Will Award Winning Takashi Yamazaki Direct Godzilla 2016?
G. H. (Gman)
AdminGodzillaDecember 11, 20141985 Views5 RepliesBriefly, August Ragone, who reported on Toho's decision to go forth with a new Godzilla film, recently spoke on Kaijucast. I recommend listening in, but there he predicts that director Takashi Yamazaki might get the job for the upcoming Godzilla film. Two of the finer points is that his schedule would allow it and that his shooting philosophy might (theoretically) give Godzilla 10 months of post-production/visual effects work.
The first film I ever saw of Yamazaki's was the insane actioner, Returner. It was released in North America by Sony not long before Godzilla: Final Wars was released in Japanese theaters. The film was well-recieved for taking the best parts of American action-sci-fi films and mashing them together. It won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Yamazaki is best known for his Always Trilogy. Godzilla fans are familiar with his work on Always: Sunny on Third Street 2, where a giant CG Godzilla is in a scene at the film's opening.
He's done some work in the tokusatsu(ish) genre with a live action adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato. His latest film is Parasyte Part 2 will be released next year. It's a CG heavy sci-fi/horror/black comedy.
Having seen Returner and Always: Sunny on Third Street, and just going off the rest of his resume, I'm going to be blunt: Yamakazi is a director that the Godzilla series hasn't seen the likes of since 1975. He's got a far more versatile and seasoned eye than Tezuka, Okawara, Omori and Edwards. And he's arguably more accomplished than Shusuke Kaneko and Ryuhei Kitamura-- The man won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Director and Best Screenwriter in 2006.
It's not official by any means, but it's enough to speculate on. How would you feel about Yamazaki directing the next Godzilla movie?
