Trivia / Godzilla (1994)

• Follow the Leader: Why this version of Godzilla never got made. After the financial success of Independence Day, TriStar Pictures decided that they wanted their own disaster movie to compete (plus a handy way to ride the coattails of the first Jurassic Park sequel, killing two birds with one stone) and so hired that film's director, Roland Emmerich, to direct the film, even though he admitted that he never liked Godzilla in the first place.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: One legend associated with this planned 1994 US remake was that it would star an adult Junior. According to the myth, the original ending of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) was initially going to end with Godzilla performing a Heroic Sacrifice by exploding and pulling a Taking You with Me on Mechagodzilla. Junior was then said to grow into an adult Godzilla and head to America where the US films would start. In reality, no such idea was ever conceived by Toho, TriStar, or any film company at the time, but the myth was believed for so long, even James Rolfe brought it up in his review of the film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film itself, of course, but Ricardo Delgado was hired alongside Stan Winston to come up with concept sculptures for Godzilla. Winston's design more closely resembled the Japanese Godzilla◊, while Delgado's bore a stronger resemblance to a theropod dinosaur while still recognizably being Godzilla.
  • Jan de Bont (the director of Speed) was attached to direct this project but budget issues led him to leave the project and direct Twister instead.

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