Frank Darabont talks Godzilla Rewrite

We were excited to hear that Frank Darabont was recently hired to work on the Godzilla script for Legendary Pictures' upcoming reboot. The plan has always been to go for a more serious take on the material, but recent comments from Darabont provide more details on where he's taking the giant monster:

Via io9: "What I found very interesting about Godzilla is that he started off definitely as a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And some of the atom bomb testing we were doing in the South Pacific in the subsequent years. The giant terrifying force of nature that comes and stomps the shit out of your city, that was Godzilla. Filtered through the very fanciful imaginations of the Japanese perception. And then he became Clifford the Big Red Dog in the subsequent films. He became the mascot of Japan, he became the protector of Japan. Another big ugly monster would show up and he would fight that monster to protect Japan. Which I never really quite understood, the shift.

What we're trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy. We're kind of taking a cool new look at it. But with a lot of tradition in the first film. We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it. It's not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It's different, it's a different set of circumstances than you're used to seeing. And that's tremendously exciting as a writer when you're asked to do something else."

Production is expected to begin this March, with Gareth Edwards (Monsters) directing. The cast is still coming together, but it has been said that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) was offered the lead role.  If production plans stay on schedule, we should have confirmation on the main cast next month.