Nordling here,
Due to CGI, we can put on screen pretty much any story idea or setting we can imagine. This can be both good or bad; filmmakers who can't show any sense of restraint tend to overuse the technology and the world ends up looking like a cutscene from a videogame. Gareth Edwards is not one of those directors, judging from his film MONSTERS. He knew his limitations with the technology and the budget, and the result is a riveting monster movie that never forgets the people in it.
Gareth Edwards is currently in pre-production on a new GODZILLA film, written bu David Goyer, and if it were most other directors I'd write this movie off. But Edwards gets good performances from his actors and he's ambitious. His follow-up film sounds even more ambitious, and Slashfilm has more information, according to their sources.
Edwards' next film after GODZILLA is being described as a "robot STAR WARS" as a 5 year old child travels the galaxy with his robot companion to find the origin of humanity. There are apparently no other humans left in this universe, which is entirely populated by other robots. What's more, he's only budgeted the film at $35 million, which should make the film much easier to produce and get bought. Gareth Edwards told Playlist recently, "It will require all my resources. The trick is to take the positive elements of having more money and the positive elements of having no money, and try to combine the two.” Remember Neill Blomkamp shot DISTRICT 9 for only $30 million, and low to mid-budgeted sci-fi seems to be the way to go these days as the tech gets better. Filmmakers like Edwards and Blomkamp seem to understand how to make the technology work for them under limited funds and directorial restraint.
I very much look forward to this new project of Gareth Edwards. It sounds like an exciting time to be a science fiction film geek.
Nordling, out.
