Godzilla Minus One writer-director Takashi Yamazaki will make his English-language debut with a film titled Grandgear. The project will be produced by Star Trek and Star Wars director J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot, alongside Sony, who won the rights to Grandgear after an intense bidding war with other studios, according to Deadline. Yamazaki will write and direct the film, but there’s no word if he’ll also handle special effects, as he did with Godzilla Minus One and numerous other movies in his large body of work.
J.J. Abrams is no stranger to giant monster movies, having produced the 2008 disaster pic Cloverfield. He’s also been behind some of the biggest science fiction franchises of all time, including Star Wars and Star Trek, as well as TV shows Lost and Fringe. Reportedly there were several factors that went into the team’s decision to pair with Sony, including the studio’s commitment to theatrical releases and its close ties to Japan via its parent company. This indicates that whatever Grandgear is, it will be best viewed on a big screen. Plot details are also being kept secret at the moment.
While Godzilla Minus One became an international hit and introduced Yamazaki to the world, prior to this massive success, the director had been working steadily in Japan in television and film since the 1990s. Respected in his native country for decades as one of its top blockbuster filmmakers, his entry into the Godzilla universe became the franchise’s most successful film to date, and it won the 2024 Academy Award for best achievement in visual effects, a first for the 70-year-old kaiju. Naturally, a sequel to Godzilla Minus One is in the works, with Yamazaki once again at the helm.
‘Godzila Minus One’ Made History at the Oscars
Godzilla Minus One was made on a modest budget of $15 million, with an equally small team of just 35 VFX artists, including the director. Compare that with the film’s Oscar competition, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which cost about $250 million to make and boasted 10 separate effects teams. Yamazaki and his crew proved a blockbuster film need not cost an arm and a leg to be visually stunning, as well as heartfelt and emotional in its storytelling. Will Grandgear follow a similarly economic path?
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The franchise winning an Oscar wasn’t the only historic first for the film at the 96th Academy Awards. Effects team member Kiyoko Shibuya became the first woman of color to receive a nomination (and ultimately win) in the visual effects category. She told Variety at the time of her nomination:
“In Japan, when you work in the VFX industry, it’s almost non-existent to run into another female, especially on the VFX supervisor level… Coming to the U.S. and having that same message resonated, just being able to talk in front of everyone during Q&As, or even during the Oscar luncheon, I felt this connection with the other women in the field and the film industry in general. Although we’re speaking different languages, we have the same love for films in that way. I just hope that we can help transform this industry and make it open and welcoming to everyone who wants to be in it.”
Here’s hoping Yamazaki brings Shibuya and his entire Godzilla Minus One team onboard for Grandgear.
