 Hey, this is Brian Bishop with The Verge and I am here with the director of the new Godzilla, Gareth Edwards. Gareth, thanks for sitting down with us. Where is he? I want to meet him. He's over there. It still hasn't hit me. Like when people say that you go, oh yeah, I guess we did. I guess we did the film. Yeah, well we're here at South by Southwest. Last night you debuted a new clip from the movie where you just like screw up and jack up Hawaii all over the place. It looked awesome. Thank you. Can you talk, I mean there's some clips from that that have been in the most recent trailer. Can you talk a little bit about what that sequence was and what it was about? Yeah, I mean I guess it's fair to say that it's the big reveal of Godzilla. I knew when he saw a glimpse it was actually like twice as long but we couldn't show all of it last night. And so I felt like in the film he needed a really good introduction. I didn't just want to throw it away. So I spent like, there's a ten minute piece that builds up to the first proper reveal of him in the movie. And it's one of my favorite parts of the film. I love the suspense. I love, in a weird way when you do a film like this, there's like an unwritten agreement with the audience that they want to be teased and they want to be pulled in slowly. And this is kind of like what I'd call cinematic foreplay that goes on before the climax. And I think that's as much fun as the big fight sequences and things. Definitely. And I love there's that one shot where it's in the trailer where he kind of like goes underneath the ship. It has shades of jaws and just feels like that build before the tidal wave is great. And then the dog thing happens but I'm not going to talk about that because people will be sad. Yeah, we don't want to talk about the dog. So about the creature design. It was the big reveal. Like there was, you're very true to the 1954 original but also it feels like a real creature, like the folds of skin around his face. How did you, when you set it up to do this, how do you say we're going to go and bring all the different elements together that people know about the character? Yeah, I mean the design of Godzilla was predominantly worked on by Weta Workshop in New Zealand. And I was in the UK at the time so we did everything via Skype. And so I'd be up till like 4 or 5 AM and they would share their desktop with my desktop so I could sort of watch them work and we would chat. And the simple way to approach it was, I mean they did hundreds of designs but we had this 3D model of Godzilla and an artist there called Andrew Baker was kind of in charge of pushing and pulling all the points and sculpting this thing. And we basically said to ourselves like we would turn it into a silhouette. So instead of seeing it all like a grey clay thing it would be just pure black on white and because it's such an iconic silhouette and in our film you see it as a silhouette you know a lot so we wanted to get that right. And so basically we had this model and we turned the silhouette until we saw it doesn't look right let's push and pull that, turn it a bit, now we've ruined this bit. And it's like a Rubik's cube, like you get one side right and you look, ah I've ruined the other side now. And our goal was to do this until we could rotate it 360 degrees and not want to change anything. And I thought that would take a few days and it took months and I am very hard on myself. I don't like often whatever I do I think it could always be better. And I look at that sculpture that we have, I've got a copy in my office and I have no regrets at all. I kind of go okay he's cool. I'm really pleased with what we did there. Awesome and what about you know you've teased this before other creatures being in the movie. Was it the same kind of process and how did that, obviously monsters there are many, many creatures in that film. Yeah I mean I think it's out there now that there is maybe something else in the film obviously. Possibly. Possibly. And we wanted to do something unique. Trying to find a unique monster in this day and age. One of the designers summed it up well and said it's like trying to find the last parking space at Disney World or something. It's like so many monsters have been done in so many films. Like trying to come up with something that feels different is really hard. And we spent, I mean we must have spent over a year or so designing whatever it is. And we basically looked at all our favorite monsters from a T-Rex to a H.R. Guy Goes Alien to Starship Troopers to Jaws to King Kong. And what is it about each one that makes them like so iconic. And then tried to dial those aspects in. And it's funny because we didn't do it consciously but we kept trying about this, try this, try this. We kept mutating it and doing different things and having different generations until we found this, until we sort of arrived at something we thought okay that looks really cool. And then we looked back at it and went hang on the head looks like that monster and the arms look like that monster. And realized that all these inspirational creatures it kind of ended up in our thing. And that felt appropriate really because we set out to kind of do this, kind of try and combine all those elements but in a way that felt like a cohesive creature that wasn't like a Frankenstein's monster. But like yeah it