I've seen nearly every kaiju movie made by Toho Studios, starting with watching each Godzilla movie multiple times and then branching out to related films like MOTHRA and RODAN. Beyond Toho, however, my kaiju knowledge is spotty, most glaringly when it comes to Daiei Films' GAMERA. Despite the fact that some of Gamera's movies are regularly featured on horror host shows and were mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000, I've only seen the giant, flying, fire-breathing turtle in action twice, both times relatively recent viewings of his 1965 debut film.
My lack of familiarity with Gamera is something I desperately need to change, especially now that the creature is celebrating his 50th anniversary and Daiei is marking the occasion by developing a brand new film. The movie won't be out by the time the anniversary year ends, in fact it might not even be released until 2017, but it is in the works, with Shinichiro Inoue and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi producing and Katsuhito Ishii writing and directing. Ishii is probably best known for directing O-Ren Ishii's anime back story in KILL BILL.
Ishii's Gamera story:
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…?
Ishii and the producers were at the New York Comic Con this week, where they unveiled an incredible-looking proof of concept trailer for their GAMERA film, which can be viewed below. According to Gamera's Wikipedia page, this will be the thirteenth entry in the franchise.
After seeing what's ahead, I am excited to start watching my way through the twelve previous films.