TITANIC TERRAPIN SET TO RETURN IN "GAMERA"! Director Announced, Trailer Screened at NYCC!

NYコミコンでCG映像公開『GAMERA』新プロジェクト企画予定！


Advance promotional art for Kadokawa Daiei's upcoming GAMERA.

Today, at the New York Comic-Con, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Senior Managing Director, and Shinichiro Inoue, Planning and Producer, from Kadokawa Daiei Studios traveled to Fun City to introduce their trailer — noted as a "pilot film" (read, "Proof of Concept") for this Golden Anniversary feature film, rebooting the studio's Gamera series, at this juncture, simply titled "Gamera". Their purpose was to unveil the trailer and announce the upcoming film to the world at one of the biggest pop culture and media events in the world.


Kikuchi and Inoue (center) at NYCC. Photo by Edwin De La Cruz.

This trailer is also noteworthy in that all of the visual effects were created and rendered completely via CG, whereas the previous film, Ryuta Tasaki's GAMERA: THE BRAVE (2006), used traditional practical effects — miniature sets and man-in-suit monsters — with some CGI effects, primarily employed as a compositing tool. It appears that Daiei Kadokawa wishes to push the envelope even further to produce all of the visual effects in digital and leave the traditional behind.


Director Ishii during the Yubari Int'l Fantastic Film Festival 2015. 

In all of the English-language publicity material handed out today at NYCC, including the live stage event — simulcast by Twitch — the director was announced as Katsuhito Ishii. While the internationally-known director, who made his feature debut with SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL (1999), has never worked in the genre before, he has considerable chops, garnered a number of awards, and worked with powerhouse actors such as Tadanobu Asano.


Frames from the "pilot film" trailer, Gyaos Attacks! Enter Gamera!

After the success of PARTY 7 (2000), Ishii was tapped to supervise the animated O-Ren flashback sequence by Quentin Tarantino for KILL BILL VOL. 1 (2003), and in the following year, scored another hit with THE TASTE OF TEA (winning "Best Feature" at the Hawaii Int'l Film Festival). In 2006, he co-directed the lauded FUNKY FOREST (2006) with his old school chums, Shunichiro Miki and Hajime Ishimine (aka Aniki), and formed the production company, Nice Rainbow.


Frames from the "pilot film" trailer, Manafu rescued by Gamera!

Ishii was cast in small part by director Hideaki Anno for the beguiling 2003 live action film, CUTEY HONEY (of course, Anno is coincidentally directing the next Japanese-made Big G film, Shin Godzilla), and also voiced the titular character Hal in the 2007 animated series HAL & BONS. Extensively working in animation, he penned the screenplay for RED LINE (2010) and served as Creative Advisor on LUPIN III: JIGEN'S GRAVESTONE (2014) for director Takeshi Koike.


2-sided handbills distributed at NYCC. Photo courtesy of Mike Russo.

According to the handbills distributed at NYCC today, featuring the kanji characters「帰還」(kikan or returns), the story of this all-new GAMERA is thus summed up (paraphrased for colloquial English): "In a near-future Tokyo, giant monsters, known as 'kaiju', are thriving and terrorizing the populace. Manafu, a young boy, whose father is killed when the Gyaos strike the metropolis, is the only one who is saved by Gamera. What will Manafu's destiny be...?"


Writer-Actor-Musician, Kankuro Kudo, plays Manafu's doomed father.

Appearing in the trailer as Manafu is seven year-old child actor Rui Takahashi, who has worked steadily since 2013 in ten commercials, fifteen television shows, and five feature films under his young belt, so far. His father was played by Japanese Academy Award-winning writer/director/actor/musician, Kankuro Kudo. Among Kudo's lengthy credits are screenplays for GO (2001), PING PONG (2002), ZEBRAMAN 2 (2010), and he was recently cast in PIECE OF CAKE (2015).


The official "Gamera 50th" website launched in tandem with NYCC.

While kaiju fans across the globe will be waiting to see what the next move by Kadokawa Daiei Studios in the production of the upcoming film will be (release date was not announced), they're hosting a 50th Anniversary event at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 22nd. The longer proof-of-concept trailer will be run with a digital restoration of GAMERA VS. GYAOS (1967), as well as new 4K Scans of Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera Trilogy of the 1990s.

And without further ado... Here's the full-length proof-of-concept trailer for GAMERA (view on YouTube and adjust quality to 720p):


Stay tuned to this blog for further information on Katsuhito Ishii's GAMERA as production readies and more details develop! Also, check out my previous stories, here, and here.

