Ultraman is currently experiencing a boom in the United States, something that longtime kaiju fans would have said is utterly impossible a decade ago. Contributing to this effort are Starlight Runner Entertainment and their painstaking work with Tsuburaya Productions to push Ultraman into the stratosphere.
Jeff Gomez, CEO of Starlight Runner, was enlisted by Danny Simon, President of Tsuburaya Fields Media & Pictures Entertainment, to generate a crucial and brilliant push, that frankly, is putting more eyes on Ultraman than there has ever been in North America. This has ushered in a new golden era for the red-and-silver superhero, as Ultraman Rising is set to debut on Netflix on June 14, with Tsuburaya’s Ultraman Arc to follow just a month after.
Kaiju United had the incredible opportunity to catch up with Jeff Gomez and learn about his treasured history of being a fan in the seventies, a time when you could only catch special screenings at movie theaters and hope you found a good creature feature in the TV Guide, and how that has shaped and changed the way he sees not only kaiju media, but how the world itself can become a better place.
Interview
Jacob Lyngle: Hello, Kaiju United! I’m here with Jeff Gomez, the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, the leader behind Ultraman Connection, and a transmedia producer. That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Jeff, did you want to introduce yourself for people that might not know who you are?
Jeff Gomez: Jacob, it is super cool to be here! I’m a fan of Kaiju United. A wonderful aspect of my job is that I get to talk with people like you who genuinely love all things Japanese pop culture, but particularly Tokusatsu. To introduce myself, I’m Jeff Gomez, the CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment. I am a producer and a bit of a writer. I specialize in helping the big movie studios, video game companies, and other big brands to take their stories and expand them into universes, and then make sure that the universe plays out across various media platforms in concert. That makes me what they call these days a Transmedia Producer.
JL: Jeff, in our previous conversations, you’ve talked about growing up in New York, spending your summers in Puerto Rico, even living in Hawaii a little bit. You’ve been all over the place. Where did this all begin for you? What pieces of media growing up around the 1970s and ‘80s influenced the way your life has paved out?
JG: When I was very young, I was different from all the other guys. I was banged around a lot. It was a chaotic environment growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And I was like, super, super sensitive. The older I get, the more I learned about how some of us are born with a hypersensitivity. That means that, whatever trauma or issues were concerning me, maybe it was just a natural aspect of who I was— I experienced life very, very intensely.
So, what I could see, hear, taste, and smell, it was almost overwhelming. If anything bad did happen, it really, really impacted my heart. It made me want to tuck away and hide. But at the same time, I had this vivid imagination from when I was at my earliest age. From like one to three years old, I was already looking at picture books, fascinated by animation, and loved dinosaurs.
The things I gravitated to tended to be more serious-minded. For example, the proto-Japanese anime Kimba the White Lion, Gigantor, Speed Racer, and Marine Boy. That kind of stuff was really, really intriguing to me. All four of them had something incredible in common—there was a sense of epic quality to the storylines that were ongoing. The characters remembered what happened in previous episodes. That was not a big thing in in American pop culture at the time. American shows were very episodic, each episode hit the reset button.
But really, the big thing that hit for me was Godzilla. Here was a creature that seemed weirdly lonely to me. He was out of his element. He was out of his time, and he didn’t seem to want to destroy everything. But these human beings were throwing everything they had against him. And it just fascinated me that this creature was a mighty force that kept going, even though all this stuff was being thrown at him, he persevered.
JL: How did you see this these types of anime? From my understanding, New York was a hotspot for art and foreign film around that time. Did you see any of these on television or were they all theatrical screenings?
JG: Great question. I was living in a time when Godzilla movies were coming out in movie theaters before they came to television, something that only has started back up recently. It was a mixture. In New York, there was something called the 4:30 movie, on channel 7. And, from 4:30 to 6pm, they would show a movie. Maybe once or twice a year, there would be a “Godzilla Week” on the 4:30 movie showcase. So, every day, there’d be a new and different Godzilla film. That was just awesome to me!
