RIP: Godzilla's next film will be his last, ending a 50-year series of 28 movies.

BBC On Line ^ | Wednesday, 3 March, 2004 | staff writer

[yankeedame]

Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 March, 2004, 14:39 GMT

Final battle looms for Godzilla

Japanese cinema favourite Godzilla's next film appearance will be his last, ending a 50-year series of 28 movies. The giant lizard will star in Final Wars this December - ending a movie franchise that has attracted almost 100 million fans in Japan alone since 1954.

In that time, he has become an icon of Japanese culture and a global star.

But he may return if a "new generation of directors emerge or a brand new film-making method is found to create a whole new world", the film studio said.

The new film "will compile the fruits of 50 years' work and put an end to the series", according to Yukihiko Mochida, spokesman for the Toho studio.

Topical

Final Wars will feature 10 monsters from past Godzilla adventures.

They will include the new, stronger Monster X and will go on the rampage in New York, Shanghai, Sydney and Paris.

Godzilla has taken breaks from his big screen roles twice previously - once in 1975 when the popularity of television saw the number of cinema-goers fall, and once again in 1995.

The green monster was resurrected as a computer-generated creature in a Hollywood blockbuster five years ago but the $120m (£65.5m) film was a flop.

The first Godzilla film featured the lizard emerging out of the sea after being awakened by a US atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in 1954.

Up to 1,000 people per day flocked to see an exhibition on the character in Tokyo in 2002 - double the number that usually went to the Japanese museum where it was held.

(all photos mine -- YD

[Jonah Hex]

You're collect... I mean, correct. The fairies would sing out for Mothra to save the world from King Ghidora out of the goodness of his heart, while Godzilla kicked Ghidora's butt just because he felt cranky and not about to take any illegal alien crap from any three-headed freak.

Hmmm... I wonder if we could convince Bruce Campbell to play Godzilla.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

From the fine folks of Blue Oyster Cult...

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga Ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!

Oh no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men
Godzilla!

[yankeedame]

LOL!!! You're post belongs in some kind of archive somewhere. You know, to be taken out and read every year about this time.

[yankeedame]

I think you've got at least another 28 movies in you.

Just avoid the porn industry
=================

...and commericals, especially those late night "informericals". Those and supper clubs.

[Jonah Hex]

I mean, can you imagine Godzilla doing an infomercial for ThighMaster(tm)?

(shudder)

[mewzilla]

Bummer.

[chronotrigger]

I'll miss the days when godzilla could freely roam around blowing up plastic tanks and weird looking laser trucks. Alas, they couldn't kill him with bottle rockets and cigarette smoke, but they did kill him with the stroke of a pen. Farewell.

[StoneColdGOP]

NOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I cried at the end of "Godzilla 1985" when I thought he'd really had it. I have a feeling this won't really be his end.

I wonder which 10 monsters they bring back? Some of them were pretty lame. I'll hope for Rodan, Mothra and Gigan at least.

[Godzilla]

Remember, when the bills are due, you can't keep a good monster down.

[CougarGA7]

NOOOOOO!

Good luck to you Godzilla in your upcoming retirement. (Shakes hands and walks away)

[PJ-Comix]

I HATED the USA remake of Godzilla of a few years ago. What the producers failed to realize was that the appeal of Godzilla was the CHINTZY special effects such as the tacky costumes and the slo-mo jumping. They should have remade it as a campy comedy but they tried to do it seriously which is why it bombed.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Another victem of the reality shows. Poor Godzilla.

[StoneColdGOP]

That wasn't Godzilla. That was my iguana.

[yankeedame]

Ultraman would get his @ss kicked. He can only stay in Earth's atmosphere for a few minutes at a time, remember?

Yeah? Well, what about the Prince of Space?

[mewzilla]

On him, thunder thighs look good :)

[yankeedame]

I HATED the USA remake of Godzilla of a few years ago. What the producers failed to realize was that the appeal of Godzilla was the CHINTZY special effects such as the tacky costumes and the slo-mo jumping...

Oh, I know what you mean! It's like when they tried to "sex-up" Speed Racer. A cruel mockery, I tell you, a cruel mockery! Why, oh why, are they always trying to improve upon perfection?

[radiohead]

We were just looking at my son's Godzilla toys the other day during our annual clean-out-your-closet-a-thon. He was a big Godzilla fan as a kid.

One day, when he was about 3, I took him w/me to campus and there was a Chinese guy standing outside the doorway. As 3 year olds are wont, he said quite loudly and excitedly, "Look mommie, it's one of those people from Godzilla!"

(Yes, I know Godzilla is a Japanese franchise and that Chinese and Japanese are different. The kid was 3.)

[G L Tirebiter]

Raymond Burr was a sodomite.FYI

LoL...I hear that Godzilla was known to swing both ways. And he had a thing for restricitve rubber outfits.

[StoneColdGOP]

Raymond Burr was a sodomite.FYI

Who cares? Am I supposed to stop watching "Perry Mason"?

[Bella_Bru]

Who cares? Am I supposed to stop watching "Perry Mason"?

Yes. And if you find out that Kraft foods might employee someone gay, you must boycott them. Come now, you know their logic.