CineSavant Column
Hello!
Some fast items today at CineSavant, no waiting. Correspondent Christopher Rywalt found this AV Club article by Matt Schimkowitz about the sidebar subject ‘movie trailer narrators.’
I identify with the piece because, when editing promos and trailers at The Cannon Group in the late 1980s, I had many recording sessions with the ‘king’ of the voiceover talents Don LaFontaine. Mo and Yo liked his gravely, hard-edged delivery so much, that he was heard on all kinds of pictures, not just idiotic Charles Bronson vigilante movies. For prices ranging up to a $1000 for a half-hour session, he rode around town in a chauffeured limo, speaking on a radiophone to line up his next gig a few blocks away. The limo would be parked in front of a recording studio (or our Cannon HQ) for twenty minutes, and then he’d be off.
If the head of the department Richard Smith were there, La Fontaine might listen to some direction. Whenever I ran in with some tacky promo narration for him to read, he’d ignore me, read it his way, and walk out. It was always good!
This YouTube Godzilla Promo has been circulating, so I asked advisor & mentor Gary Teetzel to explain it for us. What’s it for? Is it part of an upcoming movie? Gary’s response:
Every year Toho uses November 3 — the anniversary of Gojira’s original 1954 release — to celebrate ‘Godzilla Day’ and promote any upcoming Godzilla projects: films, anime, video games, major promotional partnerships, etc. As part of the festivities, they have, for the past 6 years or so, produced a live-action short film using traditional man-in-suit effects. Between 2020 and 2024, they re-used a Godzilla suit originally built for Godzilla: Final Wars, and usually tied the shorts to some film celebrating an anniversary. For example, on the 50th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Hedorah, the short subject had Godzilla battling Hedorah. The shorts between 2020 to 2024 were loosely connected, with some ending in a cliffhanger resolved in the next year’s short. Last year’s short, with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar battling King Ghidorah, seemed to bring this cycle of short films to a close.
This year’s short uses a suit from the so-called ‘Millenium’ era of Godzilla features (those made between 1999 and 2004). It’s starting a new cyle of Godzilla Day short subjects, ending with a cliffhanger to be resolved in next year’s short. Toho also made a few Godzilla Day short films using modern CGI effects that were separate from the “man-in-suit” shorts, but doesn’t appear to have made one this year.
So that’s the long answer to your simple question: It’s not a teaser, not a part of an upcoming movie, just a stand-alone short film. Toho also used Godzilla Day to announce that the sequel to Godzilla Minus One will be titled Godzilla Minus Zero. It is currently filming, with a release in Japan likely slated for late 2026.
Thanks Gary !
And correspondent David Bush offers a link to this YouTube show from Adam Savage, a part-tour of a Paramount vault. Savage apparently does more of these — the YouTube page that comes up lists another one called Secrets of the Paramount Film Archives.
The video piece features the exec director of the archive, Chuck Woodfill. We get a glimpse of the facilities, and then are given a show-and-tell presentation of movie formats from the very beginning, right through umpteen-zillion videotape formats that I am doing my best to forget about, in retirement. Woodfill’s explanation of things like ‘vinegar syndrome’ are very good.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson