From time to time I think about Godzilla 1998 and what it could have been. In 1992 TriStar Pictures were able to secure the rights to Godzilla from Toho Studios. For years American studio's had been pushing Toho to allow a big budget westernized version of Godzilla to be made for American audience's but Toho did not want their iconic character to bastardized by Hollywood. But in the early 90s Toho was financially struggling so the studio gave in to TriStar giving the studio rights to the iconic character. In 1996 TriStar started pressuring Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow) to write and direct the film. Emmerich and Devlin repeatedly turned down the project but finally reaching agreement to write and direct the film once the studio gave the duo complete control of the project.
Roland Emmerich admitted he was not a fan of Godzilla and only agreed to make the film once TriStar told him he could do whatever he wanted to do with the film. The in results was a goofy giant monstor movie that had absolutely nothing to do with Godzilla.
Hell if you think about it the flick has more in common with the Simpson than Godzilla. The film starred three voice actors from The Simpsons: Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer and Nancy Cartwright.
Prior to hiring Emmerich and Devlin TriStar originally tapped Jan de Bont (Speed, Twister, The Haunting, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life) to direct the film. Jan de Bont was a massive Godzilla fan and jumped at the chance to direct a big budget Godzilla film, but he would leave the project when the studio reject his budget proposal.
With terrible reviews by film critics and die hard Godzilla fans alike along with a supersize budget of around $150 million not counting the rumored $80 million plus marketing cost the film would go on to be a massive Boxoffice disappointment that summer, driving TruStar to ultimately cancel the plan sequels.
Moral of the story: don't hire a couple of guys who are not fans of your product to handle that product. It would be like Netflix hiring a guy who has said 'he hates HE-MAN going as far as calling the character a F@@king puzzy' to develop your upcoming HE-MAN Master's Of The Universe project. Oh wait that did happen 🫢 clearly dumbness has been infecting Hollywood for decades.
Anyways don't get me wrong I don't completely hate Godzilla 98. If you ignore the title of the film and just go into as a giant monstor movie in the spirit of the 1950s giant monstor movies it's an okay watch. I probably give it a 4 out of 10 Severed Thumbs. The best thing to come from that flick was that kick azz teaser trailer and the awesome animated series along with the toys!
