Behind the Production of Godzilla vs. Kong

For decades, cinematic titans Godzilla and Kong have been following their own, separate theatrical journeys…until now. “Godzilla vs. Kong” is a monster-sized event film with heart, humor and enough non-stop action to transcend the genre. This rivalry for the ages fuels an epic adventure that spans the globe to bring these two forces of nature, both more powerful than ever before, face to face and fist to fist on land and at sea in a battle to restore balance to the Earth. 

Adam Wingard directed from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, story by Terry Rossio and Michael Dougherty & Zach Shields, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO CO., LTD. The film was produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull and Brian Rogers, with Jay Ashenfelter, Herbert W. Gains, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira executive producing. 

The film not only promises intense battles between these two behemoths, but emotion, laughs, and even a mystery. “The film picks up close to the last one, so in a lot of ways we’re picking up with Godzilla where we left off,” Wingard says. “But he’s suddenly behaving differently, and the scientists at Monarch—the government’s crypto-zoological agency dedicated to studying the Titans—as well as Madison Russell and a few others, are trying to figure out why he’s seemingly turned his back on humankind. Face it, it’s great if Godzilla’s on your side, but the second he turns against you, you’re in really big trouble.”  

“This movie is Kong’s exploration into his own history—his roots. It’s about discovery,” says Wingard, “and that opens a lot of doors to see what’s out there for the character.” 

Principal photography for “Godzilla vs. Kong” took place in Hawaii in the U.S. and in Queensland, Australia. Both were transformed to help bring to life the story’s settings, realistic and fantastical, from battles on land and at sea, and a breathtaking Hollow Earth that might be the very origin of the Titans. Wingard’s creative team included director of photography Ben Seresin, editor Josh Schaeffer and VFX supervisor John “DJ” Desjardins, along with production designers Tom Hammock and Owen Paterson and costume designer Ann Foley. 

Beginning in Hawaii on the island of Oahu, the designers utilized the wilds of the region’s jungle environment as the Pacific Ocean’s uncharted Skull Island biodome where Kong and Jia reside, observed by a legion of Monarch researchers and scientists. The Hawaii Convention Center served as a variety of interiors for both Monarch and APEX. Additional locales in the area used for filming included Lanai Lookout, the Kapolei Stages, Sand Island State Park and various addresses in the state capital of Honolulu and throughout the island. 

The USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor and a portion of Kalaekoa Airport doubled as the transport carrier that ostensibly journeys Kong across the sea to his new home. The site served a critical sequence in the story, which came about because, as Wingard relates, “We asked ourselves, ‘Where have we not seen these characters battle before?’ We’ve seen them fight in the city, in the jungle…all types of surroundings. But we realized we hadn’t seen them in a battle in the ocean.” 

Moving to Australia’s Gold Coast, the company accomplished some location work as well as the majority of its stage work, with builds that featured the transport ship’s bridge—including an outdoor water tank—Monarch’s outposts and mission control, Antarctica “exteriors,” the busy streets of Hong Kong, the cockpit of the APEX Heli-Craft, and the massive Hollow Earth. 

One of the most critical sets in the film, according to Hammock, was “Hollow Earth. To me, it was the biggest challenge from a design aspect. We developed it with Adam’s mantra of wanting to do as much of it in camera as possible. That really drove everything: starting to look around the world at different geology, different forests that were unique, thinking about what we could actually get in camera as a base that might not look totally familiar to the audience, and then what could we build in visual effects on top of that in-camera base. Hollow Earth ended up having that slightly familiar but also has a slightly alien feel to it. We didn’t want to go too far with it, because it is still of this world, but you want it to be distinctive.

“We split Hollow Earth up into parts and were looking at, for instance, lighting references that our cinematographer, Ben, could work with as well,” he continues. “For example, from Hawaii we were looking at the lighting in lightning storms that occur over volcanic eruptions and what the lighting’s like in that, and then combining that with Australia’s rainforest. Part of the advantage of being in Australia was we were able to draw inspiration from real rainforest areas that have living fossils, like Wollemi pines, and then also look at unique geological landscapes and combine all that inspiration together into the landscape of Hollow Earth.” 

Paterson adds that much of the visual inspiration came from the notion that “we imagined there would be a central core that generated some sort of photosynthesis power that supported the living things.” To that end, he says, “An artist, Michele Moen, did a lot of paintings for us, and we brought in a lot of reflective colors that you would find in an opal. For example, the handle of Kong’s scepter is almost opalized, as fossils often can be.” 