all looks like it was evolved from the same organism. A little bit that we saw was very, very exciting. So thank you. Excited for audiences to see even more. And I want to talk about updating the film. The original Godzilla 1954 there's obviously a lot going on thematically about what Japan had just gone through. Nuclear attacks and the big, big monster movies in general are kind of like an allegory for nuclear paranoia and fears. When you were set down to adapt the movie or update the movie how did you decide to go and attack it and make it relevant for 2014? Were there things you already had in mind? Was it already relevant? No, I mean I like a bit of meat on my bone. And I think the great thing about good science fiction and fantasy is that they can work on two levels. Like you can have on one level it's just a fun piece of entertainment and you come to see monsters fighting or whatever it is and it's great. But then I like another level that if you want to look for it or it's there subconsciously is that there's some meaning behind it and it has a point in a way. And I think all good stories they shouldn't preach or anything but they should have a point or be about something. And there's many ways we could have gone like in a million directions and we have various aspects in our film. And I think man versus nature is the predominant theme in the movie. And there's obviously a nuclear theme within that. An idea that being that probably the most powerful thing that we've discovered in terms of nature is the nuclear age is the power of splitting the atom or whatever and that was always at the heart of the original. And so something that came for free with the Godzilla movie was we've spent the last few decades going with this amazing abuse of nature really. This Pandora's box that we've opened with the nuclear power. And it's like yeah we can have weapons and you can't have weapons. You're not allowed to do that. And these countries can have nuclear power and these countries can't. And then what naturally comes from Godzilla is well what if there were giant creatures that were attracted to radiation. Suddenly everything would be flipped and you wouldn't be getting rid of this stuff. And so that was for me that was really interesting and a good basis for our film. And it's all like subtext but I really like when films like this have a bit more weight to them. Because the ones that stand the test of time that you watch again that are still on your DVD shelf that they still show 60 years later at festivals like this are ones that are about something. And so it was really important to me and everyone who worked on the film that we find that layer that will make it mean something. Yeah. Well that notion of resonance and genre is so good at dealing with that and sometimes the opportunity just gets thrown away which is a shame because it can be such a good allegory and function to get people thinking about different topics. I was wondering about the continuity of the universe. Where does this film fit into the continuity of the other films? Is it part of it? Do those films exist in this movie's universe? How does all the pieces fit together? The Godzilla movies don't exist in our universe but monster movies exist. There's a… I mean I can probably say it's no big deal. Our main character is a child. You see his bedroom at one point and in the bedroom is a Japanese monster movie poster. And so they obviously exist. You know what I mean? It's something that's happening there. But we didn't want to make Godzilla part of popular culture in that world. We wanted… This was kind of like the origin story. This is kind of like where the world finds out about these things. And so yeah, the Toho movies were not… probably don't exist obviously in the world that we created but I like to think after the events in this film there will be lots of monster movies being created about Godzilla in the world that we've set up. Does that mean you already have ideas in mind for sequels? Should it go over as well as the preview did last night? The clip last night? I don't know. I mean, you know, it's… Obviously you make a film because you want people to like it and you want everyone to go see it and I don't know how people are going to respond to it. Hopefully they will like it but I feel like we've set up… Like we've done the hard work of setting up this thing and now there's so much fun to be had. Like there's… I get excited about what you could do after this but I don't want to… I want to wait and see what people make of it really and see how everyone responds. Yeah because it's up to everyone else if we get to do another one. Right. Well I can't wait to go and see the movies. It comes out May 16th I believe is the date. So great. Great meeting you and thanks for taking the time. Thank you. Have a great one. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
 Hey, this is Brian Bishop with The Verge and I am here with the director of the new Godzilla,
 Gareth Edwards.
 Gareth, thanks for sitting down with us.
 Where is he?
 I want to meet him.
 He's over there.
 It still hasn't hit me.
 Like when people say that you go, oh yeah, I guess we did.
 I guess we did the film.
 Yeah, well we're here at South by Southwest.
 Last night you debuted a new clip from the movie where you just like screw up and jack
 up Hawaii all over the place.
