem begins.

That last sentence makes you think there will be a giant gorilla in this movie, right? Nope. In fact, there's no monsters larger than man-size (besides the many, many stock footage shots of lions, crocodiles, hippos, ad nauseum). Actually, there's not even an island in this movie. There are man-sized gorillas however. In fact, they are the worst gorilla suits I've ever seen. And the people wearing them make no attempt to be even slightly animal-like.
The plot is a total mess with one subplot after another being introduced. That is until the end when the movie just kills off one person or another (usually by rifle fire) putting an end to each silly plot line.
This is truly a bad movie. Enjoy at your own risk. You can find other reviews here, here, here, and here.

Godzilla Final Wars DVD

Godzilla: Final Wars has a DVD street date of Dec. 13, pre-order now. This site has images from the DVD. I'm hoping these are early versions because there are almost no extras. On the other hand, it appears we will have the Japanese language track. It will be nice (I hope) to see this after hearing so many raging debates about it.

Toho/Universal King Kong news

Apparently Universal will be releasing King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes on DVD, according to Monster Zero. Here's more info on KKvsG and KKE.
With all this great stuff coming out, my budget is going to be stretched into the holiday season. Both DVDs are being released on Nov. 29.
(Unfortunately, I'm sure we're not getting the Japanese version of KKvsG, which is infinitely better. C'est la vie.)

Atragon on the way

Media Blasters will do it again come this December, according to Henshin!Online. The company has already released Matango, Mysterians and Dogora. Now they plan to release Atragon, one of my favorite non-Godzilla Ishiro Honda films. It's about a submarine that can fly, an undersea kingdom that plans to take over the world and the angst of Japan's role after World War II. If Media Blasters includes the extras from the region 2 DVD (as they have with the other films), we'll get a commentary track by Koji Kajita, Honda's assistant director. This is a must have.

Dinosaur Samurai

I have no idea what this is, I happened to chance across it while looking for info on another book at the ibooks Web site. Here's the description:

Eckels, a psychotic time traveler, has shot a dinosaur and meddled with history, destroying the future and trapping himself in the past. Transported to an alternate prehistoric period by a savage timestorm, Aaron Cofield manages to link up with a Travis, a lost Time Safari guide. Together, they must hunt down Eckels and restore the shape of history. Attacked by sentient dinosaurs, Aaron and Travis escape to an alternate medieval Japan. Caught between dinosaurs, ferocious samurai warriors, and the cold-blooded Eckels, the two must fight for their own survival—and to restore the timestream of our future!

So "Ray Bradbury Presents Dinosaur Samurai" is apparently something loosely based off of Bradbury's "Sound of Thunder" and just filled with as many crazy things as the authors (Stephen Leigh and John J. Miller) can throw at it.
It includes both dinosaurs and samurai and so seems built for me. I may have to pick it up.

Roger Corman sells out?

Stephen Bissette writes an informative post about the end of an era. Apparently, Corman has given Buena Vista (a Disney corporation) rights to distribute 400 of his films, movies like "Little Shop of Horrors", "It Conquered the World" and his Poe films.
This is good in the sense that we'll probably get beautiful new reissues of some of these films. It's sad because now Corman is working with the major studios, something he hasn't needed to do in 50 years of film making.
I'm not all that upset about it, after all we could get some great DVDs of some great old giant monster movies. But Bissette writes well about it and about Corman's history.

Giant Monsters Journal

Something called Ghostface Jackson Productions is offering a Giant Monsters Journal. I must say, it looks pretty cool. Here's a pic:



Check out some of this guy's artwork too. Lots of giant monster interest there.

Gamera news

Monster Zero has a couple of interesting posts about news on the new Gamera film. The most important of which is a new trailer posted here. Secondly, they have some artwork of Gamera and Jidas. Here's Jidas:

Yummy Godzilla eggs

Watermelons are really Godzilla eggs
(Link found at BoingBoing.)

Stephen Bissette blogs

Wow, this is great news, comics great Stephen Bissette has a blog, called Myrant. Bissette's first post includes his first inspirational comic books, giant monster books Gorgo and Konga among them. I love Bissette's work and much of it has to do with giant monsters and dinosaurs. I've always been sad that his epic "Tyrant" was never completed. I can't wait to see what he does with this blog.
Check it out.

"It came out of a damn chicken egg!"

