If there’s a list of daunting cinematic challenges, rebooting a monster movie franchise born sixty years ago and well steeped in pop culture is probably high on it. That didn’t stop filmmaker Gareth Edwards from taking on the task.
如果真有一份令人望而生畏的电影挑战清单，重启一部诞生于60年前、深度浸淫流行文化的怪兽系列电影大概会名列前茅。不过，这却没能阻止制片人加里斯·爱德华斯接手此项任务。
Edwards, a resident of the United Kingdom, got his start working as a visual effects artist on BBC Television’s Heroes and Villains. After winning a London-based festival competition that tasks aspiring filmmakers to create—from scratch—a short film over the span of two days, Edwards moved onto the indie film for which he’s best known up to this point: Monsters.
英国居民爱德华斯的（生涯）起步是在BBC电视台的《英雄列传》中担任视觉特效师。爱德华斯在一次伦敦电影竞赛中获奖，该竞赛要求踌躇满志的制片者们在两天的时间内（从零开始）制作一部短片；此后他转向独立电影，其迄今最为人熟知的便是：《怪兽》。
Made on with small budget of less than $500,000, Monsters saw Edwards pulling a multitude of duties behind the camera. Not only did he serve as the writer and director of his first feature, he’s also credited as Monsters’ director of photography, production designer, and naturally, visual effects artist. In fact, he put the film’s visuals together working with consumer grade software from his home.
《怪兽》以少于50万美元的有限预算制作完成，可想爱德华斯在镜头背后的身兼多职。他不仅在自己的处女作中担任编剧与导演，而且还挂职《怪兽》的摄影指导、后期设计师，自然也是视觉效果工程师。事实上，他是在家中用消费者级别的软件对影片做了视觉效果处理。
Comprised of only two actors and a handful of crew members, the production size of Monsters was just as modest as its budget. Grassroots filmmaking at its finest, the movie earned positive reviews from critics, a half-dozen British Independent Film Awards nominations, a strong return-on-investment for backer Vertigo Films, and of course, bigger opportunities for Edwards—namely, the chance to helm this year’s Godzilla reboot.
《怪兽》仅有两名演员和少数剧组工作人员，其制作规模与其预算一般秀气。该电影将草根电影制作到极致，赢得评论家的积极评价，6个英国独立电影奖项提名，为赞助商Vertigo Films赚取丰厚的投资回报率，当然也为爱德华斯争取到更大的机会，换言之，执掌今年重启的《哥斯拉》项目。
However, if Edwards’ trajectory is one of the upward kind, the Japanese creature’s hasn’t been so in many years.
然而，如果说爱德华斯的事业是蓬勃向上的，但这头日本怪兽在许多年间可非一帆风顺。
1954’s original Godzilla from Toho Company, Ltd. still represents one of the most iconic films of the 20th Century, as well as one of Japan’s most influential contributions to global film culture. Directed by Ishirō Honda, the genesis of the original film’s titular monster is often credited as a thematic allegory for Japan’s cultural mood following the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, shortly before the end of World War II. In the original film, Godzilla and his attack were portrayed as terrors created by nature in the wake of mankind’s pursuit—and success—in splitting the atom.
1954年来自东宝股份有限公司的原版《哥斯拉》仍是20世纪最具代表性的电影之一，也是日本对全球电影文化最具影响力的贡献之一。由本多猪四郎导演，被用作原版电影片名的怪兽，其起源通常被视为1945年二战结束前不久遭受广岛与长崎核毁灭之后的日本文化意境的主题性寓言。在原版电影中，哥斯拉和它的攻击被描绘成人类追求核裂变——并取得成功——之后大自然造成的恐怖。
Unfortunately, the darker and deeper metaphors of the original movie were lost in following decades. Toho produced sequel after sequel, steadily in favor of lighter tones that appealed to younger viewers (such as 1967’s Son of Godzilla). The creature went through several evolutions as an anti-hero, often defending humanity only when he deemed it the lesser of two evils when facing other monsters that threatened Godzilla himself. Entries like 1984’s The Return of Godzilla attempted to correct the course along the way by reintroducing the original film’s themes, but ultimately the direction of the franchise proved unstable.
