Adam Wingard to direct Godzilla Vs. Kong

[DMHead777]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...ingard-1008773

Adam Wingard, who made a name for himself with low-budget horror thrillers such as You’re Next and The Guest, is going big for his next movie. Monstrously big.

The director has closed a deal to helm Godzilla vs. Kong, Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros.’ teaming of two of the big screen’s most popular movie monsters.

Legendary, with Warners, is in the middle of building their monster universe centered on classic silver screen creatures Godzilla and King Kong. Godzilla, released in 2014, was the first entry, and Kong: Skull Island, proved to be a giant hit earlier this year when it was released March 10 and grossed over $565 million worldwide. A sequel to Godzilla, titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters, with Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga and Millie Bobby Brown, is now in production.

In March, Legendary set a writers room to work on the script for Godzilla vs. Kong, with Terry Rossio, the veteran scribe best known for co-writing the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as its head. Other writers scribbling included the team of Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne (Star Trek Beyond), Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, Maze Runner movies writer T.S. Nowlin, Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.

Plot details are being kept hidden on a South Pacific atoll. The movie is scheduled to be released May 22, 2020.

Wingard has strong horror roots with movies such as A Horrible Way to Die and entries in anthologies V/H/S and The ABCs of Death. And he developed cult followings and strong notices for Guest, which starred Dan Stevens, while also upping his budgets.

He last directed a reboot of Blair Witch and recently wrapped Death Note, Netflix’s adaptation of the horror manga and his biggest production to date.

Wingard’s stock has been rising among the studio set, and he has been in the mix of some high-profile directing gigs, Sony's Venom among them, as execs and producers have become eager to work with him.

Wingard is said to be a massive creature-feature fan of both Godzilla and Kong movies and nabbing the project, one of the larger-budgeted franchises out there, should be a dream come true.

[Macready]

Safe to say the movie is in very good hands. I am pretty excited about this.

[woodenheart]

I don't know how I'm going to feel about this. I love them both and kinda dreading this film when I heard about it.

One thing though....the music blows!

[Lon of the Dead]

I watched this trailer earlier and the first thing I thought was "I bet Lex Luthor kidnapped Kong's mom and forced him to fight Godzilla." It felt like watching the trailer for Batman v Superman., with two big superheroes throwing down. Here we have what are supposed to be two giant monsters, but even their movements are superhero-like (clearly, they don't realize that gorillas don't punch, they hammer -- even 300-foot-tall ones). As a kid in the '70s and into my teens in the '80s, I absolutely loved both Godzilla and King Kong. But I after that B v S-like trailer, I can't say I have even one drop of interest in this thing. A total pass for me.

[strtfghtr]

This looks so dumb...I cant wait to watch it

[TonyVato]

Hasn't this been made multiple times already?

[Macready]

This looks fantastic to me TBH! Also there are MANY rumors now that this could end up being Godzilla and Kong teaming up to fight Mechagodzilla! Some screen grabs from the trailer do hint to this possibly being the case.

https://www.ign.com/articles/mechago...ad-guy-villain

[Macready]

I really liked it but also thought it was on the corny side of things and definitely bogged down by a ho hum second act. But the finale made up for a lot! Really bummed there is no bonus scene in or after credits as well.

[Toby]

The American Godzilla reboots since the much crappier 90's Godzilla have been disappointing for me, Godzilla 2014 was and still is a bloated boring slog of a film that runs 2 hours with Godzilla never showing up for more than 12 minutes in total (Seriously I timed it) to fight two other giant monsters which is no excuse why they don't have more fights and you never get to see the fights that are constantly teased at you before they're cut away to something else and you never get anything out of it until the last 10 minutes which by that time it was too little too late.