Besides that, I’d have to hunt through the TV Guide page by page. It was a print magazine you got at the supermarket that told you what was going to be on TV the next week. I would just comb through it at 5,6,7 years old, flipping through every page looking for a Godzilla or related movie, like Rodan, Mothra, or War of the Gargantuas. I’ll never forget those times. However, on the other end, the first picture I saw in movie theaters was Destroy All Monsters. That was absolutely incredible, just epic, because this was where all the kaiju crossed over into the same narrative. It was just unbelievable; I sat there in the theater and watched it three times straight through.
JL: That’s a marathon!
JG: You bet. I saw Godzilla Vs. The Thing, War of the Gargantuas, and all the way through Godzilla Vs. Gigan in theaters while I lived in Hawaii in 1975.
JL: Hawaii was one of the few places to see Kamen Rider V3 officially in the West. Did you catch any of that?
JG: Of course. Hawaii had so many Henshin Hero television shows. It was just an amazing time to be there. 1975 was the heyday of the whole subgenre of transforming superheroes. So, at that time there was Kamen Rider V3, of course, but there was also Kikaider and Kikaider 01, which were two separate series that were connected to each other. Those two were my gold standard! There were all sorts of other heroes—Rainbowman, Inazuman, who was like “lightning man,” and Denjin Zabôgâ , which was a robot that turned into a motorcycle. A number of others. And of course, Ultraseven was running in Hawaii at that time, too.
JL: The influence of Japanese cinema on American film is talked about profoundly with the New Age of Hollywood movement. Do you think it started here?
JG: Well, certainly the serious 1970’s filmmakers were hugely impressed with Japanese cinema. Akira Kurosawa, for example, was making these amazing samurai pictures at the time. And there were films like Zatoichi and Yojimbo, samurai movies like those were very influential. But we didn’t quite see it reflected in Hollywood until The Magnificent Seven and Star Wars. George Lucas was deeply influenced by movies like The Hidden Fortress, but also by Japanese pop culture. And I dare say, a lot of the shapes and design sensibilities in his films, all the way down to that samurai-like helmet on Darth Vader, were inspired by Japanese culture.
JL: Was anime more of a 1980s movement?
JG: That’s right. Not just with anime, though, but with ‘80’s Hong Kong cinema, such as City on Fire. Quentin Tarantino was starting to borrow from Asian cinema fairly heavily. When we started to see the dynamism and action in American cinema around this time, it was definitely inspired by Asian cinema, Japanese and Chinese.
JL: Do you ever think it’s swung around the other way? Asian film studios taking things from American cinema?
JG: Something I happen to know having gone to Japan and spoken with filmmakers and various creators in Japan. was that the Japanese were actually influenced way back in the 1960’s by Gerry Anderson. He’s from the United Kingdom, a television producer, who created these marionette puppet TV series like Thunderbirds, Stingray, and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
If you get a chance, have your audience check these out. Go on and look some of those up; you will see incredible applications of miniatures, including highly detailed spacecraft, props and vehicles. Everything that we see as “retro futuristic,” was born in those Gerry Anderson television shows. And the Japanese just loved it. They see him as a very important creator and direct influence on modern Tokusatsu, specifically the notion of creating special effects using miniatures and various kinds of trick photography on a television budget.
JL: You are dubbed a “Transmedia Producer.” What is “Transmedia”?
JG: Let’s look at it from a creative standpoint. When you’re creating for a single medium, it’s best if you understand what the creative process is for that medium. So, if I’m creating a comic book, I know what it is like to pencil on a piece of 11 by 17 paper, or these days, digitally. I know what inking is and coloring, how to bring that work to print and yield this beautiful publication. Also, the writing process is very specific to the comic book medium — the scripts for comics are very different from the scripts for movies or TV shows.
If you know a lot about comic book creation, but your knowledge also extends to television, film, and video games, perhaps novels, even music, you can step back and go, I have a story that requires all of these media to tell it in a way that would be best experienced by the audience. Okay, so this aspect of the story is going to be my comic book. because this aspect plays to this beautiful artwork and the conveyance of panel-by-panel storytelling. But, I have something else to say about this world, something somewhat different, that might work best in animation. So, I’m going to develop this aspect of the world in animation and tell this aspect of the story in animation, right?