"NEW GAMERA" WILL BE REVEALED AT NYCC '15! October 8th on the Live Stage (Booth #656)

明日に角川映画はNYコミコンで新作『ガメラ』を発表します。

Gamera's getting off his back and going to New York Comic-Con.

Everyone has been awaiting a new Gamera film for the half-century Anniversary, and Kadokawa Daiei Studios Co., Ltd. (which owns the entirety of the Daiei Studios and their catalogue, including Gamera) was prepping a big announcement last May for a release in 2015 — which I covered, here — but never materialized. Most non-Japanese fans wondered why, not knowing the megalithic Kadokawa Group (the biggest publisher and film producer in Japan) was going through a series of major upheavals.

On June 22, 2013, nine subsidiary companies in the Kadokawa Group were merged (eight of them now operating as branding companies) and rechristened Kadokawa Corporation, while Kadokawa Productions was subsequently dissolved and integrated into their intellectual properties business headquarters. The restructuring continued when Kadokawa merged with Dwango, which owns Niconico (the Japanese version of YouTube), forming a new holding company, Kadokawa Dwango on May 14, 2014.

New York Comic-Con's listing for Kadokawa's Gamera presentation.

Now that the dust has settled, the plan to celebrate the colossal chelonian's 50th Anniversary is moving forward. Tomorrow, reps from Kadokawa Daiei will be hosting a half-hour presentation on the NYCC Live Stage (Booth #656) at the New York Comic-Con to announce a new "pilot film". What that intimates is a test film or a teaser for a full-blown feature film, that obviously, will not be ready in time for Gamera's official anniversary this year (the original film was released on November 27, 1965).

With the announcement taking place in less than 24 hours, there's no need to fret or speculate; I'm sure we'll see the announcements flow via the interwebs, tomorrow...

Sponsored by Shout! Factory and Famous Monsters of Filmland!

Meanwhile, don't forget I'll be hosting another "Kaiju Marathon" for Shout! Factory TV on October 17th — this time, we're presenting "Gamera's Revenge"! — streaming eleven of the terrible terrapin's feature films all day, absolutely free, starting at 8:00 am Eastern (stay tuned for more information)!

"KIKAIDER: REBOOT" TEASER & TRAILER ONLINE Remake of 1972 Series Bows in Japan May 24th!

5.24公開 『キカイダーREBOOT』映像初公開！


Headshot of the all-new, updated Kikaida: your mileage may vary.

UPDATED MARCH 29th: Calling all members of Generation Kikaida! Check out this six-second blink-and-you'll-miss-it teaser trailer for the upcoming KIKAIDER: REBOOT feature film hitting Japanese cinema screens May 24th, below (and check out my report on the film from this past January). Despite the fact that Kadokawa Pictures has teamed up with Toei to bring the character back to life (even casting the original KIKAIDA star, Daisuke Ban, in a supporting role) most of Toei's recent reboots, such as SPACE SHERIFF GAVAN: THE MOVIE (2012), have been critical and financial failures — universally panned by a majority of fans for looking like made-for-television movies. So, the real question is will this be a hit or another miss for Toei?


The exciting, 90-second trailer was uploaded on March 29th.


The original six-second teaser trailer which broke on March 19th.

Stay tuned for more updates as the information becomes available!

Official KIKAIDER: REBOOT Website

GAMERA RETURNS TO THE BIG SCREEN IN 2015 Titanic Terrapin's 50th Anniversary Production

ガメラ生誕50周年である2015年に「何かがある」!


Gamera prepares to blast back onto motion picture screens next year!

SCOOP: Over the last week, there has been some English-language rumors spread about a new production, featuring Daiei Studio's answer to Godzilla, to hit cinema screens in 2015, based solely on a listing appearing on Japanese retail sites for the May 5th issue of Newtype the Live magazine. The listing mentions details on the production will be revealed as well as "image boards" (presentation art). While the listings are legitimate (the magazine in question is published by Kadokawa Shoten, which owns Kadokawa Pictures and Gamera), promising content on the upcoming film — that's only a fraction of what the Japanese already know.


This book first spilled the proverbial turtle soup on the new film.

