{"id":21601,"date":"2024-04-10T14:20:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=21601"},"modified":"2024-04-10T14:20:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:20:19","slug":"qa-adam-wingard-director-story-writer-executive-producer-godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2024\/04\/10\/qa-adam-wingard-director-story-writer-executive-producer-godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Adam Wingard (Director \/ Story Writer \/ Executive Producer) Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Given their history, what was the thinking behind the teaming up of Godzilla and Kong<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> Well, I think it really came from making the last movie. I remember watching the film\u2014in that freshly post-pandemic environment, when things were shaping up and people were starting to go back to the theaters\u2014and it was such an incredible feeling, because it had been over a year since I\u2019d even been in a theater. Watching audiences react to the brief team-up of Godzilla and Kong at the end of \u201cGodzilla vs. Kong,\u201d where they\u2019re fighting against Mechagodzilla, it was just so exciting, because there was this catharsis in the air. You could tell it was delivering exactly what people wanted in that moment. And I just thought, \u201cIf we\u2019re going to do another film, you can\u2019t separate these guys again, at least not in the context of the Monsterverse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that was just a brief taste of what that team-up could be like. So I thought, \u201cLet\u2019s take it all the way.\u201d And I had a lot of influences, from buddy cop movies to another film, John Carpenter\u2019s \u201cThey Live.\u201d And I always loved how in that film, the best action scene in the movie is between two heroes. The villains aren\u2019t anywhere in sight. It\u2019s the scene with Roddy Piper and Keith David, where Roddy\u2019s trying to get Keith to put the sunglasses on to reveal that the world\u2019s controlled by aliens\u2026 it\u2019s just two guys fighting for nearly eight minutes. And that was really influential to me, because it\u2019s my second favorite film of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s when I realized, yes, we\u2019re going to do the team-up. But, the fun of the team-up is going to be the adventure of how you get them there\u2014in the last film, they work together, but it\u2019s an uneasy truce. The status quo at the beginning of \u201cGodzilla x Kong\u201d is Godzilla\u2019s on the surface and Kong\u2019s in Hollow Earth, and they\u2019re respecting each other\u2019s domain and boundaries. But, hey, they\u2019re still monsters, so their communication skills aren\u2019t great. For them to work together, it\u2019s going to be a process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get to know more about both Kong and Godzilla in this. What is Kong looking for at the start of the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> Kong is in a better place, in terms of his environment, than he was in the last movie. Hollow Earth is much more in line with the world that he grew up in on Skull Island. It\u2019s got that kind of prehistoric feel. Physically, that\u2019s where he thrives. But emotionally, Kong is still lonely, and just like any person who has it all, there\u2019s always something that they\u2019re missing. And Kong is just a lonely ape there in Hollow Earth, and that\u2019s where we find him. He\u2019s thriving on one level, but he\u2019s lonely on another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve said this film gives us your version of Godzilla. How is he evolving?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> Well, he literally IS evolving. Without going into any details, I knew I wanted to give him an updated appearance for this film. I think that\u2019s part of the fun of Godzilla as a character\u2014to see him evolve into different iterations in different films. It\u2019s always exciting to see the new approach to the spines on his back and all the little details here and there. Going into this, I knew I wanted to update Godzilla\u2019s appearance, but it was important that it was motivated from a story perspective. And so the concept of Godzilla\u2019s evolution was something that became not just important to this story, but it became Godzilla\u2019s whole impetus. The whole story is him evolving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you tell me about Mini-Kong or Suko?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> Suko is one of the most exciting new characters in this movie. He\u2019s a character that\u2019s hard to talk about, because he needs to be experienced\u2014and there are a lot of surprises in terms of his personality. He\u2019s not as straightforward as I think he might seem. He\u2019s a little bit more complicated. And in a lot of ways, his and Kong\u2019s journey and the way their relationship develops is one of the driving forces for the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it was very exciting to do it, because they\u2019re so character-driven. Both Kong and Suko are in fully animated sequences with no dialogue. Telling their story in this visual way was one of the things that really drew me to this movie. It was very satisfying, because it really worked right away. One of the first sequences we animated for this film was one of their big journey scenes together. And it was fun to see and develop the characters in an animated sort of way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about developing the Scar King?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> The Scar King is a really exciting villain, because he\u2019s sort of the anti-Kong. He has all the main attributes that Kong has, but he is the evil version of him. And it was important to me in this movie that we still stay true to the history of Godzilla and Kong films, which are classically driven by the concepts of the evil that man does, evil versus nature, the development of nuclear weapons\u2026 and those kind of things that have a negative impact on the world. But instead of the humans being a driving force\u2014as they usually are in terms of telling that story\u2014I wanted to see if we could get the point across while still having a monster be the main villain. So what\u2019s cool about the Scar King is that even though he isn\u2019t human, his motivations are very human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s an ape, or he\u2019s similar to an ape in the sense that he can think, feel and conspire, those kinds of things. His motivations are very grounded in human motivations, like power and control. He\u2019s this type of super dictator living in Hollow Earth. And just on a physical level, he\u2019s a great match for Kong\u2014he can do all the things Kong can do, but he is very agile. So Kong has to get clever in terms of the way that he even physically approaches him. And Scar King ends up being a really interesting villain that\u2019s formidable to both Godzilla and Kong, which is why they have to team up to take them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you want audiences to experience? What do you want them to walk away with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADAM WINGARD:<\/strong> The obvious thing is that I want people to have a fun time watching this movie. This film is just a total thrill ride with a ton of action. It\u2019s pretty nonstop. And so from that perspective, the obvious thing for me to say is that I want people to have fun with it. But also, to me, this is actually a monster character study, which is a crazy thing to say. But that\u2019s what I also want people to get out of it\u2014I want them to really get into the psyche and point of view of the monsters in a way that they\u2019ve never done before. I didn\u2019t want to make just another monster movie. I wanted to make one that stands on its own merits and is doing something new and unique. And that\u2019s what I really want people to come away with\u2014yes, have a fun time, but also really get into this new and unique experience\u2026 because you\u2019re seeing a story that\u2019s mostly visual and it\u2019s taking you places you\u2019ve never been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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