Lima, Peru.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez.
I made Hot Wheels World Race way back in the day for Mattel. That race took place around the world, but also in this weird cosmic multi-dimensional universe. In the comic books, I told the story about the real-world race. That was because it would have been extremely expensive to create an animated series that was set all over the planet, because you have to create all those settings, backgrounds, people and all that sort of thing. So, we did that aspect in the comics. But in the animated series, which I co-wrote and produced, we went into the Racing Realms and saw that aspect of the story play out with all the characters and cars across these strange landscapes.
When you put those together and add in a THQ video game where you’re actually participating in the race, that’s a transmedia narrative. Just like what the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars are doing right now. You can see the Disney+ stuff, you can go to the movies, you can read the books, but they are not necessarily the exact same story. They’re telling you different stories in different media. That’s transmedia storytelling.
When transmedia storytelling is at its best, there is a visionary and a team that says, “Here is the big picture. Here is the overall epic.” That’s what they do at Microsoft 343 Studios. When they think about Halo, they’re like, here’s the 10-year plan. Then, they assign out which aspects of that gigantic super plan is going to play out over the course of many years. Starlight Runner worked with them for a few years creating a Mythology bible for the entire canon of the Halo universe, and then helped them look at the next 10 years of Halo content. It played out from there.
JL: What is Starlight Runner Entertainment?
JG: Starlight Runner is my company. It’s a New York-based production company that I founded with Mark Pensavalle and Chrysoula Artemis way back in 2000 after I had done Magic: The Gathering and Turok. I worked on the Nintendo 64 Turok games, and after that I wanted to do this for a living and play some of the coolest sandboxes. So, we formed Starlight Runner as a transmedia production studio. We specialize in working with different companies to bring their story worlds to life and develop the mythologies behind these worlds. We help them create communities of interest, too. All the people who will be contributing to these universes should be well versed in them before just guessing or “doing it their way,” which could create splinters or fractures in the in the universe. We address that, defending and protecting these story worlds.
Lima, Peru.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez
JL: What is the day in the life for the CEO of Starlight Runner?
JG: Honestly, it hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years. I wake up, and I review the news. And I mean, all kinds of news from everywhere in the world. It’s a part of my job to be able to tell my clients where the world is going— pop culture trends, geopolitical situations, and what the kids are into. I absorb all of that.
Then I receive about 100-250 emails a day that are actionable, meaning I have to respond in some way. I plow through those as quickly as I can. I used to write long emails because I’m a writer, but I’ve realized that is not a smart thing to do if you want to get anything else done with your day. So, I just fire them back quickly. Truthfully, most of those are answering questions which have to do with some of the projects that I’m working on.
We have a company meeting at around 9:30 in the morning. In those meetings, I’m getting updates from my employees, my team members, and everyone at Starlight Runner. My partner Mark runs the meetings, giving out assignments and putting out fires. The rest of the morning is spent at meetings with various aspects of my company, or the companies that are affiliated with me.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez.
A prominent example of a client for this interview would be our work with Ultraman. Our friends at Tsuburaya Productions are based in Japan, so their day is my last night. Their whole working day’s ending when I get up and start work. So usually, there are many emails from them with all kinds of questions or giving me updates. We also help with licensees for Ultraman. Typically, they will have lots of questions: Can we do this? We’d like to do this. What are you doing at San Diego Comic-Con? I work on that a few times a week.
I also teach through Zoom. I’ll teach a class, and it could be anywhere in the world, which is awesome. I get to talk about what I do and answer questions. After that, I maintain my social media. I post updates about what I do, or some weird thoughts that I might have about storytelling and where it’s all going, what the deal is with artificial intelligence, things like that.
What’s cool, is that often, I get to look at amazing things that are not going to hit the stands or be released for months, if not years. So, I’ll review the artwork for the upcoming Ultraman comic books, and make notes on it for Marvel Comics. Or I’ll look at a trailer for the upcoming live action Ultraman series coming from Japan in July, make notes, talk to people, and plot strategies.
