News on the Godzilla reboot continues to roll in with new comments from Frank Darabont concerning his impending rewrite. Earlier this month, the three-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter/director (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) came on to do a final draft of a script previously turned in by Max Borenstein. While the shortlist of actors for the lead may have Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) in the front of the pack, Darabont is more concerned with the elephant giant gorilla-whale in the room. He recently mentioned returning Godzilla to his origins as “a terrifying force of nature.” Hit the jump to see what else he has in store.

Darabont spoke to io9 recently and at some point, the topic turned to Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla reboot. Here’s what Darabont had to say:

Godzilla has its origins as an allegory for the atom bomb, but today it’s more of a straightforward monster movie. Do you want to restore some of that allegorical significance to the franchise?

Frank Darabont: What I found very interesting about Godzilla is that he started off definitely as a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And some of the atom bomb testing we were doing in the South Pacific in the subsequent years. The giant terrifying force of nature that comes and stomps the shit out of your city, that was Godzilla. Filtered through the very fanciful imaginations of the Japanese perception. And then he became Clifford the Big Red Dog in the subsequent films. He became the mascot of Japan, he became the protector of Japan. Another big ugly monster would show up and he would fight that monster to protect Japan. Which I never really quite understood, the shift.

What we’re trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy. We’re kind of taking a cool new look at it. But with a lot of tradition in the first film. We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it. It’s not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It’s different, it’s a different set of circumstances than you’re used to seeing. And that’s tremendously exciting as a writer when you’re asked to do something else.

Are you looking to connect it to a different contemporary issue?

Frank Darabont: Yes I am, but I’m not going to give it away.