"Carnosaur" was as much fun as I remember. It was weird and wild and a total cheap exploitation film. Roger Corman produced the film, which was released in 1993 to cash in on the big budget release of "Jurassic Park."
The film stars Diane Ladd (of movies like "Chinatown," "Christmas Vacation" and "Wild at Heart") as Dr. Jane Tiptree (a reference to James Tiptree Jr., the science fiction writer?) a mad scientist creating an apocalyptic virus that will wipe out the human race and make way for dinosaurs. Her work is funded by an evil corporation, Eunice, which is in turn funded by the government (and thereby, the movie creates a trifecta of B-movie villains: Mad scientist, evil corporation, evil government.) Ladd spends most of her time in a dark control room talking to people in gray rooms by camera. I imagine all her scenes were shot in one day.
Our hero, Doc, is played by Raphael Sbarge, an actor who started his career co-starring with Tom Cruise in "Risky Business" and now spends most of his time doing voice overs on Star Wars videogames. Here he plays a drunken night watchman at a quarry site. What the quarry is digging for, I have no idea. Apparently, the site is environmentally important, so the company's equipment is constantly under attack by a commune of environmentalists.
Doc drinks all the time, carries a rifle and yet has books about Gandhi and sketches the landscape. His trailer includes a poster of Alfred E. Neumann saying "What Me Worry?" as well as Doc's medical license, crossed out with the words "Just Do No Harm" written over it.
Eventually Doc meets one of the environmentalists, Thrush, (Jennifer Runyon who apparently hasn't done any work since this movie). Her only role in the plot, besides vague love interest, is to get in the Carnosaur's way.
Enough with the actors. The movie begins with a batch of chickens on a truck getting out of Ladd's lab just as quarantine begins. Among the chickens is a baby dinosaur, which of course kills the driver and escapes. Meanwhile, everyone is getting sick.
Apparently, Dr. Tiptree's plan has two parts. The first is the spread of a disease which makes women give birth to a giant green egg. The birthing process kills the infected women. The second part is baby dinosaurs born in chicken's eggs.
It's the loopiness of this plan that really makes the movie fun. A couple of dinosaurs get loose while feverish women give horrible birth. Neat.
The special effects are humorous but effective. There seems to be a combination of stop motion, puppets and animatronic models. If you've ever seen the TV show "Land of the Lost," the dinosaurs are about one step up from those. There's also some gore as the baby dinosaur rips the intestines out of people, but nothing spectacular.
The movie rips off scenes from "Alien," "Night of the Living Dead" and, believe it or not, a satirical final shot reminiscent of "Citizen Kane."
The movie is ridiculous, but a lot of fun. It never gets boring (though it veers close with static scenes in Ladd's lab and Eunice's board room.) Best of all, Clint Howard is in the first half hour of the film. Clint Howard makes any movie better.
The director, Adam Simon, also wrote the film "Bones," starring Snoop Dogg. The last two films he directed were "The American Nightmare," a documentary about horror films, and "The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera," a documentary about director Samuel Fuller.
The film is based on a novel by Harry Adam Knight, which is apparently a pseudonym for John Brosnan, an Australian writer well known in science fiction fan circles. He died this year of acute pancreatitis. Apparently, the book is very different from the movie. In fact, some of the Amazon reviews claim Michael Crichton ripped off this book when he wrote "Jurassic Park."
The "Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" says about Brosnan's pseudonymous works "these written equivalents of exploitation ovies are slightly self-mocking but quite exciting as sf horror; all are variants on the humans-being-destroyed-by-monstrous-things theme." The Encyclopedia also points out "The initials of the pseudonyms were no accident." Brosnan also wrote as "Simon Ian Childer."
I'll have to pick up the novel and see what I think.
Finally, here are some other reviews of Carnosaur:
Dino-Source; Trash City; The B-Movie Film Vault; Cold Fusion Video Review; Stomp Tokyo; Bad Movies; At A Glance Film Reviews; Night of the Creeps; Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review; Mutant Reviewers; Broke Down Cinema; DVD Cult and Rotten Tomatoes.

Godzilla: Return scheduled for 2013

According to a Monster Zero translation of a news report, Godzilla won't come back to the silver screen for another 9 years. Apparently, the producers want to wait for a new generation of fans to revive the films.

Giant monster drawings

Check out Our Bullets Are Useless, a collection of monster drawings based on the Atlas (later marvel) comic books that almost always featured giant monsters. Very cool.

Kong documentary, DVD details

Peter Jackson is making a two-hour documentary about the original King Kong for the DVD release of that movie. Apparently, the original King Kong will be released in November in three different packages:
1. The two-disc special edition.
2. A two-disc collector's edition that will be packaged in "a collectable tin and including a 20-page reproduction of the original souvenir program, postcard reproductions of the original one sheets, and a mail-in offer for a reproduction of a vintage 27-by-41-inch movie poster."
3. The above special edition will also be sold packaged with "Son of Kong" and "Mighty Joe Young."
Also of note, Ray Harryhausen will be doing a commentary on the "King Kong" (1933) disc.
Apparently, a two-disc special edition">Korean disc is for sale right now with just the original movie.

Carnosaur!

Deep Discount DVD has a good bargain on the Carnosaur collection. This is the three Roger Corman produced "Carnosaur" movies. These are not what you'd call high art, even for giant monster movies, but they're fun and, now, cheap to buy! The films were produced to cash in on the "Jurassic Park" hype. Personally, I love the films. I can't wait to see them again and will write more after I've viewed them.
UPDATE: Carnosaur review here.

Blogcritics.org: The Mysterians DVD Review

Blogcritics.org reviews the Mysterians DVD. Overall, they weren't big fans. But apparently, they felt more Mogera would have made it a better film:

It's also a mystery to the film, seemingly defeated within the opening half hour, then making a barely noticeable appearance near the finale, only to be crushed by the armed forces machinery. It feels like it was added at the last moment, and that ends up being a significant piece of trivia. There should have been more scenes involving the robot, especially to break up the war involving a stationary dome.

Of course, most films could benefit from giant monsters and robots. But maybe that's just me.

Dogora

"Dogora" is now out from Media Blasters. It's the story of jewel thieves and a giant jellyfish desperately in need of carbon.
It's a strange movie. The jewel thief story seems to go on despite what's happening with the giant monster. If I understand the history of the movie correctly, a movie about jewel thieves was melded with the giant monster theme early on so Eiji Tsubaraya and Ishiro Honda could try some new technology of the time.
The new technology doesn't look so new now. The title creature is mainly jellyfish arms hanging from the skies, with only a couple of shots of the entire creature. The creature is matted in to the film - there's no rubber suits here. Unfortunately, some of the special effects near the end of the film - when the monster has been broken up into smaller "space cells" - are downright awful.
Still, the story was fun, if bizarre. Unlike "Varan," I was never bored with this movie. The disc is more basic than most of the Media Blasters releases. It only has the theatrical trailer and a photo gallery. Still, the transfer is excellent and this is the first time this movie has been released in its original Japanese form here. So another good job for Media Blasters.
Next up from the company is "Yog: Monster from Space." No release details are available yet. That's another film I've never seen and includes three giant monsters! I hope it's worth it.
There's also talk of Media Blasters looking to pick up "Atragon." Although it only has a minor giant monster part - Manda! - it's one of my favorite Ishiro Honda films. Let's hope Media Blasters is able to bring a new version here.

