Tomoyuki vs. Yoshimitsu

With at least some small percentage of the internet abuzz over Cloverfield - who knew audiences were so hungry for a ground-level giant-monster flick? - let's check in with the latest on our good friend Gojira.

An effort has been underway to bring Godzilla to a deserving format. To that end, Godzilla 3-D (fka Godzilla 3-D To The Max [yes, really], fka Godzilla vs. Deathla), has been in the planning stages since at least 2005. It's designed for IMAX 3-D, and at 40-45 minutes, might qualify more as a novelty than a true entry into the Godzilla series. The exciting part, though, comes with the details. Deathla is described as a chlorophyll-consuming monster (read: environmental message), and the writer (and according to some sources, co-director) is Yoshimitsu Banno, whose first film work was as assistant director to Akira Kurosawa on several major works (Macbeth, The Lower Depths, Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep Well). Aside from the little-seen (7 votes on IMDb) cartoon Ninja the Wonder Boy, this would mark Banno's first directorial effort since 1971, when he gave us the wooly 'n wonderful anti-pollution tale Godzilla vs. Hedorah, or Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. Banno wanted to make a sequel immediately after, but producer Tomoyuki Tanaka - hospitalized during the filming - felt Banno's unorthodox flick had ruined the franchise. Banno would never make another film for Toho or, in fact, another feature at all until Ninja, fourteen years later.

In 2005, Toho gave Banno permission to make the film, but wouldn't fund it; since then, he's been seeking alternative investors. It's tentatively on track for a start date of February 2008.