2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a big step up from the first movie having more monsters taking over the planet with King Ghidorah and Mothra and Rodan hopping in to 1-Up Godzilla even being directed by Michael Doughtery a fantastic visionary who seemed to understand the material but it was a 2-hour slog that was plagued with terribly long boring scenes of humans talking and the fight scenes while awesome were not memorable nor stuck with you and there was a lot of story bits that make you question the reality of the tone which they were going for and it kind of ruins the illusion a bit and it just left me feeling really tired.

Kong: Skull Island is a great monster movie ten-fold, no irony, it's a great monster movie with a refreshing reboot of the King Kong story with fun and likable characters, great set-pieces, making Kong a very compelling character and having more than one monster fight and it's a great watch with some fun world-building that made me feel so much more joy and excitement I've always been wanting in these monster movies that were sorely missing.

I was excited about Godzilla vs Kong despite it being pinned to a director who I found to be a bit lacking in recent years with his Death Note and Blair Witch movies as well as some of his short films, Adam "y'know" Wingard helming a big budget movie like this that I thought would've been plagued by some of his short-comings and how he's not a director who can handle criticism that well.

Well with that said...

Adam Wingard actually delivered with this along with the skilled writing of both Max Borenstein and Eric Pearson, the visual effects artists, the musicians....they actually fucking delivered on a fantastic and superbly entertaining movie!

Godzilla vs Kong is fucking GREAT!

It's fucking fantastic, THEY ACTUALLY FOCUS ON THE MONSTER FIGHTS WITH GREAT GUSTO!!!! The story is fun and weird but original and canon to Godzilla lore, the human characters ARE NOT BORING and ARE ACTUALLY DOING IMPORTANT SHIT!

The effects are splendid, the music is amazing it really takes me back to the joy and wonder of fun, weird, fantasy/horror films but with a good update because this is also a remake even if the American Godzilla movies and King Kong were reboots but this is a win/win for remakes as well as reboots when they're well-handled.

It should also be noted this is one of the the BEST "versus" movies ever made that we never get enough of and we need MORE of these! They're so fun and this is the proof with the right writers and directors who GET the concepts and have fun with them!

The fights are wonderfully chaotic and it actually feels like you're watching a full-on uninterrupted fight in each scene and it's just beautiful and not shy about showing grotesque gore in some places!

There's even legitimately emotionally-charged with Kong that make sense and like Godzilla actually makes him a character so much detail was paid attention to these monsters in a great way that I greatly appreciated!

The funny bits that happen in places are great with twists and turns that compliment the story and it's a simple story with none of those shitty boring-ass hour-long scenes of people talking with half-baked and dull-looking monster fights that barely last more than 2 minutes!
The destruction feels super legit and making the humans feel like absolute ants compared to the giant monsters which is what I've been fucking WANTING for so long with these movies much like Kong: Skull Island!

Throughout the movie from beginning to end I was repeating in my brain "THAT'S MORE FUCKING LIKE IT!" even if it might be the last movie in this series, I wish it wasn't, I hope this monster mash and fantastic versus movie makes serious money it deserves every penny to the last dollar!

One of the best movies of this year by far and a testament to great filmmaking, story-telling and that monsters can hold their own and an audience's attention that the short-sighted goons of the Hollywood scene will always tell the filmmakers that audiences will be turned off and bored if the monsters steal the show and Godzilla vs Kong is a superb and prime "FUCK YOU!" to those studio heads who only know business and nothing about making legitimate movies as well as the entertaining ones that actually know how to be pure entertainment without stealing anyone's thunder to appease the multi-demographics they obsessively cater to when the niche is all you really need.

Godzilla vs Kong is better than the 4-hour crap fest that is Zack Snyder's Justice League, I've had more fun, more emotional attachment and more meaning out of a movie about two giant monsters fighting than I ever did about a man wanking off into people's faces for 4 hours bragging about how great and smart he is when he's actually just a dumb, nice-looking hack-fraud like any Chad who wants you to think they're better than anyone else and feed the legions of their corrupt and toxic fanbases to do their bidding.