Finally, there’s new business development, where I’ll talk with potential new partners. These are people who have their own intellectual property, and they want me to look at it. Typically, they’ve gone through my agent or lawyers, and they’re well known. So, I get to talk with them about their projects as well. And finally at night, Japan wakes up, so I do some of the meetings with them two or three times a week. It’ll be 8:30 at night for me and it’s time for them to start work in Japan; I’ll have some meetings with them to go over important things that will be happening in the next day before wrapping up my day.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez.
JL: You speak to and do business with Japanese companies. Do you know the language, or are there translators present?
JG: The Japanese don’t advertise this too much. but most of them know English, which is great. And particularly, some of the executives at Tsuburaya were even educated in Europe and abroad. So, it’s easy to communicate with them. When it comes to international relations, they have staff that are trained in Chinese, English, and so forth to deal with their international partners. My understanding of Japanese is limited to anime—there used to be no dubbing, and we didn’t like any dubbing because it tended to be so awful back then. I would read the subtitles, hear the language, and start to get little phrases here and there. But that’s it.
JL: What are the must have qualities to do the work that you do at Starlight Runner? Is it leadership? Organization? Relationship building?
JG: That’s a great question. It’s one we are constantly reevaluating. Because what we do is not easy. When you’re dealing in a single medium, okay, you can pretty much master that medium, and you’re dealing with the same set of people. When you’re dealing with transmedia, you’re keeping track of a lot of different projects that are happening in concert at the same time. I’m like the conductor of the orchestra when it comes to all of these different things that are happening.
People think, oh my god, you have the coolest fantasy job of all time. You get to tell everyone what your creative vision is, and they just do it. No, I must respect every artist and every company that’s involved in what it is that I do. I cannot tell them exactly what to do, I need to keep the flame, the essence of the intellectual property in service to the owners of the IP.
For example, Ultraman. I know who Ultraman is, and what he’s fundamentally about, so I’m going to let you do what you’re doing, but you cannot mess too much with the canon and you cannot mess too much with the meaning of this property. If you bend the meaning, you’re not allowing me to communicate clearly with my audience. It boils down to balancing a sense of creativity with an understanding of the characters, the world, and the business.
When it comes to running a business, sometimes you have to shut up and let the people do their jobs. What is sometimes difficult, but is a discipline, is indeed having a strong sense of organization. If that organization doesn’t exist here in my head, it must exist in my calendar, which is like three feet across, behind this screen that I’m looking at, with all the things that have to happen over the next few months.
I think about a movie like Ultraman Rising, right? It’s an animated feature, and it is the first time that an Ultraman movie is being made outside of Tsuburaya and Tokyo. What a fantasy that is. It’s just amazing. But, I have to sit here and go, this is Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima’s film, not Jeff Gomez’s film. I might see something there that that I might not have done creatively; that’s not exactly my vision for an animated Ultraman. It could be disappointing for a second, but then I’m getting inside the head of these creators and understanding what the American market might be looking for in an Ultraman story. And I think to myself, you know what? That’s pretty good. It’s okay that it’s not mine. It’s theirs, you know? And that’s what I’m hoping to communicate with everybody who is who’s going to be looking at Ultraman Rising.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez.
JL: What can you tell us about Ultraman Rising?
JG: I can tell you (and you can tell this by looking at the trailer), it is gorgeous. It’s really, really beautiful. It’s got these neon colors, there is a fluidity and grace in how the characters move that I really think is gorgeous. Of course, anyone who looks at the trailer will understand that this is not Shin Hayata as Ultraman, it’s a new character, and therefore this is reimagining of the Ultraman mythos. At the same time, there’s so much at the heart of this that is Ultraman, so I think it’s going to be satisfying. To me, it’s the bridge that needs to be built to usher millions of new fans to the universe of Ultraman for the very first time.
JG: Why should a kaiju fan go discover Ultraman? What’s the appeal?
JG: Ultraman is unique. People say wow, the series is like 55 years old. There’s so much that was built on top of the legacy of the Ultra series — Power Rangers and Pacific Rim. There are all these giant robot and superhero shows coming out of Japan that were built on that prototype set by Ultraman. So, what does make him unique anymore?
