Movies - TV
The Legendary Lightbulb Moment That Launched The Godzilla Franchise
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Godzilla has been an icon of Japanese cinema since the monster’s debut in Ishiro Honda’s 1954 film “Gojira.” Despite Godzilla’s popularity, it’s unclear who created the creature.
However, in 2004’s “Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters” by William Tsutsui, “Gojira” producer Tomoyuki Tanaka claims it was his idea.
Tanaka shared that Godzilla came to him after the expensive Toho production “Shadow of Honor” fell through due to failed real-life diplomacy between Japan and Indonesia.
While flying back to Japan, Tanaka looked down at some islands below and pondered the American nuclear bomb test in the Bikini Atoll and the growing popularity of giant monsters.
His idea was, “What if a dinosaur sleeping in the Southern Hemisphere had been awakened and transformed into a giant by the Bomb? What if it attacked Tokyo?”
While Tanaka claims this was his “Eureka!” moment, his story is contestable. The idea of Godzilla was likely the result of cinema trends and economic necessity.