Varan the Unbelievable

For years I've owned a video tape copy of Varan the Unbelievable put out by Something Weird. It was the U.S. version, starring Myron Healey, and it was awful. I tried watching it about 10 times and managed not to fall asleep about twice. But those images of the monster, Varan, always intrigued me. I wanted to know, what were the secrets of the original film, how had Americanization screwed it up.
Thanks to Media Blasters, now I know. The company's Tokyo Shock division has been putting out some great Japanese films of late, including The Mysterians and one of my favorite films, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People. Varan is the first giant monster movie in the series (well, Mysterians features a giant robot, Mogera, but is really focused on the alien invasion).
And I've come to find out that Varan is still not a great giant monster movie. The first part of the film, set in the "Tibet of Japan," has some atmospheric looking locations and includes actual danger to the protagonists. But the rest of the film is bogged down in military movements and Varan thrashing around in the water. Even the smashing of buildings near the end isn't all that exciting.
Varan, itself, is a pretty good monster, as long as it stays on four feet. In those scenes, it moves like no other monster in the Toho canon. It seems to move like a cat, slinking back and forth, and often pulls its front two legs up on to a structure or mountain to get a better look at flares shot off by the military. On two legs, which only seems to happen near the end, it's just embarrassing. Varan's arms move side-to-side like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and really, it just doesn't look stable.
Then there's the flying. Completely excised from the American version, Varan flees from his homeland by getting on top of a mountain and spreading flying-squirrel-like wings. It makes the monster seem all the more interesting, but it seems to come out of nowhere and is never used again.
Still, this version is a far better film than the American, and it certainly deserves a look from all dedicated monster fans.
The disc is terrific. You get Japanese language with subtitles on the movie, plus there's a second version of the movie as it was originally edited for television. There's also an audio commentary.
But the best extra I've seen is a short video about the molding of Varan. Keizo Murase, the original molder of Varan, teaches this little course in the making of scales and skin. It makes me want to build my own Varan at home!
Media Blasters isn't finished yet, either. They've got two more giant monster movies lined up, both of which I can't wait to see. The first is Dogora, giant jellyfish that come from the sky. That DVD is out now. The second is Yog, the Monster from Space, which will go under its original American title Space Amoeba. Details on both films can be seen in the HenshinOnline archives.

JP4 news

For updated info on what's happening (or not happening) with Jurassic Park IV, check out Dan's JP3 Page - The World's Greatest JP Paper. Apparently, that crazy script for the movie, mentioned in my last post, is not made up. Sayles confirms it here and here. Despite this, all the latest news seems to show that Jurassic Park IV is on hold. And once a movie is "on hold" it rarely revives. Ah well.

More Jurassic Park IV news

Apparently, production on Jurassic Park IV is getting under way and the whole cast from the original film is returning, at least according to this article.
I wrote about some of the script details here. I can't imagine the story will actually be as crazy as reported.

Final Wars reviews

Well, "Godzilla Final Wars" has premiered in America (the first time a G premiere happened here before Japan) and the reviews are coming in. And Ain't It Cool News has a review as well:

This past summer, I got really tired of hearing people try to defend VAN HELSING as “just fun,” because it didn’t feel to me while watching it like Stephen Sommers actually had fun making it. It just felt like he had a release date to make and thought that biggerlouderfaster was the way to cover any narrative flaws. Here, you can feel Kitamura giggling behind the camera as he piles up the insanity, and it’s infectious.
...
From the moment Godzilla wakes up to the end of the movie, Kitamura kicks out the jams and just bombards you with one fight after another. Some of them are frustratingly brief, like when he butts heads with the miserable American Godzilla in Sydney Harbor. Just about the time the real deals holds down the pale imitation and starts recreating a scene from DELIVERANCE, the sequence is over. Other fights pick up in the middle, like when we see Godzilla whup up on Hedorah, who was actually one of the toughest monsters to fight in the original series. These are minor nitpicks, though. There’s something like an hour of sustained monster action, intercut with kung-fu and spaceship dogfights and a kamikaze STAR WARS scene and did I mention that Minilla drives a car? Seriously. And he wears a seatbelt. It’s gloriously batshit, and I loved it all.

It sounds like this is a very fun movie filled with lots of references to Toho past. However, it's not a serious movie. Almost every review mentions Minya and how he just slows down the film.
Still, it all sounds immensely fun. I'm hoping it gets an American release so everybody can enjoy Godzilla's 50th in style.

Bob Eggleton on Godzilla

Fantasy and science fiction artist Bob Eggleton has written a nice summation of Godzilla's career at Locus Online. It won't be anything new for Godzilla fans, but it's a nice way to get literary science fiction fans to check kaiju films out. Eggleton is a great artist and is very active in Godzilla fandom. His most recent work is the cover of Japanese Giants, which can be seen at the Locus site.

Happy birthday, Gojira!

Today, Nov. 3, my favorite giant monster is 50 years old. The theatrical release of the original "Gojira" opened in Japan today. (It would be another year yet before his American sibling, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" would premiere.) Half a century of giant irradiated reptile goodness, that's quite an achievement. Here's to another 50!

Inside the suit

Here's a nice profile of the latest man in the Godzilla suit, Tsutomu Kitagawa.

Gojira, Mysterians to be released on DVD!

According to this little snippet from USA Today (found at Digital Monster Island), the original Gojira will be put out on Region 1 DVD by Classic Media! It's about time. This follows up Rialto's theatrical release of the film that beat Van Helsing on per theater receipts this summer (it opened on the same weekend). No date yet. I can't wait!
And while I'm at it, Media Blasters has set Jan. 25 as a release date for The Mysterians, a classic Japanese science fiction film that includes the first appearance of Mogera. There's also talk of the same company bringing out Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People) which is my favorite Japanese fantasy film. This is truly a good time to be a fan of Japanese fantasy films.

