It's hard to be surprised at a major show like Comic-Con, and indeed, WB/Legendary's ace-in-the-sleeve had already leaked out a few weeks back; namely, that "Monsters" director Gareth Edwards would be there to support his "Godzilla" reboot for the studio. But even after Guillermo del Toro's glimpse of "Pacific Rim" (look for our reactions to that soon) caused nerd palpitations in Hall H, "Godzilla" was able to raise the game.
Edwards took to the stage to unveil a top secret teaser trailer; an impressive achievement for a film that hadn't publicly been green-lit (although presumably it has got the go-ahead if it's at this stage). The clip showed a devastated city, over the famous speech by atomic pioneer Edward Teller, with a fallen giant monster at its center. Then dust and rubble are kicked off, and the silhouette of Godzilla himself stands and screams in his trademark roar.
The clip, shown well before principal photography has even begun, seemed to go down a storm in Hall H (with a second showing by popular demand), and director Gareth Edwards, who'll be making only his second feature with the project, was visibly moved by the reaction. The director then told fans that it'll be a highly grounded, realistic movie, saying "The idea is to see if this really happened, what would it be like," before adding, wryly, "I've never worked this hard or been this heavily involved in something since I lost my virginity."
The clip hasn't yet made its way online (and may not, at least not officially), but Legendary Pictures has released a stylish teaser poster, although it's not giving much away (see below). What we don't have at present is information on a start or release date for the picture (which has been written by "Batman Begins" scribe David S. Goyer and Max Borenstein). Our guess is that they're targeting summer of 2014, but we're sure more concrete info will follow in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned for more from Comic-Con. – Reporting by Jeff Otto