The initial news was broken on February 8th in a completely different publication, "Heisei Gamera: Perfection," a 304-page book chronicling the post-1980s Gamera films, published by Kadokawa and Ascii Media Works. The major points dropped, which will be expanded upon in the upcoming May issue of Newtype the Live, include:

• The pre-production tagline is "Something is out there..." (Dareka-ga aru).
• Gamera in this production will come to life in a "(new) surprising form."
• Producer Shigenori Takatera, is the central person at the helm. Taketera also served as a producer on KAMEN RIDER KUUGA (2000) and DAIMAJIN KANNON (2010).
• The CEO of Kadokawa said the foundation of this production is, "What does today's audience want to see?"
• BONUS POINT: The narrative is set in modern day and preproduction is well underway.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information as it develops!

(Special thanks to Hiroshi Ban and Makoto Kobayashi.)

"GAMERA VS. BARUGON" SPECIAL EDITION DVD! From Shout! Factory On July 10th!

Art courtesy of Shout! Factory ©Kadokawa Pictures

Freed from the Z Plan capsule, Gamera attacks a dam upon his return to Earth! Meanwhile, a private expedition to retrieve a rare opal in New Guinea, unwittingly unleashes the malevolent Barugon! Virtually unstoppable, and able to freeze anything in its path, the monstrous lizard turns modern cities into glaciers until Gamera arrives to challenge the marauder! But, even the fire-spitting terrapin becomes trapped in the creature’s frozen grip! Can one of the explorers, Keisuke Hirata (Kojiro Hongo, Satan’s Sword), and a New Guinea native, Karen (Kyoko Enami, The Woman Gambler), help to defeat Barugon before it plunges Japan into a new Ice Age?

GAMERA VS. BARUGON (1966) was the second entry in Daiei Studios’ monster series, directed by veteran Shigeo Tanaka (The Great Wall), is more lavish than the original in terms of scale and scope — shot in spectacular color! Noriaki Yuasa (Gamera, The Giant Monster) was relegated to helming the visual effects for this outing, and the results are fantastic! For the first time, Shout! Factory presents GAMERA VS. BARUGON in an all-new HD anamorphic widescreen transfer, in Japanese with English subtitles! Special Features include a collectible reversible cover, a special 12-page booklet featuring an essay by actor Kojiro Hongo, publicity galleries, and an Audio Commentary with Japanese Cinema historians August Ragone and Jason Varney!

Shout! Factory's Special Edition DVD of GAMERA VS. BARUGON hits retailers on July 10, 2010 for only $19.93! Order from the Shout! Factory website, and receive a special limited edition set of Gamera postcards — each representing one of the eight original Gamera films — free with your purchase!

THE COLOSSAL CHELONIAN LIVES! Shout! Factory Unleashes GAMERA on DVD!

©Kadokawa Pictures/Package design: Shout! Factory

Some of you may have wondered why the frequency of my blog entries have been somewhat sporadic of late, and finally I can share why. Late last summer, I was tapped as the Special Features Producer by Cliff MacMillan at Shout! Factory as they were negotiating with Kadokawa Pictures for the North American DVD rights to the original eight Gamera films. I had previously worked with Cliff over at BCI on the R1 DVD releases of the classic tokusatsu series IRON KING (1972) and SUPER ROBOT: RED BARON (1973). While I can't reveal too many details at this time, I can say that these will be DVDs that any self-respecting kaiju eiga fan shouldn't pass up!

Here's a snippet from Shout!'s press release: From Japan, the country that brought us such mythical movie monsters as Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra, storms Gamera, the titanic terrapin feared by adults and loved by children. On May 18, 2010, Shout! Factory will unleash GAMERA, THE GIANT MONSTER Special Edition on DVD for the first time in its unedited, original version, with English subtitles — in anamorphic widescreen from an all-new HD master. The DVD includes a 12-page booklet with an essay by the late director Noriaki Yuasa, a photo gallery, trailers, and more. The collectible GAMERA, THE GIANT MONSTER Special Edition DVD is priced to own at $19.93.

For Shout's Gamera releases, I've assembled an international rag-tag unit of die-hard fans, known as the "Z Plan Team", who have been working overtime in gathering as much information and materials on the original films as possible for the on-disc Special Features supplements (as well as the corresponding printed booklets), and we have uncovered tons of fascinating facts and trivia about the production of Daiei's beloved series. The Special Features will also include Audio Commentaries, with the first recorded by none other than Yours Truly. I hope that it will be entertaining and informative for new and old fans, alike (and I'm pretty sure that I'll get an earful from many of you once GAMERA streets on May 18th)!

Oh, and I've already seen the proofs of the full jacket design and booklet, and I have to give props to Kerrie Stouffer for some knock-out work! I think that you'll turn over on your shells when you see it! Stay tuned for more titanic terrapin DVD news as it develops...

GAMERA LIVES!