To Give Humanity a Second Chance – Grant Sputore Takes Charge of the MonsterVerse

Change is in the air for the MonsterVerse.

It was recently revealed that director Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Death Note) would not be returning for the upcoming – and currently untitled – GxK follow up, which was officially greenlit by Legendary Pictures in April of 2024. Despite the huge successes of Wingard’s previous entries in the franchise, the director was confirmed by a production insider to be stepping aside to focus on the production of the A24 film Onslaught. This left the new film (set to be penned by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Mortal Kombat, and Godzilla (2014) scribe David Callaham) without a confirmed director.

Following the announcement, speculation about who would direct the sixth MonsterVerse movie began. Some people aimed for the stars by suggesting popular modern Hollywood directors like Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pacific Rim, and The Shape of Water) or Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World, The Book of Henry, and Jurassic World: Dominion), while others suggested that the MonsterVerse trend of hiring directors with a little-to-nothing filmography would continue. Before Godzilla (2014), Gareth Edwards had only one director credit. Jordan Votg-Roberts had helmed only one drama film four years prior, Michael Dougherty had two films under his belt, and Adam Wingard – the only outlier in the crowd – had worked on nine films, with the majority of them being independent horror films for which he often performed multiple roles.

On June 6th, 2024, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that Legendary had hired I Am Mother director Grant Sputore to helm the next MonsterVerse film. This announcement brought mixed responses from Godzilla and MonsterVerse fans. Some expressed excitement to see what this new director could bring to the franchise while others aired caution with the director’s lack of experience outside of his debut film. But perhaps what fans should look at is how Gareth Edwards was in the same boat… and how similar these two actually are.

Grant started his journey into the world of film as a youngster, stealing his parents camera and shooting backyard films at his childhood home in Perth, Australia. He attended Curtin University to study film, and upon his graduation founded The Penguin Empire production company with a friend he’d made in his classes. They would work on various music videos and commercials for multiple companies over the next decade. 

At a short film festival in Palm Springs, California, Grant would meet Michael Lloyd Green and they would become friends over a meal of Chipotle. Over time, the two friends developed an apocalyptic western that they would shop around to various investors in Australia. However, due to script issues and the production requirements for the project, the two scrapped it for what would then become their debut film.

I Am Mother – directed by Grant and written by Michael – is a post-apocalyptic story about AI destroying the human race, only to regrow it from scratch in an attempt to improve humanity. The story follows a protagonist, Daughter, who grows up with a robotic caretaker until a fateful day when a woman finds the bunker they live in and begs to come inside. We learn the plague that supposedly killed the human race was a cover-up and that robots are the one’s responsible. Daughter and the women then navigate through the web of lies that has been spun over the history of humanity.

It was Grant’s goal to explore the world and build it up through the experiences of the characters, rather than to drop exposition every chance he he got. The audience would learn as the characters do, entrancing them with the forming narrative ( something that the MonsterVerse has struggled to improve on since the on-screen introduction of the Hollow Earth in 2019 in Godzilla: King of the Monsters).

The film focuses on themes of parenthood and what that takes to raise a child. This was largely influenced by Grant and Michael’s lives at the time, as both were expecting children. The film is riddled with clear influences from Grant’s favorite directors like James Cameron, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg. When developing the film, Grant mentioned how similar some of the concepts were to films like Alien (1979) or Blade Runner (1982), but instead of trying to cover that up, he went at it from the perspective of embracing the influences and building on them. Perhaps these ideas will once again appear in his Godzilla x Kong sequel; implementing themes of parenthood with Kong and Suko while utilizing the rich history and lore of both characters (70 years for Godzilla and 81 for Kong) could create something very special. 

For the visual effects of I Am Mother, Grant and Michael wanted to work with the famous Weta Workshop, the New Zealand-based company that famously worked with Peter Jackson on King Kong (2005) and on multiple MonsterVerse projects (Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters). After reaching out, Michael Lloyd Green was able to get them onboard to develop the CGI and practical elements for the film. Grant, much like Michael Dougherty, prefers using practical effects to help develop the story. When talking about using practical effects in monster movies, he said, 

“Well, it’s a bit of a tonal tightrope… choice that you’re making… [Because it’s] fun and [the] stakes are real, but it’s an escapist movie. It isn’t too dark, it’s eerie, and you’re referencing those… [classics] like It Came From Outer Space style monster movies, where you’ve got giant ants attacking cities [referencing Them! (1954)]. Bringing some of the history of practical monster effects into it, I think it helps people… communicate what kind of movie this is for the audience.” 

