We’ve been waiting for what seems like forever, but Godzilla is finally on the horizon. The film will launch on May 16th, and as you know by our constant sharing of every image, trailer, clip, and featurette, we’re damned excited. Today, I had a chance to chat with Max Borenstein, the film’s screenwriter and co-writer of the excellent Godzilla: Awakening graphic novel (which hits stores on May 7th). Here’s what Max had to say:
DK: First up, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself? Who is Max Borenstein?
MB: (laughs) Who is Max Borenstein? Well, I am a writer and filmmaker, I grew up in Los Angeles, and I’m a huge fan of many genres of film. I started out by directing my own film in college, and since then I’ve started doing some dramatic stuff; I wrote a movie about Jimi Hendrix and did a lot of character based drama stuff. Then I started getting opportunities to write bigger tentpole films and ‘Godzilla’ has been the most exciting and amazing creative experience of my career thus far.
DK: Right into ‘Godzilla’. How much did you love the 1998 film?
MB: (laughs… profusely) Does that answer your question?
DK: Haha. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was expecting. Seriously though, were you very familiar with the franchise before coming aboard as screenwriter? If so, what’s been your favourite film?
MB: I was familiar with the franchise as a kid, and I had refreshed myself when I got involved. What really excited me was rewatching the original, but seeing for the first time the Japanese cut, which I had never seen growing up. That has become my favourite Godzilla film. I just love it. I love a lot of the films for different reasons, but that one I think is an apotheon on its own. There’s something very special about it as a stand-alone film, and it uses the monster movie genre as a metaphor for something really harrowing and resonant.
1954 Godzilla
DK: What do you think makes a successful ‘Godzilla’ film, and what makes some of them unsuccessful?
MB: I can only speak creatively. Certainly, success in that other sense I think only the movie gods understand, but I do think that the interesting thing about Godzilla films is that there is no one way, there’s no one coherent Godzilla. There are many versions and he’s kind of evolved over the years in different iterations, representing different things appropriate to different eras. That’s one of the things that’s so interesting. Godzilla is kind of this vessel that can contain multitudes in an interesting way, from the more serious harrowing original, getting more campy , very 60’s, and then being rebooted in the 80’s and getting darker and more appropriate to those times and the different fears which kind of transitioned from nuclear stuff to environmental themes. I don’t know if there’s a secret formula but I think that what’s so incredible about it is its ability as a character and as a franchise to have this kind of extended life, where it’s ever appropriate. As long as people are thinking about it and reinventing it in interesting ways that speak to the times, I think to me, that’s what makes a Godzilla film especially resonant and successful beyond just the spectacle and fun and being well made. If anything sets certain films apart from the rest of the pack, it’s that thematic resonance that they manage to achieve.
DK: That’s an absolutely perfect answer.
MB: Cool.
DK: What challenges did you face developing a script that would appeal to mainstream North American audiences, while ensuring that it could still captivate Japanese moviegoers?
MB: In a very big way, all audiences want a great story told. There are very specific audiences for certain films, and then there’s the general audience for those same films. Obviously, Godzilla has a rabid fanbase, and many fanbases that appreciate different things. I don’t think that any one is probably exactly the same in terms of what he or she loves the most about this franchise, so I think that my aim certainly, and the aim of everyone involved in the film was not to try to overthink and strategize how to capture every audience, it was all about how do we make the best film that someone that had never heard of Godzilla would come in and be as captivated by it as we are. It’s the thing that drives us to want to make the movie to begin with, is our love for this franchise, but in order to really do that justice I think that you have to step outside and make a film that is going to convince someone who has no love and no interest going in, to fall in love with the franchise and with the character in the same way that we have. That was really our guiding principle, and I think that the assumption, and I hope this is true, is that if we aim high and try to make something that we think is the best film that we can make, it’s going to capture a North American audience, it’s going to capture the Japanese audience, and it’s going to hopefully capture audiences around the world. I think that that’s really the only honest way to approach any kind of process like this, is to try and respect the integrity of what you’re making.
Cover art for ‘Godzilla: Awakening’
DK: You also co-wrote the Godzilla: Awakening graphic novel. How did the idea for that prequel book come to be, and what was the biggest difference in writing that over the screenplay?