"Godzilla on my mind" review

Jim Knipfel, a Godzilla fan himself, reviews "Godzilla on My Mind: 50 years of the King of Monsters." He likes the book saying that while it is filled with fannish references to the movies and bad attempts at humor, it captures the personal experience of loving Godzilla movies.
And while I'm at it, let me continue to mention "The Buzzing," Jim Knipfel's novel. For any giant monster fan, it is overflowing with references to daikaiju and the plot hinges on one well known Godzilla film as well.

More Final Wars photos

New "Godzilla Final Wars" photos have turned up. These include shots of Rodan, Angilas, King Seesar and Atragon. The shots apparently came from a Japanese magazine. I don't know about the Godzilla suit in this movie, its profile looks kind of odd.
Also, since I last checked in here, a second band has been announced for Final Wars: Zebrahead; and a release date of Dec. 14 has been announced for the DVDs of "Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S." and "Son of Godzilla."

Garuda gets some attention

Well the reviews are starting to come in for Garuda, a "Thaikaiju" film (I can't decide if that word is too silly or not), a giant monster film from Thailand. At Stomp Tokyo, they give it 2 out of 4 lava lamps.

For those viewers hungry for good old-fashioned romp-n-stomp destruction, however, Garuda may well be what you crave. The monster design is certainly unusual enough, especially if you haven't read many comic books, and he proves surprisingly difficult to kill for a creature with bones light enough to allow flight. (Let's just say that if you're a fan of the "villain thought dead returns" gag, you're going to love Garuda.) At fifteen feet tall the title creature technically qualifies as a giant monster, but don't be surprised when he does more damage to the city's inhabitants than to the city itself.

At Digital Monster Island, they seem to have a better view of the film.

Luckily, the film is made with enough style to elevate it above its Sci-Fi Channel brethren. While Garuda has its share of flaws, it gets enough things right for kaiju fans to look forward to more monster films from Thailand. Grade: B

Unfortunately, Rotten Tomatoes doesn't seem to have the film listed. Every time I search for it, I get The Dream of Garuda, a much, much different film. Here's an entry for Garuda at Ken's Force.
Interesting side note, Garuda is the first Thai movie to be shot entirely on digital. And another side note, if you're a China Mieville fan, you probably recognize the word Garuda. He uses it for the name of his bird people, including Yagharek, one of the main characters in Perdido Street Station.

New Japanese Giants

Japanese Giants magazine has a new issue at the printer. Japanese Giants is a very irregularly published, but excellent magazine for daikaiju fans. Here's what you'll get:

Japanese Giants #10
Commemorative Issue for the 50th Anniversary of Godzilla (1954)
64 pages printed on high-quality slick paper with color cover

Featuring:
Color wraparound cover illustrated by Hugo Award winning artist Bob Eggleton
Godzilla (1954)
* Making of Godzilla by Ed Godziszewski
* Staff biographies by August Ragone and Ed Godziszewski
* Original story by Shigeru Kayama - synopsis
* Who was Gojira? by Richard Pusateri
* Deleted/Altered Scenes
* Godzilla-The Radio Drama
* Japanese Film Industry circa 1954 by Stuart Galbraith
* Haruo Nakajima interview by Steve Ryfle and Oki Miyano
* Godzilla-The Score by Jim Figurski
* Akira Takarada interview by Steve Ryfle and Oki Miyano
* Rialto Pictures-The Uncut Japanese Original by Keith Aiken
* Oxygen Destroyer Blueprints by Bill Gudmundson
Acting in Tokyo SOS by Norman England
50 Years of Movie Making and Movie Watching by Neil Riebe
Profile of Toho Production Designer Yasukyuki Inoue by Oki Miyano
Toho Production Design Roundtable Discussion by Oki Myano
Mini Reviews
* Onmyoji by Bob Johnson
* Giant Robo by Jim Walsh
* When You Sing of Love by Andre Dubois

Featuring several rare and unpublished photos, design sketches, and quotations.

Order by sending check or money order for $10 ($8 plus $2 postage), payable to Ed Godziszewski:

Japanese Giants
PO Box 30078
Chicago, IL 60630

For more information on this issue as well as back issues, please contact: edgoji@yahoo.com

Godzilla vs. Sum 41

Monster Zero News informs us that "Godzilla: Final Wars" will feature a song by Sum 41.
This has increased some of the misgivings Godzilla fans are having about this movie. There was a lot of excitement about all these monsters and old ideas being thrown into this movie. But now, people are wondering, how can this movie work? It's starting to sound like it will be one big mess. I'm not prejudging, I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of monster mash Kitamura can pull off. But to have a pop-punk band attached to your Godzilla film before a composer is named, well that worries me.
UPDATE: Tokyo Monsters has an mp3 of Sum 41's song "We're All to Blame" in its media section. It's the song that will be used in "Godzilla Final Wars."

King Kong toys

In other King Kong news, Playmates Toys will be in charge of making toys for the new King Kong movie. Playmates currently make the Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Kong.
On message boards at Club Tokyo there seems to be some doubt about how well this company can pull it off. But we'll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I'm glad I have my McFarlane version of Kong looming over my computer.

King Kong site corrects unfortunate misinformation

So there is this pretty neat King Kong Web site called Kong is King. It looks like it will be good for news, but an entry on their The History of King Kong section has me doubting their credibility:

"King Kong VS. Godzilla" - 1962

Another addition in the "Godzilla" series, the Japanese certainly have their own unique, and fun, take on the great ape. In the Japanese version, Kong lost, but in the American version, he won.

I can't describe to you how much I cringed when I saw this. For those of you who don't know, there has never been, never was and never will be two endings to "Godzilla vs. King Kong." There is one ending in which Godzilla and King Kong topple into the sea and we see King Kong arise from the ocean and head back to his home island. That's it. I own both versions of the film so I can confirm what any good Godzilla fan knows, there's just one ending.
The worst thing is this bit of misinformation keeps reappearing over and over at official sites. It's awful.
Also, I didn't like their description of "Son of Kong":

After the wonderful reaction to the first film, a sequel was produced. Carl Denham returned, this time meeting a little Kong. The film was considered mediocre at best. (An interesting note: Both of these early films feature a character known as a "Witch king." Sound familiar?)

