UPDATE: ‘Godzilla 2’ Will Be Directed By ‘Krampus’ Helmer Michael Dougherty
UPDATE 2: Now, months later,Varietyhas added the official confirmation that Michael Dougherty is directingGodzilla 2. Our original article runs below.UPDATE: After we learned yesterday thatGodzilla 2would be scripted byKrampuswritersMichael DoughertyandZach Shields, it turns out that one of them will also be directing.ScreenCrushreports Michael Dougherty will be directingGodzilla 2as well. Legendary must have been very pleased with the work he turned in as the director ofKrampus, which has some of the coolest horror monsters to hit the big screen in awhile.
Our original story from October 20th follows below.
Last winter brought the holiday horror flickKrampusto theaters, and I’m betting that a lot of you out there didn’t catch it. The film only made nearly $43 million at the box office (which wasn’t bad at all on a budget of $15 million), but the Legendary production deserves to be seen for bringing some truly terrifying monsters to life and creating some fantastic entertainment to counter the usually cheery Christmas movies we see on TV each year. Now two of the talents responsible for writingKrampuswill be bringing their monstrous talents to the King of Monsters inGodzilla 2
VarietyreportsMichael DoughertyandZach Shieldshave been hired as theGodzilla 2writers, finally promising some progress on the sequel that is slated for release onMarch 22, 2019after being delayed earlier this yearfrom its original 2018 release date. But that’s not the only move being made behind the scenes.
Apparently Legendary might be looking to create a writers room to organize the growing giant monster universe. We know that a recent teaser poster forKong: Skull Islandgiven to some attendees at New York Comic-Con featuredreferences to the secret research project MONARCHthat was a key part of the Godzilla reboot in 2014. Plus, Godzilla and King Kong are supposed to meet in a film currently set for release in 2020. But there might be more movies beyond that which could include other monsters, and Legendary wants to start organizing what could be a whole universe.
This is something that Legendary and Warner Bros. might want to hold off on doing untilKong: Skull Islandarrives in March. If audiences aren’t on board with what director Jordan Vogt-Roberts delivers with this latest big screen version of the ape, they may not care so much about him meeting Godzilla down the road.
Anyway,Godzilla 2is still a long ways off, and the project still needs to find a new director sinceGareth Edwards leftjust a few days after the release date was pushed back. Apparently his departure didn’t have anything to do with the release date shuffling, because before it was announced, he and Legendary had already agreed to go their separate ways. It sounds like creative differences were at the core of that decision, so we’ll have to wait and see who Legendary can get to replace Edwards sometime down the road.
