WITH THE TWO ICONIC BEASTS GOING TOE-TO-TOE IN THE ULTIMATE MONSTER MOVIE, GODZILLA VS. KONG MIGHT JUST BE THE CATHARTIC CLASH WE NEED RIGHT NOW. TOTAL FILM REPORTS FROM THE SET TO FIND OUT HOW THE MONSTERVERSE EPIC IS AIMING TO APPEAL TO THE KID IN US ALL.

WORDS MATT MAYTUM

When Total Film catches up with Godzilla Vs. Kong director Adam Wingard in February 2021, his long-awaited crossover grudge-match movie is “100 per cent done”. All he has left to do is sign off IMAX and Dolby Vision 3D versions.

This film has been a long time coming, and not just because it’s the culmination of a MonsterVerse arc that began with 2014’s Godzilla reboot, and continued through 2017’s Kong: Skull Island and 2019’s Godzilla sequel, King Of The Monsters. After a couple of release-date postponements, Godzilla Vs. Kong is almost upon us, with a US release in March, where it’ll land on cinema screens as well as streaming for HBO Max subscribers.

For Wingard, this post-production phase hasn’t been too badly disrupted by the pandemic that’s obliterated cinema schedules. “We had our first test screening at the end of February [2020] that went really great,” he recalls. “So it was good that we got a test screening in before the pandemic hit, because it really gave us the confidence of: ‘OK, everything’s landing.’ Even though the test screening didn’t have all the finished VFX and stuff, the fact it went really well and was positive, it really gave us a lot of energy to push through to the end.”

With the film due to land after 12 months of Covid-19 misery, Wingard is confident that GvK will hit differently in this brave new world. “I knew we made a film that was for the audiences – for adults and for kids – and that it’s a total crowd-pleaser from start to finish,” he beams. “It’s basically non-stop action at a certain point. But I didn’t realise that there’s a kind of new element that’s been floating around.”

SHOWDOWN Two classic monsters face off

GIRL POWER Millie Bobby Brown returns as Madison, with director Adam Wingard (opposite, top); Eiza González plays new character Maya Simmons

After a tumultuous year, politically and otherwise, Wingard sees the concept as having “struck a subconscious chord with people… Not to compare the world to my big monster movie about a giant radioactive lizard and an oversized ape smacking each other on an aircraft carrier. But there are weird, little similarities in terms of why I think people are gravitating towards it. We’ve been kind of fighting with each other, and, to a certain degree, there’s a catharsis to watching these heroes kind of battle it out. We get to just stand off to the side, and honestly just have fun with it. Politics are out the door. This isn’t a serious thing. It’s like: let’s watch these fucking monsters beat each other down, and have a fucking good time doing it, because we haven’t been having fun.”

Essential viewing doesn’t quite cover it. Frankly, it sounds more like something that the health service should be calling you up about to ensure you get your allotted dose. Wingard’s childlike enthusiasm for the film is infectious, and reassuring – at every turn he’s keen to stress that the film will be fun, which is just what this tentpole clash of Titans needs to be. It weaves together threads from King Of The Monsters – in which Godzilla reasserted himself as the planet’s protector, and the alpha among a bunch of newly emerged Titans – and the Vietnam-era Skull Island, which introduced a bigger Kong than we’d ever seen on screen before. This crossover clash begins with Kong en route to a new home, when Godzilla unexpectedly turns aggressor and goes on the attack. Quite what’s behind his change in personality remains to be seen, though Madison (Millie Bobby Brown), is on a mission to find out what’s up with Big G.