Godzilla Vs Kong News Round Up 2/22

A bunch of news dropped this morning so I thought I’d collect all of it for everyone to see!

Chinese Poster!

Very cool Chinese poster has dropped!

IGN FanFest Godzilla Vs Kong Special!

Set Visits and Interviews!

Beware of some potential SPOILERS!

• Collider Godzilla Vs Kong Set Visit

• Collider Godzilla Vs Kong Adam Wingard interview

• Comicbook.com Set Visit

SPOILER REVEALED!!!

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Welcome to Mechagodzilla’s cockpit! Looks like APEX used the remaining Ghidorah skull and possibly even it’s brain as the internal components of Mechagodzilla. Also it looks like Ren Serizawa is the pilot!

The marketing is going all out now and the hype train is going full steam ahead!

Godzilla Vs Kong Trailer 1 and Full Breakdown

The first trailer for Godzilla Vs Kong has been released and it is amazing! Check it out below and I also have done our traditional full breakdown of the trailer looking out for all of the secrets. Don’t worry I’ll give a spoiler warning before talking about the big spoiler.

Wow they sure gave us a lot and also kept a ton of the movie secret. Hopefully this is the only trailer we get so we can keep most of the plot hidden. Well everyone let’s get to it:

First off we have a mountainside exploding outwards and it is sending giant boulders flying into the city. There is a clue showing us what is causing this explosion but I’ll save that for later.

This is the first look we get at the fleet that has captured Kong and is escorting him somewhere. The teaser audio from the YouTube ads hints that they may be trying to use Kong to lure out Godzilla.

This is Eiza Gonzalez’s character Maya Simmons. The trailer seems to be implying that she is a good guy but I think she may end up being our human villain. The way this shot is framed, she does not look very heroic.

Kong taking a nap on his transport ship. Too much berry juice will do that to you.

Very cool dual logos with WB’s being Kong focused and Legendary’s being Godzilla. Also very interesting that the Kong paintings are in the style of Skull Island and Godzilla’s look more ancient.

Kong looks very unhappy as he inspects his bindings.

Alexander Skarsgard plays Nathan Lind and appears to be the protagonist of the movie and looks to have some deep ties to Kong.

Next up we have newcomer Kaylee Hottle as a Skull Island villager who has a special connection to Kong.

Look at my Kong doll!

Looks like there’s gonna be a connection between the kid and Rebecca Hall’s Ilene Andrews.

Kong chained up outside during the rain and the little girl comes out to try to calm him down.

Very sweet and tender moment and also the first shot of the trailer that is wallpaper worthy. The cinematography is beautiful.

The look of fear on all of the characters including Kong is great for setting up the tone.

A king’s arrival is never silent and Godzilla’s entrance into the trailer is definitely loud. Godzilla slices a ship in half with his dorsal plates and doesn’t seem to care. Godzilla seems to be in a bad mood and unlike the previous films in the Monsterverse seems to be taking an antagonistic role.

Missiles do nothing to stop him.

Godzilla takes out one of the jets with his tail. He really is attacking the humans this time.

Kong roars at the water angrily and Godzilla pops out like a crocodile attacking it’s prey. As a note Kong is still chained up here and has not moved onto the aircraft carrier.

Believe it or not this is going to be Godzilla’s first fight in the day in the entire Monsterverse so far. It really shows off how detailed the CG model is and looks amazing. Also we are seeing a return to the Gareth Edwards style from 2014 with a shot looking up at the Titans from the deck of the ship.

Look everyone it’s the banner image! All joking aside this punch has an amazing sense of scale and weight to it!

Kong shoulder checks Godzilla off of the aircraft carrier but that quickly back fires for kong.

Godzilla goes under the carrier and charges up his breath attack.

Kong does his best John McClane impression and jumps off the carrier in the nick of time.

Godzilla swims away from the wrecked fleet.

Here we have Shun Oguri playing Ren Serizawa, the son of Ken Watanabe’s character who sacrificed himself to save Godzilla in King of the Monsters. Behind him is something very interesting but I’ll save that for the spoiler section.

This may end up being one of the most beautiful shots in the entire Monsterverse. Godzilla roars surrounded by the skyline of Hong Kong with it’s neon lights.

