Screen Rant Interviews John Carpenter About Masters of Monsters Marathon

Just to be frank first, I don't consider Screen Rant a reliable source when it comes to news on upcoming movies. I always look for sources such as The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline, Entertainment Weekly, or straight from the horse's mouth on social media. However, an article from Screen Rant randomly appeared on my Twitter feed last night that I had to give a read and this will be one of the few exceptions where I use Screen Rant as a source because they sat down with John Carpenter to talk to them about the upcoming Godzilla movie marathon: "Masters of Monsters."

I won't go through the whole interview. I will just break it down to make the long story short because the interview does go off talking about other stuff unrelated to Godzilla and the Masters of Monsters marathon.

The interview begins with Screen Rant asking Carpenter his favorite Godzilla movie and he responds that his favorite is Godzilla (1954). Ever since he was a kid he had been in love with the film and the film was what made him a Godzilla fan in the first place. Then, he passed it on to his kids, which also made them Godzilla fans and how it was very important to him that his kids love Godzilla movies.

Next question asked about the marathon came about and how it was put together with Shout! Factory. Carpenter replied that it was Shout! Factory contacting him asking if he would like to do this marathon knowing he is a Godzilla fan and gave an immediate "Yes" on the offer.

He was asked if it was difficult to choose the movies for the marathon and he said choosing the movies was actually easy. He goes on to mention the hardest part was pronouncing the Japanese names of people like Eiji Tsubaraya and Akira Ifukube, but found Ishirō Honda easy to say.

When asked if the original Godzilla film influenced his filmmaking style. Carpenter mentions it is more of the mood of Godzilla (1954) because of how dark the movie was and found that to be unbelievable, which was what got Carpenter going in the first place. Otherwise, Godzilla had not played any inspiration or influence for any of his movies. He does say that he finds it pretty cool to take monster movies, which (in his opinion) are not known for thematic material, and make something that could speak about what is going on in the world.

Now, we get to the point in the interview where every one of us has had questions on. Questions such as, "Would John Carpenter be interested in making a giant monster movie or a Godzilla movie?" and "What are his thoughts on the Monsterverse?"

When asked if he ever considered making a film like Godzilla, John Carpenter states, "I don't think so. It just seems to me that it would be difficult to integrate the special effects of the creatures and monsters with the people. They were very separate. I think I'll watch rather than try."