7
Thursday, April 1, 2021
GO! magazine — A&E in Northeast Oregon
‘ G odzilla vs. K ong’ monster smackdown
— the catharsis we need right now?
Gary Thompson
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS) — A year ago around this
time, fans of the MonsterVerse
were getting psyched for “Godzilla
vs. Kong,” reviving an age-old
movie debate: When Kong fi ghts
Godzilla, who wins?
The correct response, by the way,
is “Hollywood,” but in 2020 the
answer was the global COVID-19
pandemic, which managed to do
what Monster Zero, Mechagodzilla
and a dozen other monsters
couldn’t do — pin them both to the
mat for a year.
The movie has been held in
suspended animation since last
March, when director Adam Wing-
ard fi nished his director’s cut, and
is now slated to arrive in theaters
and stream on HBO Max Wednes-
day, March 31.
It’s pegged by analysts to be
the fi rst movie to post a $20 mil-
lion opening weekend since the
pandemic began, thus reaffi rming
America’s blockbuster habit.
The big “GvK” release ends a
long 12 months for Wingard, who
had just started showing that fi rst
cut to enthusiastic audiences as
he prepared to make fi nal trims
and refi ne special effects. He and
Warner Bros. were ramping up for
a global November 2020 release
when the virus hit and movie the-
aters closed the world over.
Wingard, a veteran of modestly
budgeted horror (“You’re Next,”
“The Guest,” “Blair Witch”), was
making his leap to the movie big
leagues and found himself in that
state of fl ux, confusion and dread
that so many of us remember from
those early COVID days.
“It was March 13 or 14 or some-
thing like that when we all got
sent home from the offi ce. I’ll never
forget that week. The [production
company] was sending out these
just-in-case protocols about work-
ing remotely, and I remember just
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures/TNS
Godzilla battles Kong in “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which arrives on big
and small screens March 31.
dismissing it, thinking, there’s no
way. This can’t be that serious. At
that point, we just didn’t believe it
would turn out the way it did,” he
said.
That denial quickly gave way to
reality. Everything just stopped,
and Wingard was suddenly the
captain of a massive but aban-
doned ship.
“I was one of the last ones there,
with my editor. But even then, we
thought, 100%, we’ll be back in the
offi ce in two weeks. It felt like that,”
he said.
Wrong again. He joined the
rest of the world in conceding the
severity of the pandemic, and then
faced the disorienting reality that
his movie was in an unprecedented
kind of limbo. Godzilla, Kong,
James Bond, Black Widow — they
were all in the same purgatory.
As spring turned to summer, the-
aters remained closed and movies
were shelved, “GvK” until 2021.
“This is my biggest movie to
date, a massive opportunity for my
career, fi nancially, professionally,
all those kinds of things,” Wingard
said.
“We were originally supposed to
come out in November 2020, and
as that date approached you could
see it wasn’t going to happen. I was
like, ‘Oh no. There’s no way.’ I’m
beginning to realize: We can’t do
this at all.”
Still, Wingard had tested the
movie, knew he had something that
audiences liked, and was waiting
for the day he could show it on the
big screen. Then, more bad news.
Warner Bros. announced in De-
cember that all of its 2021 slate of
fi lms would be released simultane-
key fi ghting on an aircraft carrier
movie,” Wingard says, but he sees it
as a release valve.
“We’ve been beating each other
up for so long. I hope that it’s going
to be like, ‘Let’s step back and get
a bowl of popcorn and let these
monsters do it for us.’”
Though Wingard is of course not
going to reveal who wins the Kong/
Godzilla smackdown, he doesn’t
mind saying that Kong gets most of
the screen time here, with a subplot
that has him bonded with a young
girl (played by 8-year-old actor
Kaylee Hottle) who has a special
ability to communicate with him.
Wingard said this honors
the traditional “alchemy” of the
MonsterVerse, wherein charac-
ters like Kong and Godzilla have
always captured the imaginations
of children. Hottle is taken by
scientists (Rebecca Hall, Alexander
Skarsgard) on a mission to fi nd
the source of the so-called Titan
monsters, shadowed by amateur
sleuths Millie Bobby Brown, Brian
Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison.
Her Kong-whisperer relation-
ship with the monster, he said, also
“updates” the character of Kong,
who in the past has made gorilla
goo-goo eyes at Fay Wray, Jessica
Lange and Naomi Watts.
Wingard is now ready to start
work on a sequel to the ’90s sci-fi /
action hit “Face/Off,” and intends
to bring John Travolta and Nicolas
Cage back to reprise their roles.
ously in theaters and for stream-
ing on HBO Max.
He felt strongly that his movie
is “one that is meant to be seen
on the biggest screens. These are
the biggest monsters in the world.
They’re sharing the screen. You
gotta see it in IMAX. And here I
am being told I’m doing this hybrid
streaming thing. I felt like all the
hope just got sucked out of me,” he
said.
His mood changed in January
when MonsterVerse fans got a
peek at the trailer — Kong and
Godzilla, surfi ng on an aircraft
carrier, Kong punching Godzilla in
the face.
“I’m watching YouTube videos of
everybody fi lming their reactions to
it, and being so stoked, even people
who were watching it on their
phones,” Wingard recalled.
He’d still prefer that people see
it on the biggest screen when they
safely can, but the experience of
watching fan reactions made him
less of a platform snob.
“I learned a lesson,” he said,
remembering that “half of my
favorite fi lms I’ve never seen in
a theater, because they came out
before I was born.”
However fans watch “GvK,” he’s
hoping they’ll fi nd it “cathartic”
after the extreme divisiveness of
the last year.
“I am in no way trying to build
up the importance of my giant
radioactive lizard and giant mon-
Specializing in
HOMETOWN
Real Estate
Keisha Anderson
Real Estate Agent
541.910.8827
www.johnjhoward.com
Mobile
App
l
Putting YOU in contro
of your experience!
Our specialists will...
LEARN your needs and goals, LISTEN to your concerns,
& SENSITIVELY provide you COMPASSIONATE CARE.
GoHOSPICE.com
(541) 624-5800