 It looked awesome.
 Thank you.
 Can you talk, I mean there's some clips from that that have been in the most recent trailer.
 Can you talk a little bit about what that sequence was and what it was about?
 Yeah, I mean I guess it's fair to say that it's the big reveal of Godzilla.
 I knew when he saw a glimpse it was actually like twice as long but we couldn't show all
 of it last night.
 And so I felt like in the film he needed a really good introduction.
 I didn't just want to throw it away.
 So I spent like, there's a ten minute piece that builds up to the first proper reveal
 of him in the movie.
 And it's one of my favorite parts of the film.
 I love the suspense.
 I love, in a weird way when you do a film like this, there's like an unwritten agreement
 with the audience that they want to be teased and they want to be pulled in slowly.
 And this is kind of like what I'd call cinematic foreplay that goes on before the climax.
 And I think that's as much fun as the big fight sequences and things.
 Definitely.
 And I love there's that one shot where it's in the trailer where he kind of like goes
 underneath the ship.
 It has shades of jaws and just feels like that build before the tidal wave is great.
 And then the dog thing happens but I'm not going to talk about that because people will
 be sad.
 Yeah, we don't want to talk about the dog.
 So about the creature design.
 It was the big reveal.
 Like there was, you're very true to the 1954 original but also it feels like a real creature,
 like the folds of skin around his face.
 How did you, when you set it up to do this, how do you say we're going to go and bring
 all the different elements together that people know about the character?
 Yeah, I mean the design of Godzilla was predominantly worked on by Weta Workshop in New Zealand.
 And I was in the UK at the time so we did everything via Skype.
 And so I'd be up till like 4 or 5 AM and they would share their desktop with my desktop
 so I could sort of watch them work and we would chat.
 And the simple way to approach it was, I mean they did hundreds of designs but we had this
 3D model of Godzilla and an artist there called Andrew Baker was kind of in charge of pushing
 and pulling all the points and sculpting this thing.
 And we basically said to ourselves like we would turn it into a silhouette.
 So instead of seeing it all like a grey clay thing it would be just pure black on white
 and because it's such an iconic silhouette and in our film you see it as a silhouette
 you know a lot so we wanted to get that right.
 And so basically we had this model and we turned the silhouette until we saw it doesn't
 look right let's push and pull that, turn it a bit, now we've ruined this bit.
 And it's like a Rubik's cube, like you get one side right and you look, ah I've ruined
 the other side now.
 And our goal was to do this until we could rotate it 360 degrees and not want to change
 anything.
 And I thought that would take a few days and it took months and I am very hard on myself.
 I don't like often whatever I do I think it could always be better.
 And I look at that sculpture that we have, I've got a copy in my office and I have no
 regrets at all.
 I kind of go okay he's cool.
 I'm really pleased with what we did there.
 Awesome and what about you know you've teased this before other creatures being in the movie.
 Was it the same kind of process and how did that, obviously monsters there are many, many
 creatures in that film.
 Yeah I mean I think it's out there now that there is maybe something else in the film
 obviously.
 Possibly.
 Possibly.
 And we wanted to do something unique.
 Trying to find a unique monster in this day and age.
 One of the designers summed it up well and said it's like trying to find the last parking
 space at Disney World or something.
 It's like so many monsters have been done in so many films.
 Like trying to come up with something that feels different is really hard.
 And we spent, I mean we must have spent over a year or so designing whatever it is.
 And we basically looked at all our favorite monsters from a T-Rex to a H.R.
 Guy Goes Alien to Starship Troopers to Jaws to King Kong.
 And what is it about each one that makes them like so iconic.
 And then tried to dial those aspects in.
 And it's funny because we didn't do it consciously but we kept trying about this, try this,
 try this.
 We kept mutating it and doing different things and having different generations until we
 found this, until we sort of arrived at something we thought okay that looks really cool.
 And then we looked back at it and went hang on the head looks like that monster and the
 arms look like that monster.
 And realized that all these inspirational creatures it kind of ended up in our thing.
 And that felt appropriate really because we set out to kind of do this, kind of try and
 combine all those elements but in a way that felt like a cohesive creature that wasn't
 like a Frankenstein's monster.