Of course, "Son" was not as good as "King Kong" (few movies are) but it was far from "mediocre at best." It think it's a highly underrated film.
As for that bit about the witch king, a reference to the Lord of the Rings, what relevance does that have? Lord of the Rings was written after King Kong (and no, I don't think it influenced the books) and the characters are totally different. Whatever.
Anyway, I hope the Kong news site cleans up a bit. I would like it to be a good place to go for information, it isn't currently, though.

UPDATE: Kong is King has corrected the entry on King Kong vs. Godzilla, which makes me very happy. Hopefully everything else is fact checked. In the meantime, it's a great site to watch for the new King Kong movie news. Check it out.

Gamera series to continue?

According to Monster Zero News, Kadokawa studios has mentioned doing a new Gamera movie. This is good news, although there is only one line in the original story stating that the president of the company is planning on continuing the series.
The Gamera series of the '90s was quite possibly the best (and certainly three of the best) giant monster movies of all time. Now continuing the series without director Shusuke Kaneko is a gamble, but we'll hope for the best.
(And for those who are having problems with Monster Zero hotlinks, here's the Web address, just paste it into your browser: http://www.monsterzero.us/editorials/editorials.php?catID=Nws&subCatID=15&contentID=535 )

Godzilla vs. Honda

Godzilla is shilling for Honda now. The first of their commercials is online.
Actually, when I first saw the title, "Godzilla X Honda," I thought it was some cheeky name for a documentary about Godzilla director Ishiro Honda. Too bad it wasn't the case.

William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgson was a great weird writer of the early 20th Century. He was loved by H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, and China Mieville has often mentioned his named as an influence.
He's also a great creator of giant monsters. Books like "The House on the Borderland" and "The Night Lands" were filled with giant, mystical monsters.
Recently, I've been reading his work, collected by Night Shade Books in a continuing series. In the first volume, there is a series of stories about the Sargasso Sea. I was surprised to find out that the Sargasso Sea is an actual place. It exists in the mid-Atlantic and is filled with seaweed. The Bermuda Triangle is within its borders.
Each of Hodgson's stories I've read so far have included a giant animal. I suspect most of the other stories in the series do as well.
Anyone who is interested in giant monsters couldn't go wrong picking up Hodgson's work. It's great weird fiction anyway. And Hodgson most likely had a direct effect on some of my favorite giant monster movies. His story "The Voice in the Night" was the direct inspiration for Ishiro Honda's film Matango, better known as "Attack of the Mushroom People." It's a great little horror film. I'd be curious to learn if Hodgson was regularly translated into Japanese.
Here's a site about Hodgson (edit: web site is gone) and there seems to be plenty more if you're so inclined. I also think his work is in the public domain, so you can find much of it online. Here's "From the Tideless Sea" (edit: link also gone, here's what Gutenberg has), the first of his Sargasso Sea stories. Enjoy.

Titano: The Monster that Time Forgot!!

At a flea market a few weeks ago, I picked up the No. 7 issue of "Tower of Shadows," a 1970 reprint Marvel comic. It's filled with wacky stories done by great artists. The first oneis called "Titano: The Monster that Time Forgot." Monster Blog has a few pictures and a description of the giant crab monster. It's a silly story, but fun. It has no credits, but there is no doubt that Jack Kirby drew it.
Titano splits boats in half and causes tremendous tidal waves over Japan, before our stalwart Navy hero comes on the scene. He paints his submarine in luminous yellow paint and gets the monster to chase him. Eventually, they embed the monster in a glacier in the arctic.
Kirby was the master of giant monster in comic books. Check out Monster Blog, which includes articles on all Kirby's giants. It's great stuff.

Smog Monster vs. Sea Monster

The "Godzilla Final Wars" info doesn't stop coming. Here's the latest, this Japanese (I assume) blog has pictures of Hedorah vs. Ebirah. They look like they were taken from a magazine. The last picture is the most interesting to my eyes.

Godzilla (1954) soundtrack review

Filmtracks reviews the Godzilla soundtrack. They are quite complimentary, although the second review seems pretty uninformed to me.

Filmtracks Recommends:

Buy it... if you have any interest in Akira Ifukube or Gojira, for the 2004 album is the definitive release of the original film's music.

Avoid it... if you do not value the history of Gojira more than the need for perfect sound quality, or if the Ifukube style has proven too foreign for your Western sensibilities.

I have the soundtrack on now and it is better than I ever imagined. The couple of excerpts on "The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975" made me think it might be boring. It's anything but. It's a definite must have for any Godzilla fan.

Godzilla clip and Hedorah picture

There's a new link at Monster Zero to a Japanese television promotional clip for "Godzilla Final Wars." The clip is filled with quick shots of Godzilla, Rodan, Gigan, Monster X and Zilla. Zilla (the monster previously known as GINO) is in such a short clip, you have to pause and brighten your screen to see him.
Also at Monster Zero, the first screen shot of the new Hedorah, the Smog Monster.
(I hear Monster Zero links aren't working correctly. If you take the following links and paste them into your browser, they should work.
GFW spot:
http://www.monsterzero.us/editorials/editorials.php?catID=Nws&
subCatID=15&contentID=527
Hedorah: http://monsterzero.us/monsterzero/news/gfw/hedorah.jpg )

Fangoria on Akira Ifukube

Norman England writes in Fangoria about Akira Ifukube, possibly the greatest giant monster composer of all time. He wrote the music to the original Godzilla, now available through La-la Land Records, and most of the rest of the series. The article adds a few things I didn't know about Ifukube -- such as his work as a writer -- and is a good overview of his life. Definitely worth a read.

