Frank Darabont comments on his Godzilla script

Frank Darabont was recently drafted in to Gareth Edwards' forthcoming Godzilla reboot, and the writer/director has been talking about the work he's done on the film's new script.

"What I found very interesting about Godzilla is that he started off definitely as a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki," explains Darabont to io9 . "And some of the atom bomb testing we were doing in the South Pacific in the subsequent years.

"The giant terrifying force of nature that comes and stomps the shit out of your city, that was Godzilla. Filtered through the very fanciful imaginations of the Japanese perception. And then he became Clifford the Big Red Dog in the subsequent films. He became the mascot of Japan, he became the protector of Japan… I never really quite understood, the shift.

"What we’re trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy," he continues. "We’re kind of taking a cool new look at it. But with a lot of tradition in the first film. We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it.

"It’s not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It’s different, it’s a different set of circumstances than you’re used to seeing. And that’s tremendously exciting as a writer when you’re asked to do something else."

Godzilla opens in the UK on 16 May 2014.

George Wales

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

Latest in Horror Movies
Lea Myren as Elvira in The Ugly Stepsister
Cinderella body horror movie that made viewers sick gets release date, and it’s coming very soon
Indy in Ben Leonberg's haunted house horror Good Boy
Good Boy, a new scary movie told from a dog's POV, is being called "one of the best horror films of the year"
Cujo
Netflix is making a brand new adaptation of Cujo, the infamous Stephen King book about a killer dog
Drop
New horror movie starring White Lotus and Yellowstone actors gets a great Rotten Tomatoes score as early reactions call it the "perfect date night movie"
Clown in a Cornfield
First reactions to new clown horror movie say the slasher is giving Terrifier a run for its money
The House of the Dead first look 'Test Subjects'
Resident Evil director offers update on his horror movie adaptation of Until Dawn-sounding video game from over 20 years ago: "It's going to be very, very scary"
Latest in News
Gemma Chan in Eternals
Eternals star Gemma Chan is hopeful she'll return to the MCU someday: "There's unfinished business there"
two aliens firing miniguns
4 years after shutting down, this dead sci-fi MMO is being brought back to life, but there's no word on its canceled TV show tie-in
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix wants Daniel Craig to join the cast of Greta Gerwig's Narnia movie – but it's not certain if he'll take it
The Last of Us
The Last of Us season 2 trailer breaks HBO viewing records, becoming the network's most-watched trailer
Nicole Kidman in The Perfect Couple
Nicole Kidman’s hit Netflix show could be returning for another season, but she won’t be coming back
Matt LeBlanc as Joey in Friends
21 years later, the Friends spin-off nobody asked for is streaming for free