Kyle Chandler returns as Mark Russell and is commenting on how weird it is that Godzilla is hurting people. Also the news item on the screen is super important as it mentions Godzilla has destroyed Pensacola, Fl and destroyed the APEX plant there. What’s APEX? Tune into the spoiler section to find out.

Never thought I’d see Legendary Godzilla going full rampage but man oh man does it look great.

Ok there is a lot to unpack in this image but the basics are that Godzilla seems to be going around the world and attacking places with an APEX facility. I think that this is the conspiacy board of Julian Dennison’s character.

I love that Millie Bobby Brown is going to be driving a storm chaser vehicle after the Titans.

Speaking of Julian and Mille, here are their characters Josh Valentine and Madison Russel driving the van. She still seems to be on team Godzilla and suspects something is agitating him that noone knows about. Maybe he’s not really a villain after all.

Brian Tyree Henry plays Bernie Hayes and it seems like he believes Maddison’s story.

Kong surveying Skull Island. I thought this was the Hollow Earth at first but it has a sky.

Kong finds a hand print made by one of his ancestors deep in the Hollow Earth.

The level of detail on Kong in this shot is insane! Also check out the futuristic vehicle in the background! Looks like the H.E.A.V. (Hollow Earth Antigravity Vehicle) from the toys!

Kong raises his battle axe and roars! The axe handle glows red and the blade…well we’ll get there.

Kong fights the Warbats inside the Hollow Earth!

Kong and Godzilla have a stand off at dawn. Could this be after the Hong Kong battle?

Some sort of weird bat Titan down in the Hollow Earth. Maybe they are related to Camazotz?

Kong seems to be standing on a glowing ancient carving of Godzilla while he fights off the bat Titans.

Godzilla gets hammer fisted by Kong and pushed back.

Nathan doesn’t look so good here. He’s also wearing something that looks like a pilot suit.

Kong rushes at Goji with his axe glowing blue like Godzilla’s dorsal plates.

Whoa Kong catches Godzilla’s breath weapon with the axe and smashes it into Godzilla’s face! This is definitely the thing that will give Kong an edge over Godzilla in the final fight.

Who are you rooting for in this fight?

Time for the conversation about Spoilers:

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The opening shot of the trailer shows a mountain exploading but it’s so dusty you really can’t see the cause until this blink and you’ll miss it glimspe of our bigger threat of the film. MechaGodzilla is here folks and it looks like the mechanical Titan does not care about collateral damage.

The second glimpse of Mechagodzilla is actually a bit more obvious. If you look behin Ren Serizawa you can clearly see the blueprints of Mechagodzilla with some text that appears to say “Fury Systems: Maximum Charge.”

Now it’s time to talk about APEX Cybernetics. With a name like that you know that they are behind the construction of Mechagodzilla but what is unknown at this time is their motivations. As we saw in the brief second of actual Mechagodzilla footage, MechaG doesn’t seem to care about human death which leads me to believe APEX wants to destroy the Titans no matter what. Godzilla also seems to be attracted to APEX sites across the globe which is very interesting. I wonder if the Godzilla that is destroying cities is actually MechaG in disguise?

Godzilla Vs Kong Viral Marketing Site Found!

Fan Art

This been a wild morning of research and deep diving but thanks to one of our Discord members it looks like a new viral marketing site has been revealed!

UPDATE 1/18/21 - The twitter account has come out as fan made. The website however is still owned by Warner Bros and may still be a viral marketing site for GvK. Original article follows.

CStafford on the Tokyo Lives Discord server noticed some suspicious activity on a seemingly unconnected Twitter account this morning:

A possible hint of GvK marketing coming up: a Twitter account titled "WPKW26 News" just started following pretty much every official Legendary and official Godzilla Twitter account, which is significant because the website for that account (http://www.wpkw26.com/) is owned by WB, and is showing some trademark stuff for 2014. There isn't anything on that website yet, but it could be a part of the GvK marketing push, an ARG that looks like a news website with articles about the Titans and such

After looking into this further the twitter account WPKW26 was set up last June which would line up with a viral marketing strategy for a November release. Also if you search WPKW26 on Youtube you get search results for Godzilla and Kong without there being any direct connection.