Edit -- Well it seems as though all these links were dead. I've updated them, but the article is nowhere to be found anymore and the soundtrack is no longer found at the record company. You can find the movie's soundtrack for streaming on Amazon. England apparently has a book out, so you might want to look for that instead. 

Godzilla vs. GINO

Many fans are getting their wish: the real Godzilla will face off against the Devlin & Emmerich Godzilla and annihilate it.

"I want to compete with America. I want to overwhelm the American Godzilla (which is a symbol of CG) with the Japanese technique of suitmation,"says Kitamura. In the movie, Godzilla is made from a suit, and Zilla is made from CG. "I’m putting in the movie what people all over the world want...Zilla. I want to reach the height of the series and return Godzilla back to being strong and cool again. There are times also when Godzilla behaves affectionately and humorously which I think will make Roland Emmerich laugh if he sees this movie," Kitamura says with confidence. FINAL WARS opens December 4th.

NeoKaiju toys

The Neo-Kaiju Project has neared completion. Artists were asked to make designs for two toys, one completely their own and a second that would pay tribute to famous giant monsters. The Todd Schorr monster, called Steam Punk, pays tribute to Ghidorah and looks really really cool.

Fark vs. Godzilla

Fark's photoshoppers pay tribute to Godzilla's 50th birthday by putting him into other classic movies. I particularly liked the Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Rings entries.

Jurassic Park 4 news?

Apparently, Ain't It Cool News got its hands on a Jurassic Park 4 script written by William Monahan and John Sayles. Monahan is some young and upcoming writer who has three films in production. Sayles is the master independent filmmaker, but this is more in line with his early work on "Alligator" and "The Howling."
From the review, it sounds like the script veres off into really unexpected territory:

There’s the eight-year-old-boy side of me that thinks that a DIRTY DOZEN-style mercenary team of hyper-smart dinosaurs in body armor killing drug dealers and rescuing kidnapped children will be impossible to resist. And then there’s the side of me that says... WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

If there's any truth behind this thing, it could really be fascinating (or just screwed up), but it doesn't seem likely that Hollywood is going to produce it anyway. We'll have to wait and see.

Catching up on all the Godzilla news

Lots of stuff going on in the Godzilla world. First of all, here's a a look at the new Gigan suit from a Japanese press conference. I've heard some people complain it's too humanoid looking, you can see the suit actor too easily. I don't know. I think it retains its monstrousness even though it's so thin.
Monster Zero reports that Sony has picked up both "Godzilla vs. Gigan" and "Godzilla, Mothra, MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." and could be released in Octobor along with new boxed sets. There are three boxed sets being released. The first has "Godzilla vs. Hedorah," "Godzilla vs. Gigan" and the American "Godzilla." The second has those three plus "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" (which I assume is the 2002 movie but HenshinOnline!, which has a very good article on all this, disagrees) and "Godzilla 2000." The final box set seems to be all rereleases. It has American "Godzilla," "Godzilla 2000," "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus," "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack," "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," and the two 2-movie discs containing most of the Heisei Godzilla series.
All the movies will be released separately. Apparently, the new version of "Godzilla 2000" will include the Japanese version of the film with subtitles as well as the American version.
MZ also reports that there is talk of "Godzilla Final Wars" having a Hollywood premiere. More info on that is expected Sept. 15.
There is also talk of Yoshimitsu Banno directing an IMAX Godzilla film that will feature Hedorah. Banno was the director of "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (aka "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster").
Speaking of "GFW," here's a "cast" photo of many of the giant monsters to appear in that film. And here's more photos of the cast and some action.
Phew, that's a lot of Godzilla news. I think I'm all caught up now.

Fay Wray dies

Fay Wray has died. Most of you know that by now. (I was away on vacation last week.) Wray was the beauty who killed the savage beast in King Kong. To look at that movie today, you can still see how beautiful she was. Her part was thin, she played a pretty girl living on the streets who risks a crazy adventure to put food on the table. In the process, she becomes the love interest of the Eighth Wonder of the World. She was 95 when she died. She had done many films over her career (which that article I linked to mentions) but she will always be remembered as the beautiful, unrequited love of King Kong.
Goodbye Fay Wray, as long as their are movies, you will never be forgotten.

British opera singer to be in 'King Kong'

British opera singer Lobo Chan is the latest actor to be signed up for "King Kong". The other announced cast so far is: Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts and Jack Black. People were upset about the announcement of Black to play Carl Denham, but I'm inclined to trust him. Denham is an over the top salesman with dreams that may exceed his reach. I could see Black pulling that off.

Dave Barry on Godzilla

Also, Dave Barry takes a look at Godzilla. His view is much less nuanced, but there's a chuckle or two to be had. (Am I the only one that thinks Barry is the nation's most overrated columnist? He's got his moments, but they seem to be far and few between, to me.)

Jim Knipfel on Godzilla

Jim Knipfel does an excellent article on Godzilla movies and his fascination with them. He gets into why he loves them, why they are so much better than people realize and what inner meanings they may have. He also delves into what it's like being a Godzilla fan.

If you're an allegedly intelligent, well-educated adult and you mention Godzilla in mixed company, people look at you like you've just admitted that you have syphilis. They immediately assume that you're one of those pathetic creeps who lives in his mom's basement, spends hours every day arguing Lost in Space minutiae in chat rooms and goes to conventions in New Jersey dressed like a Wookie.

Knipfel, by the way, wrote a fun novel called The Buzzing. The book is about a reporter at the bottom of his life stumbling onto a conspiracy. Strangely enough, that conspiracy has everything to do with giant monster movies. The book is good for any one who's interested, but there are so many references in the book to monster movies, that a fan will have tons more fun with it.

Web sites on "Godzilla Final Wars," in English

Toho has created an English version of its "Godzilla Final Wars" main page.

This year that marks the 50th anniversary, Toho produces "Godzilla Final Wars" as the creme de la creme of the series. Godzilla was created by mankind, but it became a God of destruction which cannot be defeated by man. We will put all the beauties and terrors of Godzilla in this film. The key words for this final film are "all-star monsters","worldwide" and "director Ryuhei Kitamura".

