Godzilla vs. Frank Darabont – Rewrite on its Way; Start Date Announced

Steve Barton |

Jan 7, 2013

Source Name:

Deadline

Source Url:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/01/godzilla-getting-a-frank-darabont-rewrite-as-legendary-battles-roy-lee-and-dan-lin/

Post Thumb:

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And the Godzilla saga continues today as Frank Darabont has been tapped by Legendary Pictures to do a rewrite of the script for the latest shot at making a good American version of the classic tale of wrecked cities and fire-breathing behemoths.

According to Deadline, Darabont, who veered once again into genre territory by launching the AMC series “The Walking Dead,” has been hired by producer-financier Legendary Pictures to do a final rewrite on the script that was written by The Seventh Son scribe Max Borenstein. The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Warner Bros.-based producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee, who were among the producers who came into Legendary with a Toho rights deal for the iconic reptile, are in a huge battle with the financier-producer. Legendary, which now controls the rights, wants to drop the producers from the film. As it stands right now, the 3D picture will be produced by Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni, along with Brian Rogers, the latter of whom was on the ground floor of the Toho deal. The film will be directed by Monsters helmer Gareth Edwards and has been dated for May 16, 2014 release.

Sadly, to fully resolve the situation, this whole thing could end up in court as the site also reports that Lin and Lee refused to reduce the fees they signed on for when the original deal was made. Legendary brass feel they have the latitude to get rid of them and is doing just that, exercising a pay-or-play clause and paying them upfront money to go away, with no back-end or credit on the film. The only problem… the back end is where the real cash is made so stay tuned.

In other Godzilla related news, AICN is now reporting that the film starts shooting on March 14th in Vancouver and Hawaii and will operate under the working title of Nautilus.