10/10

PLEASE make this movie money! We NEED more films like this one! It's for the good of humanity as well as the world of filmmaking!

[FrighT MasteR]

Really fun movie--good pacing, lots of action, especially towards the end. As usual, the worst parts were just the scenes involving the humans, but luckily those scenes are all fairly short. Absolutely loved the use of neon colors, specifically in the final battle. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I thought I would. 8/10

[Macready]

Really fun movie--good pacing, lots of action, especially towards the end. As usual, the worst parts were just the scenes involving the humans, but luckily those scenes are all fairly short. Absolutely loved the use of neon colors, specifically in the final battle. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I thought I would. 8/10

That final battle was epic on steroids! I agree with the neon as well, the entire look of the movie was fantastic. I was a bit letdown with the middle of the movie with MBB and company scampering about, I feel it was unnecessary. I also agree on the 8/10. I'm really bummed about no after credits scene, that is like unheard of these days!

[strtfghtr]

Been hearing lots of good stuff, hope to watch it this weekend

[Lon of the Dead]

Watched it with my niece yesterday for her birthday and found it utterly laughable. You expect preposterous when dealing with a movie about a giant gorilla and a giant, laser-breathing lizard battling it out in a big, neon-lit city, but this movie was like a bad joke. Nothing about Kong is simian-like except his look and the chest-thumping; during the fight he's doing somersaults and throwing haymakers like a UFC fighter, not a primate brute. The real kicker for me, the moment that really made it a total joke, was Kong popping his dislocated shoulder back into place like a 500-foot-tall Martin Riggs. I really wanted to enjoy this movie as brainless fun, but it was basically a two-hour-long eyeroll. I'm glad I saw it on HBO Max instead of blowing money on it in a theater. The only reason I'm not giving this a flat zero is because of what was clearly a ton of work put into the CGI -- even if it still ends up looking like just a couple cartoons smacking each other around. 1/10

[Macready]

Huge spoiler question for those who have seen the movie. Is this a gigantic plot hole or am I missing something?

Spoiler...

So Mechagodzilla was explained to be programmed and thinking like a Titan from Hollow Earth because Apex used the skull of Monster Zero. That is why Godzilla knew he existed and was attacking and also why Mechagodzilla knew about and wanted to beat down Godzilla when he went rogue. This movie perfectly explained that all Titans from Hollow Earth are linked to each other...but Monster Zero was from outer space....so I am confused or definitely missing something. Anyone?

[Solo]

An entertaining popcorn monster movie. I expected nothing more or nothing less, and got nothing more or nothing less.

[Toby]

Huge spoiler question for those who have seen the movie. Is this a gigantic plot hole or am I missing something?

Spoiler...

So Mechagodzilla was explained to be programmed and thinking like a Titan from Hollow Earth because Apex used the skull of Monster Zero. That is why Godzilla knew he existed and was attacking and also why Mechagodzilla knew about and wanted to beat down Godzilla when he went rogue. This movie perfectly explained that all Titans from Hollow Earth are linked to each other...but Monster Zero was from outer space....so I am confused or definitely missing something. Anyone?

Kong: Skull Island explains this with its post-credits ending

Spoiler...

where ancient earthly hieroglyphics show that King Ghidorah was a monster present on the Earth and likely had flown off into space before making his return to destroy Godzilla.

So it's likely that Ghidorah came from the Hollow Earth like all the crazy monsters have in that regard.

[woodenheart]

Saw this on HBOMax.

Although the fight scenes were amazing, the use of neon lighting was fantastic, the humans and the storyline were utterly ridiculous.

7.5 for Kong and Godzilla.

[strtfghtr]

It was big dumb fun. I love the neon Hong Kong fights and the music was actually pretty good as well.

[FrighT MasteR]

music was actually pretty good as well.

Agreed, loved the "monster music" they'd play during certain scenes

[nintendo2600]

Epic movie. Will watch multiple times.