The Anne Hathaway-starring monster movie from TIMECRIMES director Nacho Vigalondo appears to have a rough road ahead, as THR is reporting that the rights holders of the GODZILLA franchise, Japanese company Toho, want to stomp out the monster film COLOSSAL from Voltage Pictures. The film has been described as GODZILLA meets BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, with Hathaway starring as a woman who realizes her mind is strangely connected to a giant lizard destroying Tokyo. They had to see this coming, right?
In a complaint filed Tuesday in California federal court, the company claims the filmmakers "are brazenly producing, advertising, and selling an unauthorized Godzilla film of their own."
The rights holders point out an August 2014 interview with writer-director Nacho Vigalondo in which he says of his script, "It's going to be the cheapest Godzilla movie ever, I promise. It's going to be a serious Godzilla movie, but I've got an idea that's going to make it so cheap that you will feel betrayed." Vigalondo is a co-defendant.
The lawsuit focuses on the filmmakers' efforts to publicize COLOSSAL, which Toho claims have included infringing content. The GODZILLA rights holders claim the filmmakers sent an email blast to potential investors, sales agents and distributors on May 9 pitching COLOSSAL with a publicity still from the recent GODZILLA reboot (the complaint includes pictures) plus a document of "Director's Notes" with numerous images from official Toho works.
It'll be interesting to see how much this affects the film and whether or not it forces them to change a few things like, you know, not having a giant lizard-monster destroying Tokyo. That'd probably be a great place to start.