 But like yeah it all looks like it was evolved from the same organism.
 A little bit that we saw was very, very exciting.
 So thank you.
 Excited for audiences to see even more.
 And I want to talk about updating the film.
 The original Godzilla 1954 there's obviously a lot going on thematically about what Japan
 had just gone through.
 Nuclear attacks and the big, big monster movies in general are kind of like an allegory for
 nuclear paranoia and fears.
 When you were set down to adapt the movie or update the movie how did you decide to
 go and attack it and make it relevant for 2014?
 Were there things you already had in mind?
 Was it already relevant?
 No, I mean I like a bit of meat on my bone.
 And I think the great thing about good science fiction and fantasy is that they can work
 on two levels.
 Like you can have on one level it's just a fun piece of entertainment and you come to
 see monsters fighting or whatever it is and it's great.
 But then I like another level that if you want to look for it or it's there subconsciously
 is that there's some meaning behind it and it has a point in a way.
 And I think all good stories they shouldn't preach or anything but they should have a
 point or be about something.
 And there's many ways we could have gone like in a million directions and we have various
 aspects in our film.
 And I think man versus nature is the predominant theme in the movie.
 And there's obviously a nuclear theme within that.
 An idea that being that probably the most powerful thing that we've discovered in terms
 of nature is the nuclear age is the power of splitting the atom or whatever and that
 was always at the heart of the original.
 And so something that came for free with the Godzilla movie was we've spent the last few
 decades going with this amazing abuse of nature really.
 This Pandora's box that we've opened with the nuclear power.
 And it's like yeah we can have weapons and you can't have weapons.
 You're not allowed to do that.
 And these countries can have nuclear power and these countries can't.
 And then what naturally comes from Godzilla is well what if there were giant creatures
 that were attracted to radiation.
 Suddenly everything would be flipped and you wouldn't be getting rid of this stuff.
 And so that was for me that was really interesting and a good basis for our film.
 And it's all like subtext but I really like when films like this have a bit more weight
 to them.
 Because the ones that stand the test of time that you watch again that are still on your
 DVD shelf that they still show 60 years later at festivals like this are ones that are about
 something.
 And so it was really important to me and everyone who worked on the film that we find that layer
 that will make it mean something.
 Yeah.
 Well that notion of resonance and genre is so good at dealing with that and sometimes
 the opportunity just gets thrown away which is a shame because it can be such a good allegory
 and function to get people thinking about different topics.
 I was wondering about the continuity of the universe.
 Where does this film fit into the continuity of the other films?
 Is it part of it?
 Do those films exist in this movie's universe?
 How does all the pieces fit together?
 The Godzilla movies don't exist in our universe but monster movies exist.
 There's a…
 I mean I can probably say it's no big deal.
 Our main character is a child.
 You see his bedroom at one point and in the bedroom is a Japanese monster movie poster.
 And so they obviously exist.
 You know what I mean?
 It's something that's happening there.
 But we didn't want to make Godzilla part of popular culture in that world.
 We wanted…
 This was kind of like the origin story.
 This is kind of like where the world finds out about these things.
 And so yeah, the Toho movies were not… probably don't exist obviously in the world that we
 created but I like to think after the events in this film there will be lots of monster
 movies being created about Godzilla in the world that we've set up.
 Does that mean you already have ideas in mind for sequels?
 Should it go over as well as the preview did last night?
 The clip last night?
 I don't know.
 I mean, you know, it's…
 Obviously you make a film because you want people to like it and you want everyone to
 go see it and I don't know how people are going to respond to it.
 Hopefully they will like it but I feel like we've set up…
 Like we've done the hard work of setting up this thing and now there's so much fun
 to be had.
 Like there's… I get excited about what you could do after this but I don't want
 to…
 I want to wait and see what people make of it really and see how everyone responds.
 Yeah because it's up to everyone else if we get to do another one.
 Right.
 Well I can't wait to go and see the movies.
 It comes out May 16th I believe is the date.
 So great.
 Great meeting you and thanks for taking the time.
 Thank you.
 Have a great one.
 Cheers.
 Cheers.
 Cheers.