The nail in the coffin actually comes from the credits of Godzilla King of the Monsters!

Look at the website on the right side

The fact that the news site has already appeared in the MonsterVerse makes this no longer a coincidence and now an actual fact.

The biggest thing to note about all of this is that the follows of the official Twitter accounts happened very recently which may hint that the viral marketing could be about to kick off! Get excited G-Fans!

Godzilla Vs Kong - Did Legendary Just Tease The Trailer Release Date?

Legendary pictures just updated their Facebook with a new banner image that may give us a tease of when to expect the first trailer for the hotly anticipated Godzilla Vs Kong.

Fans who follow Legendary on Facebook were treated to an interesting surprise when they uploaded this new banner image:

On the Christmas tag on the right side of the image you can clearly see a Godzilla footprint. What is interesting about this is there are no other teases on this image for any other upcoming movies from Legendary. Wonder Woman 84 comes out on Christmas day and that would be the perfect time/place to release the first trailer for GvK. Is this a real tease or just an innocent reference to one of Legendary/Warner Bros.’ biggest upcoming films? Well the plot thickens because shortly after that first image was posted they changed their banner once again:

Okay so the foot print has been replaced with a different symbol which still kind of looks like a footprint. Wait a minute I recognize the footprint from the first picture!

That’s just the teaser footprint from the beginning of the Shin Godzilla marketing! Also the new footprint actually matches the Godzilla King of the Monsters foot design better.

I have a theory, the first image was a mock-up image that wasn’t supposed to be posted. They used the ShinGoji footprint image as a test. They then made one modeled after KotM as the real image and the social media guy must have posted the wrong one. This is really the only thing that makes sense and still leaves us with a potential trailer release window of December 25th.

What do you all think?

'Godzilla 2' - Filming Begins Today! Possible Title Change?!

Well fellow Giant Monster fans the day has finally come! 'Godzilla 2' begins filming today out in Atlanta and the production was officially announced via a press release. Not only do we get our first plot description but we also may have some trouble brewing with the title that Michael Dougherty and Legendary have been running with for awhile now.

Check out the press release in its entirety:

Looks like we've got a reimagining of 'Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster' after all! The plot description doesn't really give too much away but it does 100% confirm that Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah will all be appearing in the Godzilla sequel and none of them will be saved for 'Godzilla vs Kong.' It sounds like we are in for one heck of a monster bash come  March 2019.

Several news sites noticed that the press release does not refer to the film by the previously announced title King of the Monsters and one of them reached out to Legendary/Warner Bros. to get some clarification as to what it all means. Jeff Sneider from The Tracking Board sent out the following tweet:

Rather than speculate abt GODZILLA 2 title, I asked. "The film is not titled yet.
King of the Monsters is not official." There you have it.

— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) June 19, 2017

This is very odd since we have had several casting announcements that have used the title King of the Monsters and the director himself has confirmed the title on multiple occasions. In fact his official twitter page still has him listed as the director of 'Godzilla: King of the Monsters.' I'm honestly not sure what to think of all this new title stuff. Hopefully we get some sort of official information sooner rather than later.

What do you think of the plot description? Do you think they really changed the title? What would you like it to be called if they did?

'Kong: Skull Island' - Trailer and Posters released!

Today has been a super eventful day in the marketing of the new Kong film and I am extremely happy to share with you the full theatrical trailer for the film as well as a brand new poster! Check them out!

That is one sexy looking poster! I am a huge fan of the minimalist approach to it and it is definitely a poster that will catch peoples eyes as they walk by. But now time for the thing you have all been waiting for!

Wow...there is so much to talk bout in this trailer I don't even know where to begin. It's great that they really aren't shying away from showing Kong himself and even gave us a good look at the villain Kaiju of the film: The Skull Crawlers. This trailer has so much stuff to talk about in it that I will definitely be doing a full trailer breakdown and posting it up onto the site ASAP (I promise I actually will do it this time). 

What did you think of the trailer? Are you excited to see this completely new take on the King Kong story?

