Apologies for bumping an old thread, but I remembered there was a long discussion over the "Godzilla/Zilla" debate and thought the Unmade Godzilla articles we've recently run on SciFi Japan would be relevant since they directly address that topic.
Catching up this thread I just read the hilarious posts by KManX89 in which he wrote...
Not to mention: Keith Aiken worked with Sony on the 98 movie, so his credibility on this issue is stained right off the bat.
Bottom line is: you have an (ex?) exec of Sony's word who A)worked on the 98 movie (oh yes, no bias there at all )
that >>>>>>>a guy associated with Toho who worked on the 98 movie
a third party guy who worked with Sony on the 98 movie
a guy who worked with Sony on the 98 movie
Unfortunately for KMan, there's a slight problem with these statements... namely they're 100% false. First of all, Sony's GODZILLA was released on May 19, 1998 and I was hired by Sony Pictures Family Entertainment that July. So not only did I not work on the 1998 movie, I wasn't even a studio employee (or living in Los Angeles) at the time it was made. Also, I worked for a division of Sony Pictures that made family programming for television, not theatrical feature films.
Secondly, in my time at Sony I was a storyboard cleanup artist, a storyboard artist, a storyboard crew supervisor and did a little assistant directing (basically finishing episodes for directors who were busy with other assignments). Despite KMan's claims, none of these were executive positions at the studio.
So what it boils down to is that KManX89 was either a) lying or b) wrong again and again because he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. So much for credibility...
At Sony I was an artist for the animated show GODZILLA: THE SERIES. Before that, I was an artist for the Dark Horse Godzilla comics. And after G:TS, I did publicity for Rialto Pictures' 50th anniversary release of the original GODZILLA, worked with the American Cinematheque and Toho on the 50th Anniversary Godzilla film festival in Hollywood, was asked by Toho to help promote the world premiere of FINAL WARS (which included a 1-on-1 interview with Shogo Tomiyama where we discussed, among other things, Toho's handling of the American Godzilla) and provided an audio commentary and bonus content for the British Film Institute's DVD release of GODZILLA '54. And if you've bought a kaiju/tokusatsu movie on American DVD or Blu-ray in the past 10 years there's a very good chance I was involved in some way as a consultant or doing commentaries or supplying materials, writing cover copy, tracking down film materials; fact-checking, etc... my credits include the Classic Media DVDs of the Showa Godzilla movies, RODAN and WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS; Media Blasters' FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (the home video and TV versions now have my name in the same credit scroll as Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya!) and GODZILLA VS MEGALON; WAR IN SPACE and SAYONARA JUPITER from Discotek Media; Criterion's GODZILLA Blu-ray and DVD (I gave a minor assist); GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE from Echo Bridge; and Mill Creek's Gamera and Daimajin series Blu-rays; and even the Australian DVD of FINAL WARS from Madman.
For anyone to claim I have a G'98 "bias" because I was "a Sony exec who worked on the movie" is laughably moronic. Not only is it not true, it ignores the fact that I've worked with Toho and their licensees on dozens of Godzilla projects released on 3 different continents over the past 22 years. G:TS was a single project I worked 17 years ago, and everything else I've done Godzilla-related has involved the Toho version and films. I also have been very lucky over that time to get to know and become friends with many people at Toho and the various companies they've worked with, and be able to learn firsthand how the Godzilla rights are handled in regards to merchandising, events, remake options, etc. It's amazing what you can learn what you talk directly to the people in charge of these matters or see contracts and corporate documents.
Getting back to my original reason of coming to this thread, anyone who is interested in the official word from Toho and Sony on the G'98 copyright can find the information in the "Aftermath" chapter of the SFJ article...
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2015 ... rt-4-of-4/
:mechagodzilla: 
