Toho to release new ‘Godzilla’ flick, mount ‘life-size’ head atop Kabukicho theater

TOKYO (TR) – Godzilla will roar once more on the big screen, and as well from a lofty perch.

In addition to a new instalment in its six-decade-long “Godzilla” series, film giant Toho announced on Monday that a new theater building set to open next year in Shinjuku Ward will include a “life-size” rendering of the popular monster, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 8).

A 12-meter tall replica of the creature from the neck upwards, based on the original 1954 film, will grace a terrace on the eighth floor of the Toho Shinjuku Building, a commercial complex now under construction in the middle of the Kabukicho red-light district.

Scheduled to open next April, the building will contain the Toho Cinemas Shinjuku theater. The roof will include a terrace to allow visitors to stroll past the Godzilla structure, which should be visible from nearby Yasukuni-dori, a street that borders the Kabukicho area, Toho said.

The site of the project was once the home to the Koma Toho theater, which was in the basement of the Koma Theater building. Until it closed in 2008, the Koma Theater was a home to kabuki and enka performances for more than five decades. In 2008, both venues shut down in preparation for demolition.

The new film, set for a 2016 release, will be the first since “Godzilla: Final Wars” in 2004. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. released the Gareth Edwards-directed “Godzilla,” which collected $525 million in revenue worldwide, according to the site Box Office Mojo.

Toho expects production to begin next year. “We had been hearing enthusiastic voices from fans about a revival,” said a representative of the company.

The Hotel Gracery Shinjuku, also in the Toho Shinjuku Building, will contain a special room decorated in a Godzilla motif.