不幸的是，原版电影中的这个阴郁深刻的隐喻在接下来的几十年里消失殆尽。东宝制作一部接一部的续集，稳步地转变为较轻松的基调吸引年轻观众（比如1967年的《怪兽岛决战：哥斯拉之子》）。这个怪物作为反英雄通过几轮演变，往往只有当哥斯拉面临其他怪兽自身受到威胁时会两害取其轻而去保卫人类，。1984年的《战龙哥斯拉之怪兽王复活》试图通过重新引入原本主题纠正路线，但最终系列的方向还是摇摆不定。
Of course, in 1998, director Roland Emmerich followed up the massive global success of his Independence Day with the first Americanized take on the world’s most famous monster (Sony had obtained producing rights from Toho in the early 1990s). Emmerich’s Godzilla earned a disappointing $379 million worldwide against a high price tag of $190 million (including estimated costs for prints and advertising). Overseas numbers were decent enough for the time, but domestic audiences rejected the movie. After a $44 million opening weekend, word of mouth killed the film’s potential for summer legs and quickly ended Sony’s plans for a franchise.
当然，在1998年，导演罗兰·艾默里奇紧随其《独立日》的轰动性全球成功之后，接手哥斯拉成为世界最知名怪兽的首部美国化尝试（索尼在90年代初从东宝公司获得制作权）。艾默里奇的《哥斯拉》赚得令人失望的3.79亿美元全球票房，与其高价成本1.9亿美元（包括印刷品和广告预算成本）不成比例。海外票房当时看来还算体面，但（北美）国内观众拒绝这部电影。在4400万美元首映周后，口碑淹没了影片在夏季中旬的潜力，并迅速打消了索尼对这一系列的计划。
Fortunately for Gareth Edwards, Sony allowed its rights to expire five years after the failed blockbuster attempt. Following 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, Toho itself abandoned the pursuit of more Godzilla pics.
加里斯·爱德华斯很幸运，索尼在这次巨资尝试流产五年之后任由其版权过期。继2004年《哥斯拉：最后决战》后，东宝自己也放弃了哥斯拉更多电影的追求。
Enter Legendary Pictures.
传奇影业接手
The emerging studio, in the middle of a box office hot streak through its partnership with Warner Bros., jumped at the chance to purchase the rights from Toho in early 2010. Within two years, Legendary and WB officially announced an entirely new take on the franchise.
这家新兴的工作室，与其合作伙伴华纳兄弟影业在票房上屡战屡胜，在2010年初抓住机会买下东宝公司的版权。不出两年，传奇影业与华纳兄弟影业便正式宣布该系列的全新重启。
Enter Gareth Edwards.
加里斯·爱德华斯加盟
Principal photography on the new Godzilla commenced in March 2013, wrapping three months later. Edwards and his team worked quickly to get the film ready and the effort is paying off. Godzilla earned nearly $200 million during its first weekend of global release. Moviegoers around the world are responding with enthusiasm, which means that Godzilla should easily hit $500 million globally. The film is also generating a lot of revenue on IMAX screens. Godzilla currently holds the record for biggest North American IMAX opening with an impressive $14.1 million.
新版《哥斯拉》主要拍摄始于2013年3月，3个月后收尾。爱德华斯与其团队速战速决，这一努力大见成效。《哥斯拉》在全球首映周赚得2亿美元票房。世界各地的观众均热情响应，这意味着《哥斯拉》应该能轻松赢得5亿美元全球票房。电影在IMAX银幕的上映同时也收获颇丰。《哥斯拉》目前保持着北美IMAX首映1410万美元这一令人难忘的最高纪录。
明星渡边谦与导演加里斯·爱德华斯在《哥斯拉》片场