How’s this for a cute picture?
With the Big G is lead actress Momoko Kôchi, who played Emiko Yamane in the original 1954 Gojira. She would later appear in such films as The Mysterians (1957) and had a chance to stroll with the Big Guy again in Godzilla vs Destroyer (1995) before passing away on 5 November 1998.
Lizzie vs Predator (18 February 2009)
Alien Trespass: the Mockumentary (17 February 2009)
New: Zone of the Dead (17 February 2009)
Update: Crawler Trailer (16 February 2009)
New: The Living Corpse (15 February 2009)
New: Ferocious (15 February 2009)
Update: Flowers for the Dead (15 February 2009)
Update: Dire Wolf (13 February 2009)
Roboto Supremo (12 February 2009)
Update: The Strange Experiment of Doctor Purefoy (10 February 2009)
Jane Austen’s Zombies To Be Filmed? (10 February 2009)
Psst! You After an Alien? (8 February 2009)
Dragonball Evolves into a LIve-Action Movie (8 February 2009)
Update: Galactic Raiders (7 Feb 2009)
Transformers 2: Trailer (7 Feb 2009)
Lost in the Jokes? (7 Feb 2009)
Global Swarming (6 Feb 2009)
Word has leaked out via ENSHOHMA on the Kaijuphile forums about a new daikaiju film, Gehara.
Postscript: for the record the film is called Chohatsu Daikaiju Gehara [Long-haired Giant Monster Gehara] (Japan-2009; short; dir. Kiyotaka Taguchi)
As you can see from this poster image, Daikaiju Gehara is a hairy, though reptilian critter. As far as I can tell from a poor automated translation of the Japanese website, the monster emerges from the sewers and sheds its daikaiju-sized hair across town as it rampages.
The following information is “concocted” from a poor translation of text on the Japanese website, so is open to correction. The film, which I think is a short 15-minute film, was created by SFX technician Higuti Makoto, and was based on a contest-winning story and monster design by Jun Miura.
The film was due to be completed in February and will be screened on TV and at film festivals.
Among the cast is Sano Shiro, who played a significant part in such major films as Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999), Godzilla Final Wars (2004) and The Great Yokai War (2005).
Miura is hoping for a sequel.
Postscript 2: Check out August Ragone’s blog for a full — and more accurate — run-down on this film.
The inimitable Todd Tennant has kindly offered readers of Undead Backbrain a free screensaver of unmatched splendour. Classic daikaiju action! Attacking jetfighters! Fire! Destruction!
The screensaver features his kaiju character King Komodo, who — in the story Todd has penned with writer Mike Bogue, Tales of King Komodo — is currently appearing in G-Fan magazine.
You can download the large-size screensaver version here.
Thanks, Todd.
James Stokoe has reportedly been playing around with a Godzilla-themed comicbook called World War G. From these pages (below) I’d love to see it published, but chances are slim. Last I heard the US industry was of the opinion that Toho’s asking price for the rights was simply too steep.
Straight from one of the reigning B-horror superstars, Fred Olen Ray, comes a new monster flick that combines prehistoric throwbacks with the werewolf genre (minus standard human-wolf lunar transmogrification, I assume).
Dire Wolf (US-[post-production, 2009]; dir. Fred Olen Ray)
Starring Maxwell Caulfield (Cry of the Winged Serpent, Dragon Storm, Grease 2, and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat) and Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers and Reptisaurus), Dire Wolf is about scientists who “regenerate a prehistoric Dire Wolf from a nearly fossilised skeleton using human stem cells. The creature, a Dire Wolf/human hybrid, breaks loose and terrorizes the small mountain village of Santa Mira Springs.”
It also features Gina Scoles, seen here before meeting the Wolf and after their first date:
Gallery:
Retro genre films seem to be on the rise. We’re not talking remakes here, but rather films that deliberately take on the aesthetic and narrative characteristics of past B-film types, usually for humorous effect. One example that springs to mind is Monster From Bikini Beach; another is The Ghastly Love of Johnny X. Then there’s Alien Trespass. The retro craze covers everything from 30s black-and-white monster flicks right through to 1980s teen horror musicals.
One of the most impressive-looking I’ve come across lately is Max Neptune and the Menacing Squid (directed by Colin Fleming and John Garside). Described as a “throwback to the scifi serials of the 40s and 50s”, this film references such space heroics as those of Flash Gordon and Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.
Synopsis:
Max Neptune and the Atomic Space Patrol face their biggest threat ever. The evil genius Dr Agotch has build his greatest creation, a giant mechanical Menacing Squid! Agotch forces Max to make a choice – save a spaceship filled with ambassadors from all over the galaxy or save Atomic Space Patrol’s Mara Shore. Mara and Max both know he must save the ambassadors. Meanwhile, Agotch tries to claim the peaceful city of Whittier as his own … by force!
Trailer:
And here’s a rather nicely exciting “chase” sequence:
Below are some images from the film, as well as promotional artwork.
More can be found on the official website.
Source: via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery
