While some speculated that the Statue of Liberty appearance in the Godzilla Minus Zero teaser was a wink to America’s much-maligned 1998 Godzilla movie, writer-director Takashi Yamazaki has revealed the true inspiration.
“I was thinking of Cloverfield,” Yamazaki told Gold Debery. “The scene when the head of the Statue of Liberty comes flying towards you left a huge impression when I saw it. I wanted to capture that same kind of emotion here.”
He teased, “When people find out what Godzilla is trying to do and what its motive is in that scene, everyone is going to be floored.”
Yamazaki added, “I decided I wanted that specific composition of the shot quite early on in production. I had already imagined what that was going to look like, and that’s a very important element of the larger story. People are going to be surprised in the context of how it appears.”
It’s a full circle moment, as Cloverfield producer J.J. Abrams has cited Godzilla as the initial inspiration for the 2008 found footage monster movie.
A direct sequel to Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla Minus Zero be released in North American theaters and IMAX on November 6 via GKIDS.
Set in 1949 — two years after the events of its predecessor — Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe reprise their roles as former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima and his girlfriend Noriko Ōishi.