There's not much there yet. I hope they will start updating more information on the movie soon.
Also for English-speaking Godzilla fans, Kane Kosugi, one of the stars of GFW, has created an online diary. Most of it is in Japanese, but there are occasional snippets of information in English. Also, there's an English profile and a few other goodies. The diary can be a little frustrating. It slips in and out of English and Kane doesn't get all that deep. Here's an example:

Raishuu no owari kara eiga no satsuei ga hajimarimasu . Kondo no eiga wa Godzilla FINAL WARS desu . I play a cool , chotto ijiwaru na yaku , but in little by little becomes a better person .
I'm really looking forward to the shoot becasue I've always wanted to work with the director , Kitamura san . I hope you will all watch it when it comes out !!

It's nice that we're starting to see English resources for information on the movie, though.

"The Blob" director dies

Irvin Shortess "Shorty" Yeaworth Jr. has died at 78 in a car accident in Jordan. Yeaworth was the director of The Blob.

The Blob is one of the weirdest of the giant monster movies. In fact, it didn't occur to me to put any links about it in the sidebar when I put this thing together. But it truly is a giant monster movie, and a very good one at that (although it has been quite some time since I saw it, but I aim to correct that.)

If you haven't seen it, a small bit of goo comes out of a meteorite and immediately eats a bum. It then precedes to eat anything in its way. Only an angsty teen played by Steve McQueen finds out what is going on. Eventually, after the blob is tremendous size, the town figures out the blob can be stopped by cold. So they freeze it and pack it away to Antartica.

The story has a strong resemblance to a story by Joseph Payne Brennan, called "The Slime," published in Weird Tales magazine in 1953.
Anyway, the film was a smash hit and launched the careers of both Steve McQueen and composer Burt Bacarach. Eventually a sequel was made: Beware the Blob, directed by Larry Hagman(!) in 1972.

I loved the film as a kid. I saw it many times. It was always part of the Monster Week specials on one of the New York UHF channels I could get as a kid. (Those Monster Week movies series, always advertised in TV Guide, was where my love for all these giant monster movies started.) I still remember most of it clearly. The diner covered by the blob, the people running from the movie theater as the blob begins to ooze out and the fight using fire extinguishers against the beast. And that scene right at the beginning of the movie of the blob moving up the stick toward the bum always freaked me out. I always wanted to shout -- Drop the damn stick! -- before it happened again. Pour old wino.

Apparently, Yeaworth wrestled with his feelings about the film. As the article states: "He was not very proud of it," his wife said. He made the movie as an experiment for Good News Productions.

Yeaworth seemed to be much more interested in religious productions. In fact, at his death he was working on "a Disney World-style theme park of Jordanian history" in an effort to ease tensions in the Middle East. Yeaworth certainly seemed to be an interesting guy.

Here's The Blob Site, which contains a tour of all the sites in Chester County, Pa. related to the movie and also some Blob Facts. Here's the IMDB entry and the Rotten Tomatoes entry.

And here's an interesting link, an interview with the Man Who Owns "The Blob." Wes Shank apparently bought a vat of the blob from Yeaworth in 1965.

HW: The big question--do you know what "The Blob" is made from?
WS: The"Blob" is made of silicone. At the time, silicone was made by Union Carbide. It comes naturally clear, which is the way you first see it in the film when it crashes to earth in a meteor and splits open. It did not begin to turn blood red until it began to absorb the old man who discovered it.
HW: Do you have any original production history on "The Blob" to share with us?
WS: The film was shot during the summer of 1957. It was Steve McQueen's third feature film, but his first starring role. He was paid about $5,000 for his appearance in a film that he thought would be quickly forgotten. The film was sold to Paramount Pictures, which was looking for a film to release on a double bill with I Married A Monster From Outer Space. The Blob cost about $125,000 to make, and took in nearly eight million dollars. Not bad for 60 cents a ticket.

Definitely click that link. It's an interesting little interview.

Dinosaur comics archive

Here's some fun with dinosaurs: Qwantz.com's dinosaur comics archive. It's a collection of daily comic strips. Each one is the same drawing of three dinosaurs talking (and crushing a little house.) The template has just the perfect expressions to capture many different stories. Check out giant robot suits, quick! save your game! or the bad news is there's finitely many songs about sad robots. It's good stuff.

Gojira still making the rounds

Horror author Caitlin Kiernan gives her approval to the uncut "Gojira." She also looks at the connections between Toho's giant monster movies and H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

Godzilla: Pack of Destruction

I recently picked up this Pack of Destruction toy set. All these figures are about an inch high, but still highly detailed. Very cool. I'm not a huge toy collector, but when Godzilla figures come out in America (especially from Bandai who are the masters of Godzilla toys) I usually pick up a few.
I'm curious as to how they chose the monsters in this pack. Obviously, Godzilla, Mothra, Gigan and Minya are well known characters here, but Moguera, Destroyah and Manda are pretty obscure to the casual G-fan.
Anyway, they are well worth picking up if you want some cool little monsters to cover your desk. Next I have to pick up the Crumble Zone, which includes a King Ghidorah and a Baragon (another unusual choice.)
It's a good time to be a Godzilla fan.

Popcorn Godzilla stomps through Scotland

A theater in Scotland has built a 16ft high popcorn Godzilla. It's been put in the Guinness Book of World Records. Why the newspaper doesn't have a picture of this masterpiece is beyond me.

On the choice of model, Ms Wright said: “We decided to go for Godzilla because he is arguably the best known movie monster in cinema history."

