Movies that were supposed to launch franchises (but didn’t): Godzilla (1998)

https://lebeauleblog.com/2020/03/20/movies-that-were-supposed-to-launch-franchises-but-didnt-godzilla-1998/

Hollywood is always looking for familiar properties with pre-sold appeal that can be used as the basis of “tent-pole movies”. Traditionally, these movies prop up the rest of a studio’s release schedule. Done right, they can be the foundation of an ongoing franchise. When TriStar Pictures bought the rights to make an American Godzilla, they expected a trilogy. Instead they unleashed a monstrous disappointment.

Made in America

The American Godzilla started with producer Henry G. Saperstein. Saperstein had worked with the Japanese company, Toho, on releasing their movies in the States. “For ten years I pressured Toho to make one in America. Finally they agreed,” Saperstein recalled.

Saperstein had a meeting with two other producers, Cary Woods and Robert N. Fried, to discuss the possibility of a live-action movie based on the Mr. Magoo cartoons. Woods and Fried had a production deal with Sony, but they passed on Mr. Magoo. So Saperstein mentioned he also had the rights to Godzilla.

Woods and Fried were excited by the possibilities of an American Godzilla movie. But they met with resistance from the studio. “We pitched the idea to Columbia outright,” said Woods. “Their response was they felt it had potential for camp.”

An International Brand

Undeterred, the producers took their project to Columbia’s sister company, TriStar Pictures. The reaction was the same. TriStar wasn’t interested. But an up-and-coming vice-president of production at TriStar, Chris Lee, expressed interest in Godzilla. He had grown up on the Japanese movies as a kid and “always wanted to do” one of his own.

Lee wanted to take the American Godzilla back to its Japanese roots. “I wanted to reflect not what the movie series had become, but how it started out,” Lee said. ” I loved the goofier Godzillas too, but I knew a new version was about taking it seriously. You can’t consciously set out to make it campy.”

Unfortunately, Lee wasn’t in a position to greenlight a project at TriStar. Woods was discussing his frustrations with his wife when she suggested going straight to the top. She told him to pitch his movie to the head of Sony Entertainment, Peter Guber. Woods was worried about approaching the boss in the office, so he flew down to Florida where Guber had a speaking engagement.

Guber saw Godzilla as an international brand. So he set up production at TriStar and negotiations began with ToHo over how the character would be portrayed. According to Fried, the Japanese company was “very protective” of Godzilla. “They even sent me a four-page, single-spaced memo describing the physical requirements the Godzilla in our film had to have.”

Making a Monster

Once the specifics of the deal with ToHo were ironed out, Godzilla was fast-tracked at TriStar. The movie was announced in the pages of Variety back in 1992. This pre-dates Jurassic Park which was scheduled to be released the following year.

Peter Guber tasked Cary Wood with putting together a creative team for Godzilla. He approached screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio for the project. They were not enthusiastic, but their previous movie, Little Monsters, was known as the movie that bankrupted Vestron Entertainment, so they eventually accepted the assignment.

Woods and Fried were very excited about the original script which they described as a serious science fiction movie. The story would have focused on a scientist who vows to destroy Godzilla after the monster kills her husband. The writers compared their story to Moby Dick and Aliens.

The producers were hoping to hire an A-list director for Godzilla. They were very interested in someone like Tim Burton, but they found that a lot of well-known directors were reluctant to associate themselves with the Japanese movie monster.

At the suggestion of Chris Lee, Woods and Fried approached Roland Emmerich about directing. Emmerich could not have been less interested. “I was never a big Godzilla fan,” he said. Other candidates included Joe Dante, James Cameron, Terry Gilliam and Ridley Scott.

The producers scored a major coup when they managed to sign director Jan De Bont hot off of the surprise hit, Speed. De Bont was very enthusiastic about making Godzilla. He watched the Japanese movies as a child in the Netherlands and was instantly won over. “It’s like some people fall in love with westerns or other things,” De Bont explained. “I loved Godzilla movies.”