Here’s what the deal is:
In no other show, do you have a being who stands for the best of what it is that we can become. Ultraman is the projection of us into the best future that we can devise as a human race. To Ultraman, we are we are our own worst enemy. Why are the kaiju bothering us? Why do they emerge and mess up the place? When you watch closely, it usually is because we’re morons. We’re ruining our environments; we’re devising horrible weapons and other kinds of things that can torment the human race. We are not understanding each other.
When it comes to the aliens that invade us in Ultraman, it all has to do with some form of avarice and the issues concerning scarcity and abundance. They want to take from us, and we want to take from them. We’re a messed-up people! When these kaiju arise out of that friction, they’re irritated, driven to violence, and they’re taking it out on us.
It’s funny, when you think about it, Ultraman doesn’t just pop in and beat up the monster and take care of everything. No, no, no. He waits. He chills out. He’s like, all right, the human beings have got to figured it out. In in the show, these human science teams, they certainly try; we’re racking our brains and using our technology to understand why this is happening. At the last minute when we don’t quite get it, we can’t do it, and we’re gonna get smushed by this kaiju, only then does Ultraman fly in and go, you know what, I’m gonna give you three minutes of my time.
Every Ultraman’s Color Timer on his chest only ticks for three minutes, because he’s got to get back to outer space and absorb some sunlight. So, he gives us three minutes and utterly clobbers the monster. In fact, he usually gives the beast a chance. He’s like, listen, I’m here, can you go away? He smacks it around a little bit hoping it will beat it. And the monster is like, no, I’m irritated. And then, as a last resort, Ultraman is like, okay, I’m gonna have to zap you with my Spacium Beam, then. After that, it’s over, and he splits. He doesn’t lecture us. He doesn’t shake his finger at us. He leaves us to ponder what the deal is.
So, what’s he really doing? Ultraman’s making us stretch and figure it out by example, not by telling us what to do, or by fighting us, or shrugging his shoulders at us. He’s making us better ourselves. That’s awesome. To me, that is really interesting and very unusual for a superhero. He wants us to elevate ourselves. That’s every episode of every series. All iterations of Ultraman are trying to tell us something, and that’s, grow up. Fix it. Rise to the occasion. Be Ultra.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Gomez.
JL: Say someone sees Ultraman Rising or Ultraman Arc this summer and loves it. Where do they jump in from there? There are thousands of hours of Ultraman to choose from!
JG: Obviously, I love the classic era of the Ultraman series. Those first few series that encompass Ultraman, Ultraseven, and Return of Ultraman were truly cinematic. But from our perspective, now, they probably read as a little bit slow. They were like science fiction dramas. They didn’t build up to the big action; it took them a while. They’re still fantastic and look beautiful, though.
The Mill Creek Entertainment DVDs and Blu-rays are just stunning, in terms of showing how clear and gorgeous the cinematography was and the miniatures and performances. But if you want to jump forward, in the 1990’s there was Ultraman Tiga, which many people feel is one of the best self-contained series that that came out of the entire franchise. There’s Ultraman Mebius, which is a little bit darker, has a bigger budget, and looked fantastic. And more recently, I really loved Ultraman Z, which was a little more adolescent, but still exuberant and cool. At times, the show was truly ambitious in terms of the visuals.
The most recent series, Ultraman Blazar, was a lot of fun and had a unique titular Ultra. Blazar was a more animalistic and mysterious; that was interesting. The next show, due out in July, I’m really looking forward to it. That’s Ultraman Arc. That one will be very accessible.
JL: For the veterans, I’m a big fan of Ultra Q.
JG: Oh, wow! That’s X-Files with kaiju!
JL: Where does that fit in? Should you go into Ultraman’s main canon and then back to Ultra Q?
JG: If you’re going to start from the beginning, start with Ultra Q. The character “Ultraman” is not in the show, but it lays down some of the foundational elements of the entire Ultra series. First, there are a few kaiju in Ultra Q that show up again later in the Ultraman fare. Secondly, the notion that our foolishness is exacerbating this incursion of kaiju and other kinds of paranormal entities has its foundations built here.
JL: On a personal level, what do kaiju mean to you?
