Wednesday, January 05, 2011

I'm Worried For Gareth Edwards

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When I read last night that the director of the micro-budgeted indie success Monsters has been handed the reins to the inevitably unwieldy beast that will become the latest Godzilla film, that was my first instinct: worry. I didn't fall head over heels for Monsters like some people did but I did like it just fine and saw plenty of promise within in it. He was especially adept at capturing the awe of living amongst these otherworldly uncanny creatures - the scene where we watch two of the giant light-pulsing aliens meet in the dark and communicate is one of the best movie scenes of 2010, easily.

So in theory I can see that translating to a Godzilla film, but the reality is that Sony is going to be throwing so, so much money at this movie, and we've seen it so many times before (poor Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)... I fear the system's about to swallow him right on up.
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Has anyone seen or read any interviews with Edwards? Perhaps he seems like a lad with his head screwed on tight? This sort of success could undo the sanest folks though, and directors tend not to be the sanest folks. Of course this news is coming alongside the recent casting of Jodie Foster in Neil "District 9" Blomkamp's next sci-fi film, and Duncan Jones' Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal coming out...


... tis a time for Hollwood to swallow up and spit out the bones of indie science-fiction dudes, y'all! Who will survive???

Still, I wish Edwards much luck. I love Godzilla (the monster) and will sometimes even watch a little bit of Roland Emmerich's 1998 abortion if it's on TV to get some of my "giant monster stomping New York" fix. I watched half of Cloverfield the other day; I'll get sucked into that one any time. I've been saying since 2007, around the time The Host came out (ugh The Host), that we were ripe for a Giant Monster renaissance - looks like it took some time but maybe it'll really happen. I want Ghidorah dammit!
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3 comments:

Andreas said...

I'm with you on giant monsters & Godzilla (a staple of childhood viewing in my family), and therefore am excited both by this news, and to see Monsters itself. (I also enjoyed The Host as a revisionist take on the kaiju subgenre.)

But given Hollywood's oh-so-shoddy track record with Godzilla, I'm automatically skeptical. Meanwhile, I've got little to no skepticism about Blomkamp's Elysium, which sounds all kinds of exciting. Go sci-fi!

dashdog said...

DVDTalk had a brief conversation with Edwards here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/gareth_edwards.html

He's an industrious guy and I agree with your take on "Monsters" -- although I wish we would have seen just a bit more of 'em in the movie. "Monsters" was his calling card and let's hope that Godzilla gets gummed up in turnaround and Edwards moves on to something much more awesome!

Glenn said...

I have remained silent on the issue of Gareth Edwards and Godzilla.

It will remain that way (for now).