Highlights From The ‘Godzilla’ 70th Anniversary Panel At New York Comic Con
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Godzilla is an iconic character and has been a big part of film history. There have been countless movies, and it has only grown in popularity in the West. So it makes sense that New York Comic Con this year would honor one of the most iconic Kaiju by having a panel for its 70th anniversary. The panel featured Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki, who was a wonderful panelist.
The first question asked was if he had any memories from the Oscars. He admits that he had a 50/50 chance of winning, so he didn’t write an acceptance speech at first. The day before, however, he changed his mind and wrote something up just in case. He didn’t go all in and kept it casual, just in case he didn’t end up winning. He ended up sending it to someone to help with translation and make it more clean. To his surprise, the movie won the much-deserved award, and when it was time for him to make his speech, he couldn’t read his own writing.
Yamazaki took on various roles in the filmmaking process. He was the director, writer, and visual effects supervisor. Out of all the roles he did for the movie, he was asked about what part of his contribution was the most enjoyable. He says that he doesn’t see them as different disciples and that it’s all one process when creating the film. He jokes that when he was directing, he would look at the footage that was filmed and would think, “Oh, who wrote this thing?” and would do the same when it came to viewing the VFX work in post.
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Image Source: CultureSlate
He went on many press tours during the film's release, and so during the panel, he was asked if there was a question that he really hoped he would get asked during these press tours. He likes to talk about his cat and has been told that Godzilla, in the film, would remind people of their cats, which is quite convenient, as Yamazaki modeled Godzilla off of his own cats. When Godzilla is trying to swipe down the plane during the last fight of the movie, it reminds him of what it looks like when he plays with his cats. He spoke to Adam Wingard, the director of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, where Wingard said when Godzilla is sleeping in the coliseum, that it reminded him of his own cat. Yamazaki joked and said, “Oh, so you’re a cat guy too?”. If you wanna direct Godzilla, you have to first own a cat.
Godzilla Minus One is being re-released in theaters for Godzilla’s 70th birthday. This comes with a new poster to promote the film. Yamazaki helped design this poster. He made some suggestions and began to doodle. He modeled his design after the US IMAX poster but wanted to change the scaling to make it a bit more accurate to Godzilla’s size. He wanted to show the correct scale between Godzilla and the battleship but realized to give it that oomph; he had to make Godzilla about twice his size. He understands what the original poster creators went through.
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The re-release comes with new footage, including an interview with Yamazaki. The footage was shown during the panel, and we got to see the behind-the-scenes of how the movie was made. They didn’t have a lot of money and had to cut costs where they could, so some people had to do multiple roles. Their VFX tech is quite old, but the crew was very excited and passionate about making this film. He jokes about how he wishes he had more money.
Takashi Yamazaki was wonderful, and I learned so much during the panel. It was truly an honor to see him in person. I also had the privilege to meet him during his very limited private autographing session, something that I will cherish forever.
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