Trivia of the Week: You're a Monster

Godzilla opens this week. I don't quite understand the reason behind the need to make another Godzilla movie, since the 1998 version was dreadful enough. But perhaps that's exactly why they make another one: so people can forget the 1998 version. What if this version is even more dreadful? It's quite unlikely but never say never. Anyhow, let's round up some trivia for a few famous big-size monsters in movie history.


(1) The original plans for the 1998 version of Godzilla called for two sequels to be produced. These plans were scrapped due to the poor reception of this film. Thank God!

(2) At the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards, Godzilla was nominated for five Razzies, including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. It took home two overall for Maria Pitillo as Worst Supporting Actress and for the film as Worst Remake or Sequel.


(3) Juliette Binoche, who once turned down starring in Jurassic Park (1993), was fully convinced to star in the 2014 version of Godzilla, after she received a beautiful letter from director Gareth Edwards.

(4) And speaking of Jurassic Park,  did you know both the film and the book generated so much interest in dinosaurs that the study of paleontology has had a record increase in students, and interest in general has skyrocketed, and has been at an all-time high ever since.

(5) The word "Kaiju" from the Pacific Rim (2013) is a Japanese word that literally translates to 'strange beast.' It is usually used to refer to giant monsters from Japanese science fiction films, such as Godzilla (1954). So Kaiju is Godzilla, and Godzilla is Kaiju. Confused yet?

(6) There is a mockbuster (a film created with the apparent intention of piggy-backing on the publicity of a major film with a similar title or theme and is often made with a low budget) called Atlantic Rim in 2013, a direct-to-DVD movie that was released three days prior to the cinema release of Pacific Rim.

(7) Another famous monster movie in recent years was King Kong (2005). Peter Jackson originally wanted to make this film immediately after The Frighteners (1996). When Universal saw that Godzilla (1998) and Mighty Joe Young (1998) would be released the same year, they pulled the plug on the project and Jackson moved on to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), using the ghost effects he developed for King Kong. After the tremendous success of the trilogy, Jackson was finally able to make the film.

(8) In the 1976 version of King Kong, Oscar winner Jessica Lange portrayed Dwan. Anotther acting giant Meryl Streep auditioned for the role but was turned down by producer Dino De Laurentiis as being 'ugly'. He did this in Italian not knowing that Meryl Streep understood Italian.

(9) There was a short-lived one season British show called Prehistoric Park (2006). The program was narrated by David Jason and presented by Nigel Marven. The fictional component was the theme that Nigel went back to various geological time periods through a space-time portal, and brought back live specimens of extinct animals back to the present day, where they were exhibited in a wildlife park named Prehistoric Park, which was a big area between high steep mountains and ocean, with varied environments.