Godzilla Minus Zero arrives Nov. 6 in U.S. theaters, and the man behind it wants you to know he took notes from Steven Spielberg. Director Takashi Yamazaki spoke with Polygon about the upcoming sequel, revealing that the classic sci-fi films Jaws, Children of Men and War of the Worlds all shaped his approach to the kaiju saga.
The movie wraps up the story Yamazaki started three years earlier with Godzilla Minus One. A trailer for the film promises a final chapter.
Yamazaki’s Influences
Yamazaki says monster movies are a fundamental part of who he is, so naming specific influences is hard. But he pointed to a few clear examples:
- The opening sequence of Children of Men, a long single take that created a sense of suffocation
- The relentless space weapons in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, told from the human perspective
- The chase sequences in Children of Men, which he adapted for his own film
He framed the Spielberg comparison carefully. The relentlessness and inescapability of the alien attacks in War of the Worlds informed the tone of his own film.
“There is no third time,” a thrilling new trailer promises. “Everything ends here.”
Shooting for IMAX
The director also discussed the technical challenges of making a movie designed for the big screen. He explained why Godzilla looks bigger in IMAX.
“The challenges of course we’re dealing with a completely different aspect ratio,” he said. “We have to add in a lot of computer graphics and a lot of rendering for what we had to show in the IMAX aspect ratio.”
He acknowledged the practical limits. “Not quite, but almost a life size version of that,” he said of the scale of the kaiju on screen.
“Yes, Godzilla will feel bigger on IMAX,” he added.
Yamazaki defended other formats too. He saw the film in Cinemascope and called it “true cinema.” He watched it in Dolby Cinema recently and praised the colors and contrast.
“Each format has its own attraction, and you will be able to enjoy it in the various formats it comes out in,” he said.
What to Watch For
Godzilla Minus Zero lands in U.S. theaters on Nov. 6. The film promises a final chapter for the story Yamazaki started three years ago with Godzilla Minus One.
The trailer’s promise of a definitive ending suggests the story will resolve in a way that closes the book on this particular era of Godzilla. Yamazaki’s comments suggest the film will lean on spectacle and scale, with the chase sequences drawing directly from Children of Men.
The director’s openness about his influences is refreshing. Rather than claiming originality, he points to the filmmakers who inspired him, including Spielberg.
The technical discussion about IMAX was equally candid. Yamazaki admitted the difficulties of shooting for a format with a vastly different aspect ratio than standard cinema.
The result, he hopes, is a Godzilla that feels truly enormous on the biggest screens. Whether audiences agree will depend on which theater they choose.
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