With Gareth Edwards' Godzilla hitting theaters in less than two months, verious media outlets have managed to score interviews with those involved with the project - more specifically Legendary Pictures' very own CEO Thomas Tull. Tull has made a name for himself in Hollywood for taking chances and financing films which originally might not have been appealing to larger studios due to their niche fanbases. But because of this gut instinct and the incredible success / revenue his films have generated, Thomas has thrown Legendary into the spotlight as one of the most accomplished studios of the past few years.
Pacific Rim was one of those gambles. It was a new intellectual property, not a part of any existing franchise and it focussed heavily on a mythology which was not well known or appreciated in western culture - Kaiju and Mecha. But through all the odds, Tull believed in director Guillermo del Toro's vision and Pacific Rim became one of Legendary's highes grossing films to date. Not just that, but the film resonated so well with fans and general audiences. Due to this success, Legendary expressed interest in continuing on with the newly established franchise, with a Pacific Rim sequel.
This morning, Collider's Matt Goldberg posted up an interview he conducted with Thomas Tull about various films, including the upcoming Godzilla and Pacific Rim 2. Here's a few excerpts from the interview where Tull talks about Godzilla and the Pacific Rim sequel:
Collider: Considering the reverence towards the original film and the disdain towards the 1998 remake, what were your concerns on bringing Godzilla back to the big screen?
THOMAS TULL: You know, I’ll tell you the only thing I know in this business, I have had the absolute privilege of making movies that I loved when I was a kid and loved my whole life. So whether it’s Batman, Superman, Watchmen, the 300 story, we just make stuff that I want to see. With Godzilla, I’ve been a huge fan my whole life. The only guiding principle you can use is to make something that you want to see. The first time I had Gareth come up to my house, we watched the ’54 movie together and just sat around talking for hours about what Godzilla was and what the promise of it could be and just kind of geeked out on it. It’s one of those things to me, the only way we can come at a film is we’re huge fans and what do we want to see?
Collider: What were you most excited about when it comes to this remake of Godzilla?
TULL: Well, it’s not a remake, it’s our chapter. I think what I’m most excited about is all the principles that we laid out in the beginning, I feel like we were able to hit on those things. All I can tell you is when I watch the movie, which is I don’t know how many times I’ve done now with editing and everything, I walk out giddy just because I feel like that’s the movie that I want to see. In terms of the acting between Aaron and Lizzie and Cranston, they did an amazing job. Gareth is going to have a very long and prosperous career, and when the big guy shows up I get goose bumps, so hopefully the rest of the world feels the same way. That’s how I feel about it.
Collider: I don’t mean to come out with so much skepticism, I’m just curious about Godzilla and Dracula, these beloved properties. Also you had an original with Pacific Rim, I really enjoyed that film a lot and it did incredibly well overseas, and I was just curious what’s the status of the sequel?
TULL: We love being in business with Guillermo and frankly that movie, if you look it up, did I think more business than the first X-Men, did more than Batman Begins, our first movie, did more than Superman Returns, The Fast and the Furious, Star Trek- so for a movie that was an original property that we made up it’s done really well. It did north of 400 million dollars globally and both the home video sales and the merchandise have way over-indexed, so it seems like fans really loved the world. So we’re going to sit down with Guillermo and as long as we think it’s authentic and there’s something to say, we’re certainly open to it.
You can read the entire interview over on Collider, here.
It goes without saying that Legendary are definitely interested in a sequel and with the immense success Pacific Rim generated, it would seem like a waste to let the franchise stand alone with that one film. It's possible we could see Pacific Rim 2 by 2016 or 2017, depending on if Guillermo del Toro signs on again to direct or not.
But we want to know, what would YOU want to see in a sequel to Pacific Rim? Would you like the plot to be a prequel to the first, or a continuation? Let us know your Pacific Rim 2 plot ideas in the comments section below!