The Many Skull Islands Of Kong - Part 2

Continuing from where I left off in part one, I had just finished talking about the dull/lame island that acted as the setting in the 1976 'King Kong.' Now, it's time to move on to brighter shores. In part two, I'm going to break down the glorious Peter Jackson created island from 2005, and give some brief speculation on what we might see in the new film: 'Kong: Skull Island.' The Peter Jackson Skull Island is actually the reason for breaking this article into two parts, since there was a lot of thought put into it's design and ecosystem.

2005 - SKULL ISLAND

Say what you will about the actual 2005 'King Kong' film, but no one can deny the beauty and mystery that hides in every frame of this island. Peter Jackson and crew did an astounding job creating a literal lost world, one that had remained relatively untouched by human hands for sixty-five million years (minus the villagers, but I'll get to them in a second). This island is unlike any jungle seen in the real world, and it definitely brought back that sense of 'going into the unknown' that the 76' Kong was sorely lacking. The beautiful-but-hellish island is slowly slipping back into the sea (a plot point Jackson borrowed from 'Son of Kong') and is an extremely harsh environment for everyone and everything attempting to live on it. The island is still located somewhere off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia just like in the original 1933 film.

The creatures of the island aren't just dinosaurs that stuck around after the mass extinction, but actually feel like completely different animals from what they were before. These dinosaurs have been continuously evolving for millions of years, and have changed distinctly in order to live in Skull Islands' harsh environment. The Tyrannosaurs are now a new creature called Vastatosaurus Rex that have wider feet to climb rocky terrain and are covered from head to tail in hard scales to protect them from all of the other alpha predators on the island (the third finger is still there as a reference to the original Kong). The raptors have evolved to be thin and tall. They can now hunt down some of the larger prey on the island like Brontosaurus, and compete with much bulkier predators. Instead of trying to be completely accurate to science, Jackson decided to create an island that had changed with the times.

This time around dinosaurs aren't the only fauna that our adventurers had to overcome in order to save Ann, as the film is bursting with an ecosystem of diverse animals. We have giant leeches, humongous insects of all sorts, large hairless bats, and huge man eating eels that live in the swamp (the eel scene was cut from the theatrical release).

These other animals really flesh out the fact that this island is a massive threat to any and all fleshy little humans that dare come near it. And the humans that live here are just as harsh and cruel as the island on which they reside.

The natives are brutal and scary humans that make the other two film's villagers look like friendly next-door neighbors. The first thing they do is literally stab the audio guy through the chest and then attempt to crush Carl Denham's skull. These people are barley surviving on a tiny little strip of the island, and have seemingly cut into the rocks to create little dwellings. You really get the feeling that these people are not the rulers of this island, instead they feel like they are part of the unique food chain and are nowhere near the top.

I would highly suggest people check out the book The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island if you are interested in the thought processes that went into imagining the island of Kong 2005. It reads like someone studying the animals on the island, as well as how the inhabitants of the island have survived.

2017 - VIETNAMESE SKULL ISLAND

So, we really don't have much information on this Island as of yet, (considering we have yet to receive an actual trailer) but I have some ideas based on the behind the scenes footage and the leaked set photos. Obviously, this island looks very Pacific-Asian. The mountains and the foliage look like documentary footage I could recall from that region. It is interesting that they are going the realistic jungle route with the film, but it makes sense that this Skull Island would have to share the tone of the Legendary Godzillaverse.

I think that we will be getting monsters instead of dinosaurs/giant animals in this film. Now that we know Kong will be at least 100 feet tall, I really doubt that the film will just use generic or evolved dinosaurs as the side antagonists to go along with Kong. Again, since this film is part of the Legendary Godzillaverse, it would be great if they could bring some lesser known Toho monsters into the movie, and have Skull Island essentially be Monster Island from Toho's Godzilla series.

From what we have seen of the village it looks like they are going to be Asian-inspired as well, which fits the time period and setting of the film. Using the Vietnam War as a back drop will really help this film get a style for the island that we have never seen before. I would like to see these villagers still be cruel and unfriendly, but with the more realistic setting (especially with the Vietnam war raging in the background of the film) I think it should be a little toned down though from what we saw in Peter Jackson's Kong.

