Since the release of Godzilla Minus One in 2023, things have gotten a bit crazy for multitalented filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. He's won an Oscar, moun
Since the release of Godzilla Minus One in 2023, things have gotten a bit crazy for multitalented filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. He’s won an Oscar, mounted quite literally the largest sequel in Japanese cinema history with forthcoming IMAX epic Godzilla Minus Zero, and set not one but two English-language blockbusters off the back of his irradiated lizard joint’s outsized success. And now, per Deadline‘s reporting, one of those two English-language outings, J. J. Abrams produced mech movie Grandgear, has just found its leads.
As Deadline confirms, Paul Giamatti, How To Train Your Dragon breakout Nico Parker, and Sam Nivola (The White Lotus) are all set to join Yamazaki’s first foray into Hollywood feature filmmaking. According to the trade, Yamazaki — who is directing from his own original screenplay — went through a strict process involving multiple chemistry tests to find the leads for his next movie, meaning that while two-time Oscar nominee Giamatti was headhunted personally for his role, Parker and Nivola were really put through their paces to ensure they had the spark to carry the project. Plot details for Grandgear are being kept under wraps at this point, but test footage of a mech-based brawl shown by Sony at CinemaCon earlier this year suggest we’re in for a Pacific Rim-esque film. It’s a point of potential comparison that checks out given Yamazaki’s knack for locating the human heart amid stories of monsters and machines — a skill shared by Pacific Rim‘s mastermind, Guillermo del Toro.
Production on Grandgear is due to get underway in 2027, with a previously mooted February 2028 release neither officially nixed nor formally confirmed at this point. And given that Takashi Yamazaki is also working on mysterious sci-fi epic Nue at 20th Century Studios, we imagine there’ll be some shifting of Grandgear‘s, well, grand gears as it enters production. But until we hear more on those two very exhilarating projects, we can look forward to an Aliens and Terminator 2 inspired action romp from Yamazaki that’s mere days away now: Godzilla Minus Zero stomps into IMAX screens on November 3 and cinemas all over on November 6.