JG: To me, in one sense, they’re gods, because they will keep coming back. There is an innocence to these monsters. Most of them are not evil by any stretch of the imagination. Some of them are just really, really angry. Rarely are kaiju flat out evil. They’re manipulated, mind controlled, and irritated. But really, they’re organisms… very, very large organisms, and they are attempting to persevere. The meaning of kaiju to me… is me! (laughs) I’m this big, weird thing that kind of looks a little funny and lumbers through life. I’m not only just trying to get by, but also trying to be mythic and reincarnate over and over by learning and becoming a new person every few years.
At their best, kaiju unite! They must unite to form a kaiju community, right? The Ogasawara Islands, the Monster Graveyard, or other conglomerations of kaiju. And so, they have their own system. They have their own way of being and want to be at peace and be in harmony with the world. I’m hoping that as human beings, we can help them achieve that, so that we all could live together peacefully.
JL: Jeff, what’s next for you? Obviously, there’s stuff you can’t talk about. But, aside from that, where do you see yourself going in the next decade? What do you want to become?
JG: Well, in terms of Ultraman, I want him to be a hero for the world. We’re doing whatever we can to spread the word and to make Ultraman content accessible to anyone who wants to see it. And to continue to incarnate him. Ultraman is a continuum; it’s not a transmedia singular universe. It’s more like multiple universes that are tied together by this overall meaning and by the Land of Light, the homeworld of the Ultras.
But also, I’m working on a new project with the Walt Disney Company that’s a universe of my own creation with Ashley Eckstein, who plays a Ahsoka Tano in the Star Wars animation. She’s my creative partner, and we have a new project with Disney that we’re just getting underway. It’s awesome. Unfortunately, I can’t talk too much about it. If you know me, you can imagine what kind of craziness is going to be there.
Aside from that, over the course of the next few years, here’s what I want to do. My job is to look at what’s going on. A lot of what is going on is chaotic. We all have voices now; we can get on the internet and speak to you know, 10, 100, 1000 people. And the temptation is always, you know, I’m right about this, and because of that, I’m going to assert my rightness on some of your wrongness. If everybody asserts their rightness on everybody else’s wrongness, you’re getting a little too much tension, and it creates anxiety. It can be aggravating, and in all actuality, it can be very dangerous. We’re seeing some of that manifest.
What I’d like to do is to examine different ways of telling stories that that are not about binary clashes, which means I’m good, you’re evil, let’s fight. That’s another reason why I like Ultraman, because there are grays, there are different perspectives in that universe. I’d like to see more characters coming to terms with one another in exciting ways that generate peace and reconciliation, that resolve the problems without our having to shoot it out or beat each other up. That’s interesting to me.
I’m working to infuse these new kinds of storytelling that are exciting, but not necessarily toward violent ends, to see how that can work, and to show people how to tell super cool stories that don’t necessarily model us on resorting to destroying one another. Like, if the Jedi fights the Sith one more time? I’m gonna lose it! Every time they do, millions and millions of people die, right? Jedi, Sith, doesn’t matter. Everyone dies. Shouldn’t we learn another way?
Number one, it’s boring. Number two, it’s not the right model to show to young people growing up in the world, who don’t want to fight or have the constant anxiety of these clashes in their face as they doom scroll. Let’s see if we can do something else. I think I have some ideas about how to do all of this in a fun, compelling way, and that’s what I’m going to spend the next five years doing.
JL: I’m excited to see that. That’s a great way to close, Jeff. Maybe we can all unite someday. Storytelling brings us all together; it’s one of the universal languages. Everybody tells a story… and most of our stories can be traced back to mythology. We are currently creating our modern myths and legends. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or where you’re from. It’s just storytelling. We’re all we’re all inhabitants of this incredible planet with incredible things, flying in space, orbiting a star. How did this all happen? Why must we fight?
JG: Whatever it is, we’ve got to cherish life, because it ain’t going to happen again.
JL: Thank you for hopping on and talking with Kaiju United! Where can people find you, Jeff?
JG: Follow me on Twitter @Jeff_Gomez. If you’re interested from a business standpoint, I post often on LinkedIn as Jeff Gomez. Thanks for having me!
