Godzilla Concept Art Smashes its Way into Future Artbook

I don’t know if an artbook is warranted even before knowing if the audience will like the 2014 Godzilla reboot or not, but who cares? We get to see badass concept art and that’s enough by me…or is it?

The artbook, titled Godzilla: The Art of Destruction, by Mark Cotta Vaz, will be available from the 13th of May from Insight Editions. Inside will be a spawn of 156 pages of artwork, behind the scenes shots, and big glossy photos to drool over. Commentary from the film makers will be included in the book. Now, I don’t know about you guys but Pacific Rim ruined me. I don’t know if my poor heart will stand to be witness to yet another epic smashdown of giant monsters and puny humans trying to fight them, much less detailed art of it.

Although, aren’t the guys at Insight Editions a bit premature with announcing the book? They don’t even know if the movie is going to be a hit or not; it’s like playing a wildcard game. What if the movie is a total flop and nobody is going to be interested in an art book? But eh, what do I know, I don’t make giant lizard CGI for a living.

The guys at Nerdist and IO9 offered the internet some images in exclusivity from the artbook, with excerpts included (all the following excerpts are copied from the inside of the book, apparently):

: “LEFT Dr. Brody monitors the crisis at the Janjira facility. BELOW The Janjira nuclear power plant control room was a daunting design challenge—everything from switches and gauges to signage and paperwork had to be created and accurately reflect a period Japanese nuclear facility. This piece of concept art set the look of the facility.”

: “OPPOSITE A stunning piece of concept art [top] showing the submarine’s propeller suspended from the forest canopy, formed the basis for the final film frame [bottom]. ABOVE The “monster hunters” on the track of the MUTO in the jungle sequence. BELOW Storyboards map out the suspenseful submarine sequence.”

: “OPPOSITE LEFT AND ABOVE Concept art depicting the Q-Zone. “The great thing about haze and fog is that you can create beautiful, dark foreground silhouettes,” says Edwards. “It really gives a sense of scale and scope.” OPPOSITE BOTTOM RIGHT Q-Zone set dressing showing a weathered radiation warning sign.”

: “RIGHT Concept art details the irradiated ruins of the town outside the Janjira facility. “I love the postapocalyptic imagery,” says Edwards. “And I just love the Japanese imagery. It’s something foreign and alien anyway, even when it’s normal looking. Janjira is a made-up city, but obviously Tokyo was the main influence for how this could look.” ABOVE Years after mysterious Janjira meltdown, the Brodys venture into the quarantined area, now known as the Q-Zone.”

: BELOW AND OPPOSITE Storyboard sequence for the fiery HALO jump. “I just sat with Matt Allsopp and drew some really rough ideas for shots, and he turned them into these little works of art,” says Edwards. “The Third Floor turned it into this great little animation sequence, we whacked the music over it, put a little prayer on it from the guy inside the plane, and, even in its crude form, it gave me goose bumps. When the studio saw it, they felt the same way, and so it’s pretty much never changed from the first iteration—we just went and shot exactly what was prevized.”

: “RIGHT Concept art imagines the surreal effect of the giant monsters, such as this nuclear submarine dropped in the mountains. “I love this shot,” says Edwards. We struggled with trying to find a position for the submarine that didn’t feel too silly, but you could still read it from a distance. This is a shot that’s never in the film, they don’t actually approach it from the boat, but again, things get drawn just to give it flavor.”

: “TOP Concept art strikes a melancholy mood as father and son return to the old neighborhood, now a graveyard of bitter memories. “This is a real location,” says Edwards. “The art department and the location guys would find real places that looked like they could work for us. This image is the art department sort of explaining what they planned to do before we filmed there, how they would destroy it all.” RIGHT Ford and Joe Brody encounter a stray dog in this still from the finished film”

Now, what does this tells us about the 2014 Godzilla movie? That it’s going to look fantastic, but other than that? That the makers are sure that it’s going to sell, so sure that they are putting an artbook on the market before it’s even out. I don’t know about you guys, but it feels like premature congratulatory masturbation to their own material. Are they betting on the fact that the franchise is so well know the book is going to sell no matter what the outcome is, or are they just proud of all the work they put into it? Perhaps they are just fanboying over their own product, who knows.

What do you think of the art and the book itself? Premature, or clever marketing scheme in hardcover form?