Post by Torgo on Mar 13, 2014 11:24:10 GMT -5
Since Gamera is a big part of MST history, being the longest single movie series they riffed (with five films and 10 episodes), I thought I'd share this here since the big turtle isn't dead yet. Yesterday several kaiju fan boards I visit started buzzing about Japanese articles stating that Gamera is set to make a return. I don't read Japanese and didn't have an English article until today. And even still, it basically just sums up the blurb the Japanese article said...
www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-12/new-gamera-project-listed-by-retailer
Probably not the most concrete pieces of information, I admit. Most of my Japanese/Kaiju news comes from Keith Aiken's Sci-Fi Japan or August Ragone's blog The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla (Ragone was the historian who provided interviews for the Gamera, Fugitive Alien, Time of the Apes, and Mighty Jack episodes, if you recall), but neither of them has commented on it yet.
But let's look at what is in this movie's favor: not only is next year Gamera's big five-oh, but this year brings us a new Hollywood Godzilla film (which looks like it's going to be the cinema event of the year). This might be in anticipation for a possible revival of the kaiju genre.
What's against it? Gamera was last seen in 2006, in the criminally underrated Gamera the Brave. The film underwhelmed at the box office as the tide of interest in the genre had fizzled after Godzilla: Final Wars bombed two years earlier. Not even Hollywood attempts at giant monster movies made an impact, as Peter Jackson's King Kong, Cloverfield, and Pacific Rim all came and went in Japan with very little notice. Since Pacific Rim was just last year, it might not be a good sign of the new Godzilla's legs in his original country. One has to wonder if even if this project is in development, are the filmmakers going to abandon ship at the sight of the big Hollywood film underwhelming? Toho is on full hype machine over there, so they're going to do their best to prevent that from happening.
This'll be Gamera's 13th film, and while he doesn't have a great track record (I only genuinely like two films on his resume, through I do find another few to be laughably enjoyable) I thought MSTies might be interested in hearing he's attempting a comeback.
www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-12/new-gamera-project-listed-by-retailer
Probably not the most concrete pieces of information, I admit. Most of my Japanese/Kaiju news comes from Keith Aiken's Sci-Fi Japan or August Ragone's blog The Good, the Bad, and Godzilla (Ragone was the historian who provided interviews for the Gamera, Fugitive Alien, Time of the Apes, and Mighty Jack episodes, if you recall), but neither of them has commented on it yet.
But let's look at what is in this movie's favor: not only is next year Gamera's big five-oh, but this year brings us a new Hollywood Godzilla film (which looks like it's going to be the cinema event of the year). This might be in anticipation for a possible revival of the kaiju genre.
What's against it? Gamera was last seen in 2006, in the criminally underrated Gamera the Brave. The film underwhelmed at the box office as the tide of interest in the genre had fizzled after Godzilla: Final Wars bombed two years earlier. Not even Hollywood attempts at giant monster movies made an impact, as Peter Jackson's King Kong, Cloverfield, and Pacific Rim all came and went in Japan with very little notice. Since Pacific Rim was just last year, it might not be a good sign of the new Godzilla's legs in his original country. One has to wonder if even if this project is in development, are the filmmakers going to abandon ship at the sight of the big Hollywood film underwhelming? Toho is on full hype machine over there, so they're going to do their best to prevent that from happening.
This'll be Gamera's 13th film, and while he doesn't have a great track record (I only genuinely like two films on his resume, through I do find another few to be laughably enjoyable) I thought MSTies might be interested in hearing he's attempting a comeback.
