Godzillas 4: Unmade American Godzilla

There have been many attempts to start an American series of Godzilla movies. Ever since the 80's to be precise.

One such attempt was 1983's "Godzilla 3-D," which would've re-imagined the Big G amidst the still burning Cold War tensions, as well as trying to find his missing offspring which had (unknown to him) been killed by those darn Soviets. Much chaos would've ensued.

The project got quite far actually, even having guys like Rick Baker tapped to do special effects. Sadly, it's projected budget of $30 million scared the studios of the 80's away (though by today's standards that's almost pocket change for budgets e_e) and thus we never got to see that version of Godzilla.

Another attempt to bring an American Godzilla to life came about in 1994, the infamous (and quite popular) Unmade Tristar Godzilla remake. Basically, it was pretty much an upgrade to the traditional Godzilla concepts. A leaner, meaner and faster Godzilla that retained all the classic abilities as well.

This was a Godzilla created by aliens (millions of years ago) to protect the Earth from potential threats, which soon manifests itself in the form of a nasty alien monster dubbed "The Gryphon," a hellish beast that is an amalgamation of various animals it had managed to consume. But unfortunately for everyone's favorite mutant dinosaur, the military discovers Godzilla first and is hellbent on capturing him for research. This was to all come together amidst New York city, resulting in various property damage.

But again, nobody was really wanting to foot the $120 million price tag, so they withdrew from this idea... and gave the reigns instead to Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's project.... which eventually costed about $150 million, and that's probably not factoring in the colossal ad campaign.

I'm telling you these two stories because I'm not exactly sure which version of Godzilla this drawing was based upon. :D