Producer Alex Garcia feels that “the journey through Hollow Earth is spectacular. Adam came up with these concepts, along with Tom and Owen, of this world that really exists on top of itself. Gravity reverses as you go through the middle of it and there are structures that meet one another in the sky. And there’s also peril in every corner. There are creatures that we’ve not encountered before, that our characters in the films have not encountered before. As they approach the center of Hollow Earth, going through a myriad of different landscapes and challenges, they get to this primordial site that is evidence of some kind of civilization having been there and as they enter it, it becomes clear that this is likely where Kong’s ancestors came from. There’s a massive temple with ancient markings, as well as evidence of a great battle having taken place. It’s an incredibly emotional moment in the film.” 

Putting the scale of the space in perspective, Paterson offers, “Because the Titans are so much bigger than human beings, the temple, for example, is probably 40 times the size of St. Peter’s Basilica, which is already enormous. Without making every shot a CG shot, we wanted the set to have the ability to progress some of the human storyline—how the scientists from APEX and Monarch view the landscape, and so on.” 

Despite Hollow Earth’s many unique opportunities to relate scale and scope, Paterson says that, from his perspective, ”I think probably the biggest challenge was the Hong Kong streets. Without giving too much away, Godzilla and Kong fight, and because of that they destroy large parts of the area. We built a physical set, which we were planning to build outside, but we decided we would bring it inside because of weather issues and lighting issues. That said, I think that the sequences came out really well.” 

The designer also managed to economize quite brilliantly. “Every set that we had already built and filmed and had pulled apart went into making the rubble for that set,” he smiles. 

Hammock reveals that the design team put their own spin on the region. “One goal was to present something the fans haven’t really seen before, which was a big motivation for the water battle, Godzilla’s turf, so to speak, but we also had to give Kong a chance to be in his element.” That meant ensuring a good portion of the showdown took place in a city or some other densely populated area with very, very tall buildings. “We redesigned Hong Kong with super skyscrapers that are essentially like trees, so even though you would assume it’s Godzilla’s comfort zone, it’s like he’s coming into Kong’s forest because it’s Kong who can take advantage of the height, leaping around and climbing the buildings and dropping down on Godzilla. In a way it gives them both the advantage.” 

It also ups the element of suspense about who will win. “When you’re orchestrating a fight scene between characters, be it monsters or humans, you always want to play to their strengths 15 and weaknesses so there’s a believability to it,” Wingard advises. “Keeping that in mind, every time we brought Godzilla and Kong together, putting them in these stylized environments hopefully made it possible to put our own stamp on the Monsterverse.” 

Costume designer Ann Foley also brought her creative eye and sensitive storytelling to the film. “One of the interesting aspects of designing ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ was the diverse environments the characters inhabit and encounter, starting with Skull Island,” she says. Foley, who is no stranger to world-building projects, says, “It was important to me that the costumes for all the characters—the principal characters, background actors and the considerable military element—felt very organic and specific to the world that director Adam Wingard wanted to create.” 

For Foley, one of the most rewarding characters to design was Jia, a young, orphaned girl who is one of the last surviving members of the Iwi tribe of Skull Island. “It was important to me that her costume represented a celebration of her Iwi heritage, while also showing the passage of time for the Iwi, who we last saw in the 1970s era in ‘Kong: Skull Island.’ Skull Island is now inhabited by the Monarch scientists and military who have established it as Monarch Base 1.

“Reflecting the passage of time,” Foley continues, “Jia’s clothing incorporates modern twists with her sneakers, shirt and pants; however, her Iwi wrap is a direct link to the heritage of the tribe and its history. This wrap serves many purposes: a blanket to stay warm, a shawl to disguise her, a hood to protect her from the elements. I also added the Iwi language down the front of the wrap to help imbue it with her Iwi heritage. Finally, another costume element I incorporated that is imported was the necklace she wears—it is made of Skull Crawler teeth that Jia gathered on the island. It was the Skull Crawlers that killed her family, so this necklace is a talisman of sorts that protects her from, and acknowledges, the danger of her past, empowering her for the possibilities of her future.” 

For the character of Nathan Lind, Foley found a very different kind of inspiration. “Nathan is definitely a child of the ’80s and early ’90s, so when Alexander Skarsgård and I started conceptualizing his character, we decided to do something more inventive and have a little bit of fun with him; we wanted to show him as a little bit of a nerd. That being said, he is also a hero of the movie, so he needed to feel heroic. Alex felt Nathan would be a fan of movies like ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Lethal Weapon,’ so we decided to pay homage to those films by adding subtle details into his costume, like his Adidas high tops that we aged down to make them look like he’s had them since high school, and his vest, which is clearly inspired by Marty McFly.” 

