'Pacific Rim' (2013) - Guillermo Del Toro's Mecha VS. Kaiju film.
 

As a big time science fiction geek, I feel like I'm being spoiled with all of these potentially great films coming out over the next couple years. Along with 'Elysium' -- 'Pacific Rim' is one of my most anticipated films to see in 2013. This flick came into fruition after Del Toro had a falling out with Universal after they wouldn't allow him to make the big budgeted 'At the Mountains of Madness' rated R. However, as a big time mecha fanboy -- a proud one at that -- I have to say that I'm glad 'At the Mountains of Madness' didn't happen, even if for selfish reasons. :D Anyway, pre-production and conceptual illustration has already begun, with filming set to begin in November 2011 and an eventual release date of July 12th, 2013.

The small plot synopsis for 'Pacific Rim' is as follows:

"This project will give the Hellboy filmmaker the opportunity to create two worlds. The first is an alternate version of Earth in the near future, decades after a historic date in November 2012 when the first kaiju, a towering Godzilla-like beast, emerged from a hole in the Pacific Ocean and attacked the city of Osaka, Japan. The second is “The Anteverse,” another universe on the other side of that gaping portal, 5 miles below our ocean’s surface. Since the first attack, the rim has been “spitting out” a variety of gigantic monsters at an increasing rate, which then stride out of the ocean and begin destroying sea-bordering cities, like Tokyo and Los Angeles. In order to combat these monstrous, otherworldly menaces, the military developed the “Jaeger” program, which trains teams of two pilots to jointly operate massive, building-sized mechanized suits of armor and high-tech weaponry."

I had the pleasure of speaking to someone who had more info on Jaeger system, there's apparently a lot of different styles of em', but the main focus is on the Mark I and Mark II. The Mk. 1 is more bestial in its design, while the Mk. II is actually very similar in design to a Gundam (finally, a huge bi-pedal mecha that resembles an anime design is coming to the big screen). Oh, and the Mk. II can perform kick-boxing like moves, so that should be interesting.

And here are some more minor plot details, which focus on the characters:

"The main character is the pilot of one of these Jaeger juggernauts, 23-year-old Raleigh Antrobus, who is haunted by memories of the death of his brother and co-pilot, Yance, in combat with one of the monsters a year earlier. Other characters who apparently feature are Mako Mori, the new female co-pilot Raleigh is paired up with, and Felicity “Flick” Kincaid, investigative journalist and fiancé of the late Yance."

The cast currently consists of: Idris Elba ('Thor'), Rinko Kikuchi ('Babel'), Charlie Day ('It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia') - damn right, son, and Charlie Hunnam ('Sons of Anarchy').

And while at Comic-Con today, Del Toro had these amazingly awesome quotes:

"Giant robots verses giant monsters. I cannot say more about the monsters. Some of the synopsis that is out there is not exactly accurate. There is going to be a gigantic spectacle of action, science fiction and horror."

"It’s the most fun I’ve had in a Hollywood movie. Ever. It should be almost illegal. We are enjoying it so much. We are designing monsters all day long. Gigantic fucking monsters all day long."

"I’m really a freak every place I go. I don’t quite fit in the independent scene. I don’t quite fit in the art scene. I don’t fit in the Hollywood scene. I’m a weird, strange, fat motherfucker and I plan to stay that way."

This definitely sounds like a labor of love for Del Toro. I couldn't be any more excited as a fan, especially after hearing his genuine love for the project. The guy is such a refreshing personality for Hollywood -- you can tell he's a bona fide geek. I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie, hopefully some conceptual art will come out soon. I really want to see what both the mechs and monsters look like.

I would have preferred a version of At the Mountains of Madness (because Del Toro could have done Lovecraft right), but this still looks extremely fun.

This sounds like an awesome film. Hopefully the production values will hold up, and the script will be decent. But considering this has Del Toro's name on it, and from what he says they're having fun making it, I can see this film turning out to be a very fun film.

Also I'm all for more mecha in western films, particularly piloted mecha. It's also been a while since we've had a "giant monsters rampage over city and cause general destruction" movie. w00t.

As much as I'd love to Del Toro handle any of Lovecraft's work, it just wasn't going to happen -- even James Cameron and Tom Cruise couldn't change Universal's mind. Studios no longer want to invest large sums of money into R rated films after the 'Watchmen'/WB debacle.

If it's Del Toro, odds are the production values will certainly hold up. If I'm not mistaken, this will be the largest budget he has ever worked with (somewhere between $150 to $170 million, I believe). I'm really optimistic about this film's quality going forward.