Dougherty did utilize some practical effects in his 2019 film, including a prop for Godzilla’s nose and a scene which was cut with Millie Bobby Brown (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong, Stranger Things) involving a large Ghidorah tooth. In I Am Mother, the film mostly utilized men-in-suit effects with Luke Hawker (Krampus, Avatar, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) performing as the titular Mother. Grant has explained the VFX process in detail over various interviews (perhaps due to his close friendship with Dave McDonnell, who has worked with Grant for over fifteen years). While lacking the hands-on CGI creation experience of Gareth Edwards, Grant seems to truly understand what the process is like. He also has experience in editing; when working on the script for I Am Mother, he was able to develop a better script that was written with the editing in mind. 

While I Am Mother did end up being a fully financed studio film, Grant’s big-studio debut had been a long time in the making. In 2019, Grant and Michael were attached to the Warner Brothers’ film Augmented with Margot Robbie (The Suicide Squad, Wolf of Wall Street) producing. It was an adaptation of an original script by Mark Townend. 

This project was described as being:

“Set in a future where people are enhancing their lives with smart technology implants called Glaze. A 40-year-old criminal lawyer Olivia Holloway, whose body is hijacked by an anonymous hacker who calls himself “Judge” while she defends the heir to a giant corporation who’s been accused of killing a young woman. “Judge” threatens to stab her unless she tells the court her client is guilty, which she does, and then tries to use her to commit a series of proxy murders.”

The film ended up in development hell and never moved forward. With Grant and Michael already on Warner Brothers’ contact list, it was only that they’d approach him for a different project. (Don’t be surprised if you hear that Michael Green Lloyd has joined the writers’ room along with Grant to create the next MonsterVerse adventure.)

With this announcement, it seems likely that we’re returning to basics in the same vein of Godzilla (2014), with Kong joining Godzilla in a more realistic and down-to-Earth iteration of the two titans. In an interview following the huge success of I Am Mother,” Grant said:

“I’m looking at scripts now… and trying to work out what’s the right second project. How long will people be interested in seeing your second film? How quickly do you have to capitalize on the interest that you might have generated?  I’ve spent the majority of my life getting to this point grappling with more-or-less the same questions… What’s the right second movie? Will this thing even happen? And then… it never goes away… You’ve got to enjoy the process. You gotta do the day-in and day-out.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Grant undoubtedly has confidence in what scriptwriter David Callaham has brought to the table for what will be his sophomore work. When asked what his favorite Godzilla movie was, he cheekily responded, “You haven’t seen my favorite Godzilla movie yet…” suggesting that he is going to make the best Godzilla movie he possibly can, and the kind of Godzilla movie he wants to see. This provides a good example of his confidence following the announcement of his involvement.

But this does beg the question: who will return? With Adam Wingard’s exit, will we see an all-new cast? Based off the MonsterVerse’s past, one would assume we’ll be seeing a new passing of the torch in the cast. Another obvious change will probably be the lack of Terry Rossio (Small Soldiers, Godzilla vs. Kong, and G-Force) from the writers room, no Junkie XL (Godzilla vs. Kong, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Zach Snyder’s Justice League) composing, and an all-new director of photography. For some, this change of command may be the fresh restart that fans of the MonsterVerse need. 

Writer’s Note: I (Elijah) have gone on record many times proclaiming my disdain for Adam Wingard’s duology and Michael Dougherty’s 2019 film, but in light of this news and looking into the director further, I believe that he is the best choice the MonsterVerse has made since Gareth Edwards getting attached to the initial film that kickstarted Legendary’s MonsterVerse. While I understand the concern some may have due to the lack of a resume that Grant Sputore has, if you look into him and his work, he knows and understands scriptwriting, directing, and editing. He is very educated with how the filmmaking process works. I have no doubt that he can provide a film that we may not necessarily want, but the film we need. 

Legendary Pictures’ “Untitled Monsterverse Movie” is slated for March 26th, 2027 in theaters.