THE MAKING OF A LUCRATIVE LIZARD
TAKASHI YAMAZAKI ON HOW THE TINY-BUDGETED GODZILLA MINUS ONE CAME TO WIN A FORTUNE AND OSCAR RECOGNITION
SEVENTY YEARS INTO his screen career, Godzilla remains a monster box-office draw. While the US MonsterVerse franchise continues to evolve, original Japanese studio Toho has conquered the world with its latest homegrown film, Godzilla Minus One —an international hit that’s received unanimous acclaim, a worldwide haul north of $100 million, and even earned an Oscar nomination. “Right now, I’m finally feeling a little bit of relief,” its director, writer and visual-effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki tells Empire. “For the longest time in my career, I was the director who wanted to make a Godzilla film. Now I’ve become the director who has made a Godzilla film.” And it only cost a reported $15 million — perhaps even less, as Yamazaki has hinted on X. “I don’t know if I can go into specifics,” he says, but concedes that while it’s “pretty top-tier” for a Japanese studio, it “isn’t a big Hollywood-style budget”.