Get ready America, because Godzilla has taken another step towards theaters.
Hit Fix and drew McWeeny is reporting that the new US-produced adaptation of the classic Japanese giant monster franchise has been given a start date by Warner Brothers and that cameras will start rolling in Vancouver in March. Additionally, producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee have left the project.
The greenlight reportedly comes in the wake of a presentation director Gareth Edwards gave studio brass that walked them through exactly what his film would be. (Presumably this would have cntained some of the footage that Edwards screened at Comic Con last summer, a still of which showed up online recently.) Hit Fix speculates that Lin and Lee’s departure is the result of their own visions for the film differing with Edwards and the studio making sure that “everyone onboard the picture shares that same vision.”
Don’t be too upset for Line and Lee however, as they have a number of projects on their development slate right. Lin is currently a producer on the upcoming Lego film and the studio’s Sherlock Holmes franchise as well as overseeing work on the upcoming Justice League comic book adaptation, a film adaptation of Stephen King’s It and an adaptation of the anime series Death Note. In addition to working with Lin on It and Death Note, Lee is also involved with Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake, a Poltergeist redo, a sequel to last year’s The Woman In Black and an English-language version of the controversial Japanese film Battle Royale.
Godzilla is currently being targeted for a 2014 release.