A Sound of Thunder trailer

Sci Fi Wire has links to "A Sound of Thunder trailer. The movie, starring Ed Burns and Ben Kingsley, is based on the short story by Ray Bradbury. It's about a team of hunters who go back in time for a dinosaur hunt. But they make the error of stepping on a butterfly and changing everything. That's where the story ends. The movie seems to go on and have the hunters try to change the world back to the way it was.
I hope they do a good job with this. The monsters and city destruction looks impressive, I just wonder if the plot will hold up after they leave Bradbury's territory.
By the way, I remember a good version of that story on TV. It must have been on Ray Bradbury Theater. Good stuff.

Gamera director dies

Monster Zero is reporting the death of Noriaki Yuasu, the director of the original Gamera series. From what everybody on the Godzilla boards says, Yuasu was a kind and generous man. There's a picture up now at the Yahoo! Groups : godzillaforum showing Yuasu playing with a child dressed as Guiron at G-Fest.
The Gamera films were immensely important to my love of giant monster films. While they lacked the effects and budgets of the Godzilla films, they made up for it with some really wild ideas. Images of Gyaos eating from a rotating fountain of fake blood, Guiron chopping a silver Gyaos into pieces while two kids tried to avoid women trying to eat their brains and so many more stick out in your mind.
It's sad to see another person of that era gone.

Godzilla soundtrack

The soundtrack for the original Godzilla movie is now available from pre-order from Lala Land Records. You know you want it. I'm ordering it right now. I was very happy with their special edition disc of "The Dark Crystal."

Godzilla: The Series

It's a measure of how bad Centropolis's Godzilla (1998) was in that a Saturday morning cartoon surpassed it. I got to thinking about Godzilla: The Series when I heard that the Monster Wars Trilogy -- a three-part episode of the cartoon -- will be released in August. I taped a number of episodes, including those three, back when it was on, so I went back and watched.
The cartoon takes off from the ending of the movie. The original Godzilla is dead. A baby has been born from its egg. Somehow (I don't have the first episode on tape) the baby sees Nick Tatopoulos (the character played by Matthew Broderick in the movie) as its mother. Nick creates H.E.A.T. (Humanitarian Ecological Analysis Team (where giant monster or mutation is in that name, I have no idea)) to investigate the mutations, like Godzilla, forming all over the world. With him on this team are two minor characters from the movie: Dr. Mendel Craven, a dumpy, allergic joke who only has half-a-minute in the movie; and Dr. Elsie Chapman, the wise cracking scientist played by that redhead from Newsradio.
They are joined by a protege of Jean Reno's character, Monique Dupre, a member of the French secret service, and Randy Hernandez, the token black character who has a Spanish(?) accent and is a master computer hacker. Craven also has a robot, Nigel, which, like Kenny on South Park, gets blown up at least once every episode.
Other characters from the movie make occasional guest appearances. Audrey Timmonds, the girl reporter played by Maria Pitillo in the movie, turns up in two episodes, one with Animal. Animal was odd since he was played by well known voice actor Hank Azaria in the movie. In the show, his voice is done by Joe Pantaliano. The Army general also shows up a few times.
Nick's character changes radically from the movie, where he was a schlebby scientist who just happens to have all the right answers for what's happening to Godzilla. In the series, it's as if he was played by Dylan McDermott's character in The Practice. He's a strong-minded leader with all the right answers.
H.E.A.T. headquarters are on Staten Island. Godzilla hangs out in the bay. The team spends most of its time on its boat, a fast little number with a shark's head drawn on the front. Actually, I think the boat may have been an homage to the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla cartoon, which also featured a team of characters who worked on a boat and could call for Godzilla using a button on the ship.
Godzilla follows the H.E.A.T. team wherever they go. It doesn't matter if they travel the globe or take airplanes instead of ships, he's always right there to show up in the nick of time. When they need him, they can call him using Nigel.
So the show is basically set up on the premise of a new bad monster every week. H.E.A.T. faces a giant worm in Central America, giant hot-headed mole creatures in the Antarctic, a weird electric creature in New York City and a group of aliens determined to take over the world using giant monsters.
This being a Saturday morning cartoon series, there's lots of leaps in logic and one-note characterization. But the series is still better written than the movie. In fact, one episode copies the stupid love story between Nick and Audrey and how she betrays him by using information he told her in private. Dumb in the movie and no better here.
The Monster Wars Trilogy isn't bad. It brings back a lot of the monsters from the series up to that point and adds the best of all: the movie's Godzilla suited up in cyborg armor. Also, the mind controlling aliens look pretty neat.
The plot has ridiculous moments. Nick and Craven want to get into an Army base. They state that there's no way they can get inside. So they send in a little robot eye to find out what's going on. They realize Elsie is in trouble, so they go inside to save her. Umm, how were they able to get inside the impregnable base? Don't ask, the show isn't telling. Also, the aliens have many chances to shoot the H.E.A.T. team, but never seem to manage it. Why is that? But if you can overlook such absurdities, there's a lot of fun to be had.
And occasionally the show picked up some good help. Len Wein wrote a good story about an electrical creature (the Crackler) that starts tearing apart New York. Wein is a great comic book scripter who created Swamp Thing. He also edited the fantastic Alan Moore comic book series Watchmen.
Another comic book great, Marv Wolfman, also came along for the ride. Wolfman was the creator of Blade among hundreds of other characters.
So I give a thumbs up to the Monster Wars Trilogy. It's a good, fun time. It's certainly not a masterpiece of plotting, but then the movie it's based off was worse.
Pick it up and hopefully the whole series will be released. Apparently, there are a few unaired episodes that could be added to a complete DVD series.

Ebert still not loving Godzilla

So Roger Ebert tries to throw cold water on all the other reviewers who have praised the re-release of Godzilla 1954. He admits there is a political theme to the movie that was taken out in the American version, but he says the special effects are cheesy and the dialogue is bad.
I almost think this is good. All the praise for a formerly reviled film makes me think that the reviewers were just hopping on the hip thing to do. I don't agree with Ebert, but you know he won't just follow the crowd.
And remember, this is the same guy who gave a 3 star review to Gamera: Guardian of the Universe.