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In response to
"crap...that is a fantastic bit of trivia. thanks. -- nm"
by
Mel Profit
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yep he was attached to it in 1994 and started work on it, built sets and what not and Tristar balked at the price...1996...Twister....
Posted by
Remlik (aka remlik)
Jan 27 '09, 21:10
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TriStar Pictures secured rights from Toho to produce an American Godzilla film in 1992. One of the key players in this arrangement was Henry G. Saperstein, who had brought several Godzilla films to America with his United Productions of America. TriStar originally hoped to have the film released in 1994. However, it was not until May 1993 that Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott were asked to write a screenplay. The script was completed in November, but TriStar had yet to select a director for the film.
In July 1994, well after the originally announced release date, TriStar tapped Jan de Bont to direct the film. de Bont confessed to liking the older Godzilla films, although he stated that many of the later ones with their monster free-for-alls were a bit silly. Although he intended to keep humor in the picture, de Bont also pledged to deliver stunning effects and preserve the indomitable spirit of the Japanese Godzilla films. de Bont assembled a team and had Rossio and Elliott rework the script to make it more to his liking. The revised script was ready in December 1994[1].
Godzilla was to look like his traditional Japanese counterpart with his atomic ray. This Godzilla was created by an ancient alien race to protect the Earth from a giant shape-shifting alien monster, the Gryphon (originally planned to be King Ghidorah). The two behemoths finally met in New York City, taking out most of Manhattan in the fight.
After Industrial Light and Magic turned down working on the Godzilla project, in October 1994 it was announced that Stan Winston's Digital Domain would be doing the effects work for Godzilla, with a reported budget of around $50 million. The entire film was estimated to cost around $120 million. de Bont sent crews to construct a Japanese fishing village on the Oregon coast, filming Godzilla's attack on the Kuril Islands as the backbone for a teaser trailer. The sets were built, but filming did not occur. Sony, TriStar's parent company, panicked when they saw the massive price tag being affixed to de Bont's Godzilla project. In late December 1994, TriStar and Jan de Bont parted company after the director refused to accept the studio's new budget restrictions. Although the script was rewritten again, this time by Don Macpherson in May 1995, the project was to all intents, dead. TriStar began to court Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the team who had just reaped huge profits with Independence Day in 1996. By May 1997, Devlin and Emmerich officially had the job. They agreed to bring the movie in for about half of what de Bont wanted, $65 million.
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