Ditto on wanting to see more mech in Western films. 'District 9' really turned me on to that possibility, I became obsessed with mecha after seeing that movie. Primarily because of how unique its design and weaponry was. I can't wait to see what Del Toro does with mechs of these sizes.

Avatar also had some decent Mechs, though not quite as good as District 9.

I think we're capable of churning out mecha to compete with the Japanese. It would be a terrible thing if giant robots continued to be only associated with Transformers and Michael Bay... For one thing, Transformers have no pilots, so the human characters inevitably feel tacked on.

I'm getting the feeling this movie could feel a bit like Evangelion. Obviously it will have it's own plot and direction (and probably not contain otaku bait like Rei/Asuka), but it shares that whole "apocalyptic monsters invading" thing. And we know that del Toro can nail stuff being horrific. Who knows what weird stuff he'll think up!

I wanted to like the mechs from 'Avatar', but they looked a bit too similar to the powerloader in 'Aliens.'

I agree. I totally agree. I think with the VFX technology rapidly improving, we could start seeing more films similar to 'Pacific Rim' -- in that they'll feature giant bi-pedal mech or robots in general.

Yeah, a lot of people are drawing parallels between 'Pacific Rim' and 'Evangelion', and that's fair, there are some notable similarities. But in the end, I think Del Toro will allow this film to stand on its own two legs.

Anyway, here's a logo that was spotted at Comic-Con today:



Del Toro also provided this statement at Legendary Pictures' panel today: "It is my duty to commit to film the finest fucking monsters ever committed to screen and it is my duty to create the greatest fucking robots ever committed to screen.”

I can't wait for this.

EDIT: Here's a video of Guillermo Del Toro talking about wanting to push the boundaries of VFX technology with this film:



'Pacific Rim' will also have its own panel tomorrow, really looking forward to getting more info.

The CBC news website has a report on how, for this movie, a part of Toronto is cosplaying as Tokyo...

This sounds so good...

I'm all in for giant PILOTED robot versus freaking kaiju action

i hope the battles are better than the Mechagodzilla vs Godzilla movies

Is that better than just shooting in Tokyo?
EDIT: Oh, this thread was made by one of my favorite people.

I think it is. IIRC, areas in Tokyo city cannot be "bought" or "reserved" for shooting especially by foreign filmmakers. Tokyo is too busy for that, I guess. Still, I could be wrong ;).

I'd think that people would actually go into a panic if they shot in Tokyo since they get attacked by, well, something gigantic everyday.

There's some restrictions imposed by the Tokyo municipal government or the local film board for on-location filming, as they tend to disrupt local activity; examples include Babel (they had to shoot scenes on the sly) and Tokyo Drift (most of the in-city car-chase action sequences were shot at Los Angeles).

Here's an article as to why it's hard to shoot there:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/a...lming-in-tokyo

Thanx for the clarification/confirmation and information. I do appreciate it ;).

Wow. That Jaeger is HUGE!

Oh damn, that's one sexy mech, with the head reminding me of the Crysis Nanosuits. Now if only they show us the rest of the mech. I didn't expect it to be that HUGE though, just from that poster alone it's head and neck alone is taller than any Gundam. This looks to be a Gunbuster-sized machine, if not larger. :eek:

Odd how America's first unique giant-robot movie in a long while is going SUPERSIZEME right off the bat :heh:

Also:

Willem Dafoe and Rob Kazinsky joining Pacific Rim

Wouldn't be any different (in size) than starting with Mazinger and the like Super Robots.

Plus if they are suppose to fight Godzilla sized creature....you need to be big to take and throw a punch. ( I prefer Full Metal Panic sized Arm Slaves if this was a military type story without the Kaiju.)

You know Mazinger is one of the smaller Super Robots in existence. You can fit the whole of Mazinger Z within that one poster and have wiggle room. And few Japanese Super Robots ever reach Gunbuster or Daitarn size, let alone American machines, so this was a pleasant surprise.

All we need to see now is what the Kaiju look like.

By estimation, from just the poster alone, if the person is of average height of 1.8m, and if the head is 8 humans tall and the mecha has the ideal proportions of 9 heads, this mecha would be 129.6m tall.

Its a very impressive height with this estimate, beating Daitarn 3, Baldios and Ideon, but still not quite Gunbuster.

To reach 200m, the mecha head itself would probably need to be at the very least 10 humans tall and has to be more than 9 heads tall itself.

EDIT: Mazinger is a toy sized 20m by mecha standards, it could stand on Gunbuster's palm with more than enough comfort lol

SWEEEEET!

But this better not be an exaggeration like many movie posters do. For example, in Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, they exaggerated Godzilla's size in the poster showing its foot/leg.