"Godzilla Minus Zero" Getting Worldwide IMAX Release

For those who are Godzilla fans as well as also being IMAX fans, a big treat is coming this fall.

Godzilla Minus Zero will be seeing a worldwide IMAX release.

According to JoBlo: 

One of the biggest surprises in recent years was the impact Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One made worldwide. I think it was tempting for non-Godzilla devotees to write it off as just another Godzilla movie (although the faithful would wonder what exactly is wrong with that), but it ended up being perhaps the greatest installment of the franchise to date. It earned critical raves (with even Steven Spielberg hailing it), and the box office was outstanding, grossing a huge $57 million in North America. It also won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, beating out movies with budgets that eclipsed it by hundreds of millions. As such, the sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero, is a major event.

Befitting how anticipated the movie is, word leaked today that Toho and their North American subsidiary, GKIDS, are giving the film a global IMAX release. Godzilla Minus One came out on IMAX screens in Japan and eventually played a limited run in North America in that format, but it looks like it will be getting a more robust IMAX release right off the bat. It hits North American theaters on November 6th, which is only three days after its Japanese release.

To read more, go here. 

"Godzilla Minus One" Nearly Missed Its Shot At An Oscar

Above, the Godzilla statue at the main entrance to Toho Studios outside of Tokyo. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Here's something interesting.

Toho Co., Ltd. President Hiroyasu Matsuoka did not want to submit Godzilla Minus One for Academy Awards consideration for special effects at first.

He later changed his mind when he learned about something of the nomination process. He's now glad he changed his mind.

Comicbook.com posted an article about this tidbit.

It begins with:

It may have taken 70 years, but at last, Godzilla has taken on the Academy Awards and won. Over the weekend, fans watched as Godzilla Minus One took home a well-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The award marks a first for the Godzilla IP as the kaiju has never been honored by The Academy Awards before. And in a recent interview, the president of Toho Company admits he almost kept Godzilla Minus One from the awards entirely.

The confession comes from Nikkei as Hiroyasu Matsuoka sat down to chat about Godzilla Minus One. It was there the president of Toho Company admitted he did not want to even submit the movie for nomination to the Oscars.

"Let's not enter a nomination application for Best Visual Effects, it's just not possible. The cost of visual effects for Godzilla Minus One is an order of magnitude different from that of a Hollywood blockbuster. I didn't think it was even possible," he shared.

To read the full article, go here. 

The Win of "Godzilla Minus One"

 

"Congratulations to Coach Yamato and all the white team 🎉

Very happy to see 70 years.

I'm sure my sister and dad are surprised.

You're saying, "See you Godzilla."" - Sonoe Nakajima, daughter of suit-actor Haruo Nakajima.*

It took 70 years, but Godzilla finally got some respect in special effects.

The win of Godzilla Minus One for Best Special Effects last night at the Academy Awards had many Godzilla fans in tears of joy when the winner was announced. Fans were just as pleased when the movie was even nominated, but the win was much more than the icing on the cake. 

Godzilla movies from Toho were often laughed at, although entertaining, during the man-in-the-suit with miniatures years. Toho shifted gears and joined the U.S. in using CGI. That has paid off in spades as last night's Academy Awards has shown.

Although Toho's Godzilla is now being animated with computers, I was even more impressed with the recreations of Tokyo of the 1940s. Apparently, Academy members agreed. Taken as a whole, the special effects were astounding considering the $15 million total movie budget and only 35 members on the special effects team.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

The King of Monsters finally has his share of Oscars glory.

In an ironic triumph of small over large, Japanese monster movie sensation Godzilla Minus One — which was made for only about $15 million — beat out four big-budget Hollywood tentpoles to win the best visual effects category. It’s the first time in decades that a non-U.S. studio film has won the category. Despite its deep influence on the history of visual effects in cinema, this year was the first time in the Godzilla franchise’s seven-decade history that it was nominated for an Oscar.

Godzilla Minus One was written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who also headed up the film’s VFX team, which included Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima. The team is now Japan’s first-ever winner of the best visual effects Oscar. In another rarity, a director winning the category has only occurred once before — Stanley Kubrick’s win in 1969 for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Godzilla Minus One has been a critical and commercial sensation, earning $56.4 million in the U.S. and Canada to become the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time. Only two international live-action movies — fellow Oscar winners Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Life Is Beautiful —  earned more in North America.

Many fans exclaimed, "I never thought I would live to see this day." I would have to agree, especially since I am the same age as Godzilla since we both arrived on the scene in 1954.

To read more, go here.

*I think Sonoe Nakajima meant Coach Yamazaki and the translation goofed it up.

"Godzilla Minus One" Becomes First Godzilla Film Ever Nominated For An Oscar

Finally, after decades of derision of Japanese special effects, Toho Co., Ltd.'s special effects department is getting some respect from Hollywood.

Godzilla Minus One has been nominated for Best Special Effects by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.

Paste Magazine reported:

Chalk up another city destroyed, and another major accomplishment for the King of the Monsters: For the first time in his 70-year history, Godzilla can claim to be an Academy Award nominee. As part of the newly announced nominations for the 2024 Oscars ceremony, the critically acclaimed Godzilla Minus One has been given a nod that no other Godzilla film has ever received, with a nomination in the Best Visual Effects category. The listed nominees for the film are Takashi Yamakazi, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima. It will be up against some difficult competition in the category, in the form of The Creator, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Napoleon and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

Regardless, this is a pretty big moment for the Godzilla fandom, accustomed as they are to the series receiving popular adulation over the decades but little critical evaluation, other than belated admiration for the 1954 original from director Ishirō Honda. It is perhaps fitting that Godzilla Minus One take up the torch for the series’ prestige going forward, considering that of all the many Gojira sequels, it feels the most like a direct continuation of Honda’s film, taking place in a devastated postwar Japan where the appearance of Godzilla forces the population to come together in the spirit of neighborly camaraderie. The film has been universally acclaimed, and places extremely highly in our own ranking of the entire Godzilla film series to date.

To read more, go here. 

Win or lose, Congratulations, Toho!