A Canceled Godzilla Movie Was Almost Helmed By A Legendary Slasher Director

Ishiro Honda’s original “Gojira” was released in Japan in 1954, and helped popularize a genre of giant monster movies that remained ascendant for seven decades. Godzilla movies are still being made to this day, with Toho’s most recent film, “Godzilla Minus One” coming out in 2023, and Legendary’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” hitting in 2024. Godzilla has been part of the cinematic landscape for so long, his popularity has risen and fallen and risen again. There have been multiple “finales” in the Godzilla series, and just as many reboots. He’s more pliable and more prone to restarts than James Bond. 

From 1954 until 1975, Godzilla more or less followed a single continuity, and the 15 films released during this period are said to be of the Showa era. From 1975 to 1983, there would be no theatrical Godzilla movies, with the series rebooting in 1984 with the release of Koji Hashimoto’s “The Return of Godzilla,” a direct sequel to the 1954 original that ignored all 14 sequels. The seven films released from 1984 to 1995 are said to be part of the Heisei era. 

Toho has always been protective of Godzilla, and will only license their favorite monster under specific circumstances. It was vital that if another company were to make a Godzilla film, it be a high-profile film with a proper budget and impressive production values. Back in 1983, it seems that American filmmaker Steve Miner had struck a co-financing deal with Toho to make his own Godzilla movie. Miner, in 1983, was best known as a slasher director, having made “Friday the 13th Part II” and “Friday the 13th Part III.” 

Miner’s journey developing his own Godzilla movie, to be called “Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 3-D,” is detailed in Steve Ryfle’s book “Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of The Big G.”

The story goes that Miner was a huge Godzilla fan, and worked on his own treatment for what would be the first American-produced Godzilla movie. He showed his treatment to the higher-ups and Toho and they, surprisingly, agreed to co-finance it. Miner’s only job was to put together a script and get an American studio to agree to finance the film the rest of the way. 

The screenplay was the easy part. Miner hired Fred Dekker to write the screenplay. Dekker’s name is well known to genre fans, as he would go on to write “Night of the Creeps,” “The Monster Squad,” and “RoboCop 3.” Miner asked Dekker to write “Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 3-D” specifically because he wasn’t a Godzilla fan; Miner needed someone who would pay closer attention to story and structure than to fan service. Dekker agreed, and came up with a traditional type of Godzilla story, rebooting the franchise afresh. 

Of the early days of the project, Miner said: 

“I had always been a fan since I was a kid. Once seeing it as an adult, I realized that this could be remade as a good movie. My original idea was to do it in 3D. I had just done ‘Friday the 13th’ in 3D, and wanted to do a good movie in 3D, and I thought the miniatures would lend themselves to doing good 3D effects. So it was a combination of trying to do a really good monster movie and doing it in 3D. I had to get the rights, so I went to Japan and made a deal with the Toho people to co-finance the development of the project, myself and Toho.” 

Everything was set. 

In the screenplay, a passing meteor sparks an automated nuclear strike, leading to an explosion in the South Pacific. The bomb seems to awaken a long-dormant undersea monster — Godzilla — which, throughout the film, gradually makes landfall in the United States. The monster, the human characters later learn, is looking for his dead baby, salvaged from the ocean by the military. The climax took place on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. 

Dekker was said to model his screenplay less on Godzilla movies and more on the then-new rise of high-end adventure films like Steven Spielberg was making at the time. Dekker, in “Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star,” was quoted as saying he wanted this film to feel like a James Bond film; something slick and exciting, not reliant on mere monster mayhem. He specifically said he didn’t want his film to be “cheesy.” Miner reportedly approached Powers Boothe about appearing in the film, as well as a very young Demi Moore, then a rising star best known for the monster movie “Parasite.” Miner even commissioned a storyboard for “Monsters in 3-D,” and hired several notable artists to map out his film, and to design a new version of Godzilla. David W. Allen was to provide stop-motion effects for Godzilla, and Rick Baker was hired (but did no work) on an animatronic Godzilla head. 

The project was, however, canceled when Miner wasn’t able to find an American studio willing to spend the millions required to make it. The budget was to be a then-huge $30 million, and Miner hadn’t yet proven he could wield such a budget. Then Toho began working on their 1984 film “The Return of Godzilla,” and interest shifted. The film simply fell through. 

Miner, luckily, continued to make interesting horror movies. He moved on to “House,” then the excellent “Warlock,” the Michael Myers film “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” and the giant gator flick “Lake Placid.” Perhaps someone would let him make a Godzilla film now.