Before Gareth Edwards' and Legendary Pictures' Godzilla (2014) made it to the silver screen, the film and its concepts had gone through some fairly drastic changes. For starters, the original height for Godzilla was originally going to be 600-feet tall, different designs for the MUTOs as well as their names and abilities were very different and roles for the film's main characters were nearly opposite to what they became. The entire draft by David Callaham, David S. Goyer, and Max Borenstein spanned 107 pages when it was submitted to Legendary in June of 2012. Most of the script was changed before filming began, but below is a rough outline of what the original script contained, thanks to the guys at WikiZilla:
- The atomic test in the very beginning of the movie which is gone into detail in with Godzilla: Awakeningactually has a full-fledged scene instead of being part of the opening.
- Krasnokamensk, Siberia, Russia is the site where Dr. Serizawa flies to instead of the Philippines, ten years prior to the events of Godzilla.
- "Dr. Stabler" takes the place of the man who meets Serizawa and Graham in the Philippines.
- Ishiro Serizawa is called "Honda."
- Vivienne Graham doesn't appear in this draft.
- Instead of finding a giant Godzilla skeleton in the cave and 2 M.U.T.O. spores, the skeletons of giant 3 creatures (a Godzilla and 2 M.U.T.O.s) are found frozen in ice.
- Ford Brody is called "Ford Maddox" and is not in elementary school during the opening when his mother dies in the power plant; he's an 18-year old high school senior ready to go off to college.
- Elle Brody is called "Elle Maddox" and is Ford's 13-year old sister instead of his wife.
- Joseph Brody is called "Nathan Brody," is 40 years old, and is Ford's and Elle's step-father.
- Sandra Brody is called "Linda Maddox" and is 40 years old.
- The opening takes place in a suburban neighborhood in the Shakotan peninsula in Hokkaido, Japan, instead of in the fictional city of Janjira, Japan.
- The company that ran Janjira's power plant are called "Jancorp" in this script.
- The MUTOs are referred to as "Hokmuto" (male--from "Hokkaido" and "MUTO") and "Femuto" (female--from "female" and "MUTO").
- Akio, the Hawaiian boy Ford protects in the final film, is called "Ichiro" in this script and is Japanese.
- In this draft, Godzilla is explicitly mentioned to be 600 feet tall (182 meters).
- The 'Hokmuto' is defeated [not killed] early on, outmatched by Godzilla as it was hunting alone instead of in a pair with a female. So, Hokmuto turns himself into a chrysalis where later on it breaks free and has grown 4 wings.
- Godzilla uses his Atomic Breath for the first time against the male MUTO instead of the female MUTO.
- Godzilla rips off one of the male MUTO's wings.
- Only the female MUTO has EMP powers, and whenever the female is close, Godzilla cannot breathe his atomic breath.
- Instead of Ford Brody destroying the MUTO eggs by igniting an explosion by himself, he gets the help of other soldiers and destroys a spore by jamming a pair of boltcutters through it.
- Instead of impaling the 3-winged Hokmuto with a broken building, Godzilla crushes the Hokmuto's head with a strong bite.
- Instead of firing down his Atomic Breath down the female MUTO's mouth in a "Kiss of Death," Godzilla cuts off the Femuto's head clean off her neck with his claws.
As you can see, much of the script was altered when Max Borenstein came on to revise the scirpt for Legendary.
What do you think of the changes that were made? Did they make the film better in your opinion? Do you think Godzilla (2014) would have been more successful if the original script had gone unaltered? Let us know in the comments section!
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