There’s been a great amount of buzz surrounding the Atlanta-based independent production Gargantuan, which aims to bring tokusatsu enthusiasts a film that is “Power Rangers meets A24” and almost completely practical in its effects. In an age where most indie films stray away from utilizing entirely practical elements in their production, Kaiju United reached out to writer/producer Hudson Phillips to gain some insight behind that choice, where the idea of combining the two tones came from, and what we can all expect from Gargantuan as the film enters its halfway point on its Kickstarter campaign.
JL: Tell us about the origins of this project. Where did the desire to make a faithful, practical-effects driven tokusatsu flick come from?
HP: This idea of a “Royal Tenenbaums meets Power Rangers” plot has been stuck in my head for about 20 years now. First as a big-budget feature idea, then a comic, then a TV pilot, but I could never crack it. Finally, when Jordan Noel (director) and I were trying to figure out a next project, I brought up Gargantuan (then titled “Mega Ninja Teens Go!”).
We had been collecting little snippets of Tokusatsu stuff over the years and having just watched the Industrial Light & Magic documentary on Disney+, we thought “what if we lean into all practical FX and not hide from the fact you see the strings and the seams and the fingerprints in the clay?” Even though CGI is awfully convincing today, it no longer feels like “movie magic.” There’s a disconnect. I have a lot of respect for VFX artists, but it just hits differently when it’s done by hand.
But we also didn’t want to do a goofy, winking at the camera throwback. Inspired by movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once or Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, we wanted to create a film with seemingly goofy visuals but ground it in A24-style elevated genre storytelling. It’s a character-driven, thematically rich story that will hopefully take you on an emotional journey.
©Mirror Box Films
JL: Although practical effects are something we all want to see, they come with their own challenges. What were some of the biggest?
HP: Budget and schedule. We met with a local miniature expert in Atlanta who does this kind of stuff all the time and he was basically like “to do it right, you need to quadruple your budget and quadruple your timeline.” So we turned to Plan B.
Luckily our production designer, Kelley Boonruang, is an absolutely wizard. She gathered up some film students from University of North Georgia and they created our mecha suit, robot puppet, and entire miniature set, using glue guns and cardboard, over just a few days. She built all the cockpits in a single night between filming days. Watching her is literally watching magic. We owe her everything.
For our Kaiju, our VFX Supervisor Vii Kelly (another wizard), borrowed existing costumes from a creature-designer friend and customized them with additional tentacles, stilts, and blood.
JL: On the flip side, what are some of the benefits of staying practical versus going digital? Will there be digital effects in the film?
HP: The biggest benefit is really for the actors. They aren’t sitting in front of a green screen interacting with a tennis ball. They get to act against a puppet, they get to be immersed in their cockpit, there’s a level of realism we get to capture because everything actually exists.
There will be some “invisible” digital effects in the film. We’ve done it on all our movies, fixing problems that we couldn’t solve on the day. For instance, we have a foggy, night-time Kaiju battle but our fog kept dissipating too quickly so we will digitally add some fog back in.
Photo courtesy Mirror Box Films
JL: Super Sentai was name dropped in the press release as one of the key influences behind ‘Gargantuan.’ Was there a specific show or style that spoke to the production, or was it more just the general “Power Rangers” formula?
HP: Yeah, I mean Power Rangers and Super Sentai are a good short-hand for the color-coded, gang-of-five hero shows and I certainly ate that up when I was younger. And the cool thing about those shows is EVERY generation grew up on them, they’ve been around forever. It’s one of the rare properties that has a collective nostalgia across age groups.
But the bigger influence on me was actually Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets aka G-Force). There was something so aesthetically cool about that show and those characters and the designs, I’ve never been able to shake it. Gargantuan is me trying to capture that feeling I had when I was 7 years old watching Gatchaman for the first time.
JL: You have previously collaborated with director Jordan Noel on ‘This World Alone’ and ‘Guacamole Yesterdays.’ Tell us about working with Jordan. What’s his vision for this project?
HP: Jordan and I have been filmmaking partners since our very first short film in 2012. It’s such an incredible collaborative relationship brimming with mutual respect. Me as a writer and producer and him as a director and editor, it’s a nice balance of our particular skills. He has a deep respect for collaboration and allows everyone on set, from actors to PAs, to have a voice.
Jordan is way more driven by characters and emotion than visuals or spectacle. Our conversations around this film were a lot about wrestling with purpose. Where do we find it? How do we use it? What happens when we lose it? Can we find a purpose together that is bigger than ourselves? That’s really the theme that runs through the film.
©Mirror Box Films
JL: What are your goals for this project? Of course, the grand one is theatrical distribution, but are there plans for any film festival submissions when post production is complete?
HP: We’ll be finalizing the film early 2026 and start entering festivals for the fall (crossing our fingers for a big genre fest premiere). We’ll do 8-10 months of festivals and then take the film on tour to arthouse theaters around the U.S. It’s something we did with our last feature, Guacamole Yesterdays, and fell in love with that process, getting to sit in a packed theater, do Q&As, sell merch. Jordan and I both used to play in bands, so that scratches that itch. And ultimately we’ll release digitally, likely in Summer of 2027. Wish these things didn’t take so long!
Gargantuan is now crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Follow their campaign and visit the official Mirror Box Films website for the latest updates on the film’s production. To learn more about Hudson Phillips, visit his official biography page.
