The amazing Matter Eating Lad, chewed through studio security allegedly to spy up the following bits on everything from GODZILLA to ELMO IN GRUMPYLAND!!! Wow two monster movies!!! Cooool!!! One to scare the kids, the other to scare everyone else!!! Hopefully this spy will become a reg, because with the ability to eat through steel reenforced walls and such... well we got this mission up around the San Fran area, it's the facil... Naaaah, wouldn't dream of it. Heh heh heh
I was over at Tri-Star the other day, and through a series of Bond-esqe manuvers, managed to sneak a peak at a picture of the King himself, Godzilla, from the new movie.
I can tell you that the reports you've been getting about how the new 'Zilla looks are pretty on the money. Take the classic Godzilla look, then mix in a little salamander with a little raptor and just a smidgen of T-Rex and there you have it. He's definetly green in the still photo I saw, not that brownish color that his foot and tail seem to be in the two trailers (or maybe I just saw some bad prints of the previews). In all honesty, the only portion of him that still looks the same are the classic spines running down his back and tail (y'know, his pointy fins) which actually look pretty damn cool on this more "natural" looking 'Zilla. I was nervous about how Devlin and Emmerich were going to update the look, but I for one can say Godzilla looks pretty cool.
I also managed to flash a quick glance at a storyboard which was laying about for some reason. There's a guy waiting at an elevator in a high rise or something, and there's a window beside him in the hallway. Godzilla walks by and looks in the window. The guy turns to look almost casually and sees this giant lizard staring back at him. The Godzilla roars (his whole mouth fills the window, it looks really killer!) and shatters the glass and knocks the guy over. Have no idea who the guy was, but my guess he's probably some one-shot "just for laughs" person in that scene.
I don't know if you're aware of the big Godzilla New-Years' Eve comercial blitz, either, but here's the scoop. During the last commercial break of 1997 on every major network at the same time, there will be an all-new Godzilla teaser made especially for the occassion. Yep, you heard me. Every single station. I know some people over at Centropolis who told me about it, and what I saw and overheard at Tri-Star the other day seemed to confirm it. I don't know all the details, save it has something to do with the famous New Years' Eve ball dropping in Times Square. Use your imagination.
Finally, also when I was at Tri-Star I managed to sneak a peak at the new Elmo movie that's in pre-production right now. Yes, the same Elmo from Sesame Street and "Tickle Me" fame is getting his own move. At first, i couldn't figure out why this script was with Sony and not Disney, since Disney owns the rights to the Muppet franchise now. But then I remembered that did not include any Sesame Street characters, therefore mystery solved.
Basically, it's being done in the same vein as "Follow That Bird", the last Sesame Street film from a few years back. In other words, featuring all the Sesame Street cast and muppets, and filming them on an actual street (city or movie lot) instead of the fake one in the television studio.
The working title is called "Elmo In Grouchland" which also pretty much tells you what the movie is about. I could only flip through it quickly because I was being paranoid about getting busted, but I did see the opening scene involves Bert and Ernie and that some of the film actually shows after all these years the inside of Oscar's trashcan, which to the best of my knowledge has never been shown before. I love the Muppets, so I'm always excited when a new film comes out.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to a sneak of "Blues Brothers 2000" (at least that's what they're telling us it is) here in LA tonight. I'll send you a review tomorrow. Million to one that it really, really sucks.
Thanks,
Matter-Eater Lad