I'm sure that I will probably do an additional article once we get more footage of this new movie, but for now there really isn't enough information about the film. Keep a look out for our continued coverage of this upcoming film and I hope you've enjoyed our little retrospective of the mysterious island Kong calls home.

'Kong: Skull Island' Director Reveals King Kong's New Size

Warner Bros. showed up big for this year's CineEurope convention in Barcelona. On the first day alone, they revealed a megaton of news for their future film franchises, including everything from Harry Potter to the DC superhero line-up. That said, the big news for us was director Jordan Vogt-Roberts talking about King Kong's height in an extended preview for the upcoming 'Kong: Skull Island.'

He's quoted as saying, "This is going to be the biggest Kong there's ever been. Not 10 foot or 30 foot, but a 100-foot ape."

There was also some new footage shown in the preview, but no one has yet to detail what that included. Either way, the director confirming Kong's size (even if we've assumed this for awhile) is a huge reveal for the reboot. This solves the problem of the new Kong being able to stand toe to toe with Legendary's Godzilla, even if he's still going to be quite a bit shorter.

The news also brings up a slew of new questions in regards to the new Skull Island film. Why would Kong even care about humans when he's that big? How will the protagonists hope to fight off the giant ape, or even escape him in the dense jungle? What will Kong fight in the film that equals that kind of power?

I can't wait for the answers to these questions and more. In the meantime, we'll just wait patiently for the first trailer.

Gareth Edwards No Longer Directing 'Godzilla 2,' Who Will Take His Place?

'Godzilla 2' has lost its director according to Deadline Hollywood. Gareth Edwards claims that he is departing the American franchise he helped reboot in 2014 so that he can go back to working on smaller projects. The split with Warner Bros. is supposedly on good terms and the agreement was settled before the decision to push back the film for March 22, 2019. Max Borenstein wrote the latest version of the screenplay and WB is already searching for a director to replace Edwards.

This makes sense as the director is just finishing up 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' and the idea of rushing right into pre-production on another shared-universe tentpole film probably seemed incredibly daunting.

The big question is who will they get to replace him? Edwards had an amazing visual style when it came to shooting building-sized action, but rubbed fans the wrong way with his slow creature reveals and "less is more" approach with Godzilla himself. I'd love to see someone come in and be confident enough with the monsters to let them lead the story and action beats. Legendary and WB now have the rights to Rodan, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and several other Toho classic kaiju, so we should have a proper "versus" film with the sequel.

I really want to see some discussion from our audience on who should take over the reigns. My vote? Matt Reeves. He's shown that he can handle amazing giant monster action with 2008's 'Cloverfield,' while not letting the human characters in that film fall into generic and bland background caricatures. I also truly believe his work in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was stunning and that he gave real life to fictional creatures with independent personalities and instincts.

Who would you have step up to the plate?

'Pacific Rim 2' Drifts With 'Jurassic World' And 'Kong: Skull Island' Screenwriter Derek Connolly

After the departure of Guillermo del Toro as director and the hiring of Stephen DeKnight to take his place, fans have been hanging on every new piece of news regarding the upcoming sequel to 2013's cult favorite monster mash. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is exclusively announcing that 'Pacific Rim 2' has found a new screenwriter.

Derek Connolly has been hired to take over the reigns from previous draft's writers del Toro himself, Zak Penn, and John Spaihts. He is mostly known for his work as a co-writer on 'Jurassic World' along with director Colin Treverrow and has apparently impressed Legendary with his work on 'Kong: Skull Island' as well. He got his break in the industry co-writing Treverrow's first film 'Safety Not Guarenteed,' and has recently worked on 'Jurassic World 2' and a sci-fi drama for Dreamworks titled 'Intelligent Life.'

Plot details for the 'Pacific Rim' follow-up are scarce, but rumor is that it will take place years after the original with the giant pilot-controlled mechs called Jaegers being much more commonplace. Similar to the flashback scenes in the first film when they first started successfully pushing back the Kaiju threat. It is unclear whether this newly hired scribe is being brought in for revisions or a page one rewrite.

Connolly is definitely making a name for himself in the giant monster genre, and I'm personally looking forward to pretty much every film he's been a part of at this point. Hopefully the studio's confidence in him is proof that he's knocking it out of the park.