Up from the depths, thirty stories high, breathes fire, his head in the sky... Here's our_first glimpse of what Legendary Pictures and Warners are planning for their new IMAX 3D **Godzilla_.
Actually he's not breathing fire, but has "atomic breath" according to the source. He's also looking far more like his original upright bipedal Toho self than in his last incarnation, which attacked us in 1998 courtesy of Roland Emmerich. And that "atomic" also suggests an updated return to some of the preoccupations of the Hiroshima-anguished 1954 original. Maybe. Are we reaching?
"Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see," Legendary honcho Thomas Tull told THR a few months ago. "We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop culturally relevant for as long as it has." Big words. Big footprints to follow. Slight feeling that we already had a fantastic new Godzilla a couple of years ago in Cloverfield, and that the giant lizard's authority may be seriously undermined if Tim Burton's **Monsterpocalypse goes ahead at around the same time.
How will this compare? If all goes to plan, we'll find out in summer 2012.