While Nathan may dress a little like a teenager, Madison Russell definitely is one. Foley says, “We get to see the important progression the character has made, starting as a remarkable young girl in ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ and evolving into an empowered young woman in this film. There is a strength that I hoped to communicate through her clothing. I wanted to show that idea with Maddie’s jacket. The idea was that it came out of her mother’s closet and that Maddie is continuing her mother’s mission to save the Titans. It’s a really wonderful character piece for her. I wanted her to have a mission outfit.” 

Foley observes that, in fact, “Every single one of the characters is on a mission in this film—Maddie is on a mission to save Godzilla and Jia is on a mission to save Kong, and then, of course, much of the rest of the cast are in their actual mission suits as they go down to Hollow Earth.” 

Among Foley’s favorite designs for the film are the costumes that the Monarch team wears to enter the Hollow Earth realm. She says, “This group of costumes was one of the first things I started working on with Adam. We were committed to exploring a new idea that did not mimic the superhero costumes and space suits that have been seen before in other films. The Monarch team is going into the unknown environment of Hollow Earth and so we wanted to imagine a suit that would offer them both protection from the potentially hostile environment, and something that audiences might not expect.” 

To that end, Foley employed a particular process to develop the fabric required to create the costumes. She explains, “Adam and I wanted to ensure that he fabric for the Monarch team suits had dynamic movement and a singular reflection of light. Using 3D fabric printing, I experimented with different techniques and inks until I landed on a red ink that was printed onto a fabric with a black base, and then layered a copper pattern on top of that. The result is that when the suit moves, it changes color depending on how the light hits it. It was an incredibly rewarding creative process that resulted in a fabric that is specific to the costume and not seen in any other film.” 

To complete the Monarch team costumes, Foley added a climbing harness over the suit that she modified for the film, and a riggers belt with a variety of tools that might be needed on the mission. 

Taking the overall imagery of the film into account, Garcia comments, “Adam has a really distinctive dynamic style. Visually, the movie has a really robust color palette, thanks to Adam and our incredible design team. They’ve really pushed some of the story elements to new and exciting places. And as world builders, what they’ve done with Hollow Earth—a mythical, secret world hidden within our own, believed by some to be the true origin point of the Titans—brings in 17 an entirely new element that we haven’t introduced on screen in this franchise before. That has been a really fun thing to watch.” 

To enhance through music the new worlds Wingard envisioned and then, with his incredible team of artist, realized, the director turned to Tom Holkenborg. 

The composer reveals, “I’m a huge fan of Godzilla and Kong, I’ve watched over 35 Godzilla movies over the years, so geeking out with Adam over this film came naturally. Kong is such an iconic character with over 90 years of scoring history behind him, and this was a perfect project for me to flex the retro monster orchestral scoring side of my brain mixed with my very contemporary electronic side, in this case `80s sequences and baselines in the vein of John Carpenter. 

“In this score,” he continues, “I was trying to emphasize the insanity of Godzilla and the humanity of Kong. In the spirit of the film, it was fun to get my mad scientist coat on and make some monstrous sounds out of a custom five-foot bass drum and 13- foot-tall guitar amp!” 

“What we worked to show thematically via the film’s visuals—technology versus the natural world, the exploration of the future or the past, the bond humanity does (or doesn’t) feel with nature—Tom was able to evoke through his incredible score,” Wingard states. “Since we’re both such big fans of these Titans, I was really excited to partner with him to pay homage to their cinematic history and also hear his entirely new and unique musical interpretations specific to the story we’re telling today.” 

Finally, Wingard teases, “As fans ourselves, we know how much these movies been to our audience—and we’ve included a few surprises, an Easter egg or two, just for them. But whether someone is a diehard fan of the Monsterverse or coming to it for the first time, whether they are rooting for Kong or for Godzilla, my hope is that everyone taking this ride with us will feel their hearts pounding through one epic battle after another.” 

The film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, with Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir. 

Wingard directed from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, story by Terry Rossio and Michael Dougherty & Zach Shields, based on the character “Godzilla” owned and created by TOHO CO., LTD. The film was produced by Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull and Brian Rogers, with Jay Ashenfelter, Herbert W. Gains, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira executive producing. 

The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team included director of photography Ben Seresin, production designers Owen Paterson and Thomas S. Hammock, editor Josh Schaeffer, costume designer Ann Foley and visual effects supervisor John “DJ” DesJardin. The music is by Tom Holkenborg. 

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Present a Legendary Pictures Production, A Film By Adam Wingard, “Godzilla vs. Kong.” It will be released nationwide in 2D and 3D in select theaters and IMAX on March 31, 2021 and will be available in the U.S. on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release. It is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language