MB: That’s a good question. It came to be because Legendary is an awesome company, and they have a comic book division, and Thomas Tull, who is the Grand Poobah there and runs the show, is a giant Godzilla fan. He thought it would be rad to do a comic book that ties in to our reinvented or rebooted Godzilla universe. That was something that I was really excited about. I wrote it with my cousin, who I’m very close to and have been trying to find something to work on together. He’s a brilliant writer, he’s mainly in computer science and technology and he teaches and studies at MIT at the media lab. We got to collaborate on that which was a really wonderful process. Certainly the cool thing about writing the comic book, which I’ve actually only recently started to dabble in, this is really my first comic book, you have a lot more control in some ways in terms of the kind of story you’re able to tell because you don’t have to think about budget, or what you can afford or what you can actually get reality or CGI to help you achieve, you can just imagine it, and then it is so. Then again, there are certain constraints in terms of what that medium will allow storytelling-wise, which is a fascinating learning curve. That was something that was really fun and exhilarating to do. It made it a very fresh process for both of us. Creatively, Legendary has just been very supportive throughout the entire development of the film and so maybe the cliché or expected answer would be that we had so much more freedom developing the comic book than the film, because with the film there are more cooks in the kitchen. The truth is that everyone has always been on the same page in terms of wanting this movie and the whole franchise to continue. We all wanted it to be as great as it could be, so everyone has been extremely supportive and collaborative this whole time, and it was a very fun process.
DK: In writing the screenplay OR the graphic novel, were there any strange or unconventional ideas that were quickly disregarded?
MB: (laughs) Every idea under the sun was contemplated and disregarded at some point along the way, and that’s the only way, I think, that I know how to approach the creative process. I think the answer is that no, I probably can’t really talk about them. If I could even remember them it would only be interesting within the context, and also part of the beauty of getting to produce a finished product is sometimes not having to show what you looked like along the way.
DK: I didn’t think you’d be able to talk about it, but I had to try! On that note, do you see more comic book or graphic novel work in the cards for you?
MB: Do I see more? I love that. It was incredibly fun and fulfilling in a different way. It’s certainly faster, I mean I’d been writing the film for three years, or maybe more by the time it comes out, and the graphic novel took a few months. It was unbelievable to see your work and your words take shape and visual form that quickly. That’s very gratifying and there are a couple of other ideas that I’ve been dabbling with with Greg. So I sure hope so.
DK: Edwards, of course, planned Godzilla to work as a standalone film, but what classic Toho monster would you like to see in a sequel? What’s your favourite Toho creature?
MB: Well Godzilla is my favourite Toho monster, but if we’re expanding… That’s a good question. I don’t have one favourite, I mean really love King Ghidorah and I think that the really interesting thing is that all of the monsters are great in their context, and when you see this film the question is always about what is going to fit into the tone of the universe that we’ve created. We spent a long, hard time making sure that we were servicing that tone in the creation of the MUTOs, and if we were given the opportunity to work with any of the classic Toho monsters, I think that would be really rad. It would be about approaching it in the same way, in trying to bring them into this universe in a way that felt coherent and plausible within reality.
DK: What was your reaction to seeing this version of Godzilla move and roar on-screen for the first time?
MB: It’s the same reaction that I have every time I see it. It’s impossible to describe in words because it has more to do with the churning of the gut and the tingling of the spine and hair standing up on the back of your neck. It’s really a kick. I’m in it, and so it’s hard to step back and go ‘Holy shit, a year ago I was writing these words on the page, and now I’m watching this unbelievable spectacle come to life’. It’s a monster that looks cooler and more bad-ass than I could ever have imagined him.
DK: To finish up, the Godzilla subreddit wanted me to thank you, Gareth, and everyone involved in the project, for making Godzilla awesome and really relevant again. Is there a message that I can pass on to them, and to the rest of Godzilla’s fans for you?
MB: That’s thrilling and awesome. Part of the crazy thing about getting to make a movie in this day and age where fan reaction is immediate and vocal and ever present is the beauty of seeing people respond, hopefully positively to what you made, but also the terror of what people are going to say. The fan reactions thus far have been so heartening. I’d really like to thank them.
DK: Perfect. Thanks so much for taking the time today Max, and I absolutely cannot wait to see the movie, it looks amazing.
MB: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you Derek.
You can pre-order Godzilla: Awakening from Amazon, and you know where to get your movie tickets. How excited are you for the film?