Corona | Coming Attractions

A new Godzilla movie is coming to life, roaring back to menace America. And there's not a Roland Emmerich in sight.

Emmerich was the director of Columbia Pictures' 1998 Godzilla movie which turned out to be a monster-sized dud. Instead of spawning a westernized series of sequels, the '98 Godzilla came and went. Until today, that seemed like it was the end of the radioactive lizard's reign of terror on western soil.

And then Legendary Pictures released a news announcement today stating that the company that's brought us 300, Watchmen, Superman Returns and The Dark Knight had negotiated the rights to the big G from Toho Studios.

"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise," said Thomas Tull, Legendary's chariman. "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. 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." And when you read between the lines, when Tull says that his company's plans are to make a Godzilla movie "that we, as fans, would want to see," you can be sure that what he's really saying is, "It won't look anything like the Godzilla you saw in 1998."

Legendary has an ambitious plan to have their version of Godzilla out in theaters in 2012. That means Tull and his partners need to find a director, hire a writer to crank out a script and get filming ASAP. Two years? It can be done; see Iron Man 2 as proof.

Said Hideyuki Takai, the president of Toho, "Godzilla is a signature Japanese character which we have nurtured over the years. It is a great honor to reach an agreement with Legendary Pictures, the parent to many a blockbuster film, and we are delighted in rebooting the character together to realize its much anticipated return by fans from all over the world. We are anxious to find out where Godzilla's new stomping will take us."

And finally, a comment from the president of Warner Bros., Jeff Robinov: "Godzilla is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which Warner Bros. and our partners at Legendary are best known. We have enjoyed a great deal of success together to date and this newest opportunity represents yet another chance for us to collaborate on a property that is very clearly in their wheelhouse."

So here we go, a new American Godzilla film. Let's hope that the big green guy gets done right this time.