First and foremost, stay safe Japan. Whether or not you’ve been keeping up with recent events, it should suffice to say that the current turmoil in Japan may have some effect on director Guillermo Del Toro‘s recently announced monster film, Pacific Rim. The film, which starts shooting in September for release in 2013, is being toted as a tale “set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth” wherein humans must use “advanced technology” to defend themselves. One can only wonder if the September shoot will still move ahead as planned.
While the plot thickens behind the scenes, screenwriter Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) does the same on the page, as more specific details on the story have emerged. The film is said to deal with two different worlds via News In Film:
The first is an alternate version of Earth in the near future, decades after a historic date in November 2012 when the first kaiju, a towering Godzilla-like beast, emerged from a hole in the Pacific Ocean and attacked the city of Osaka, Japan. The second is “The Anteverse,” another universe on the other side of that gaping portal, 5 miles below our ocean’s surface. Since the first attack, the rim has been “spitting out” a variety of gigantic monsters at an increasing rate, which then stride out of the ocean and begin destroying sea-bordering cities, like Tokyo and Los Angeles. In order to combat these monstrous, otherworldly menaces, the military developed the “Jaeger” program, which trains teams of two pilots to jointly operate massive, building-sized mechanized suits of armor and high-tech weaponry.
That seems like enough spoilers for now, if you care to read on, do so at News In Film or The Playlist, who go onto detail plot lines involving an American and Japanese pilot teaming up to defeat the monsters via said high-tech awesomeness.
Insofar as everything in Beacham’s current draft, it sure sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, which is something that Del Toro (even in things like Blade II) has never failed to deliver. The only real concern it seems is what effect recent events will have on the production start date, as I can’t imagine Del Toro or Legendary Pictures being tactless enough to use such a disaster to their benefit (they are making a disaster film, after all). No word yet on potential stars for the film, but in any case, we’ll have more as Pacific Rim develops.
What are your thoughts on the plot details for Pacific Rim? Are you excited to see Del Toro bring more big monsters to the big screen?