A First Look At Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett
This piece was initially written to be published in an issue of Kaiju Ramen Magazine. The article had to be pulled for various reasons so I decided to present it to you here as an exclusive! Check out the book here.
One of the most exciting surprises of the past few years has been the MonsterVerse. Anchored by 2014’s Godzilla by Gareth Edwards, the MonsterVerse consists of five movies, including the mega-crossover Godzilla vs. Kong and a number of new projects on the horizon. Now, fans can dive even further into the franchise they love with the upcoming art book, Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett which comes to audiences as the result of a licensing deal between Legendary Comics, Toho Co., Ltd., and Clover Press. This book will surely be an exciting addition to any Kaiju fans collection.
Bennett started his career as a comic book artist in the early '90s with Marvel comics, where he worked on various X-Men titles. He then moved on to WildStorm in 1994, where he contributed to several titles including StormWatch, Gen13, and WildC.A.T.S. His comic book background was very important to him. Bennett spoke about it by saying “I started out as a comic book artist, and fans of both comics and films will see how that experience informs my work.” Bennett began his film and television career with the HBO animated series Spawn and from there worked on tons of films such as Star Trek, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Avengers: Endgame, and Tron: Legacy.
As many know, one of the most important jobs in a film is storyboarding. Richard Bennett has been a storyboard artist in the industry since 2004’s Alien vs. Predator. From there he’s made a name for himself as one of the most respected storyboard artists working today. He’s collaborated with directors such as Christopher Nolan, Brad Bird, JJ Abrams, and many other genre filmmakers. Bennett began his work in the MonsterVerse in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island and has worked on each film since, including the upcoming fifth film.
Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett features storyboard art from Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021’s blockbuster hit Godzilla vs. Kong, but not artwork from 2014’s Godzilla. Unfortunately for MonsterVerse fans, Bennett didn’t do storyboards for Gareth Edward's film. Storyboards for that film were done by Brent Boates, who worked with Bennett on Tron: Legacy and has had his own illustrious career. While it’s a bummer we won’t get to see those storyboards yet, the extra content supplied by Bennett for this comprehensive book will surely make up for it.
While art books have been released for every entry in the MonsterVerse, what makes this book unique are the stunning storyboard art pieces that have never been seen before. Not only does this book include storyboards from sequences within the movie, but also sequences that have never been seen before. “It will showcase lots of material displaying the early planning for each scene and will also give fans a chance to peek into some of the deleted scenes that never made it onto the big screen,” Bennett said about including those scenes in the book. Godzilla vs. Kong was notably light on deleted scenes when the film was released on Blu-ray and tons of sequences and scenes have been rumored to have been cut from the film, as well as the previous films. Now fans will be able to get a glimpse at what some of these scenes could have been and this might be the only chance to see them at all. Full-color stills are also included in the book to compliment the storyboards and show readers what the final shot ended up looking like.
While this is certainly a must-have for kaiju fans, and they are the target audience, this art book is sure to entice film students, industry professionals, and all sorts of cinephiles. As Bennett himself put it, "this book is an opportunity to both spotlight the process of making a Hollywood blockbuster and the craft of storyboard storytelling.” The book itself will be a deluxe 11.75” x 8.5” widescreen hardcover coffee table book with over 200 pages. It will also feature a foreword written by Adam Wingard, the director of Godzilla vs. Kong, and its upcoming sequel. For the afterword, Oscar-Nominated production designer Stefan Dechant (Kong: Skull Island) writes, “Within these pages, we find the imagination and artistry of Richard Bennett. He brings to life the Kaiju of cinema’s yesteryear through the modern retelling of Legendary’s Monsterverse.”
Kaiju fans have long dreamed of a franchise like the MonsterVerse, and now they can own a comprehensive piece of its construction. Originally, this comprehensive art book was launched on Kickstarter and managed to raise more than $45,000 and it will be available to order soon for those who missed out. While it’s billed as a coffee table book, this would surely look great next to the art books that have already been released and are a part of every MonsterVerse fans collection. Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett will retail for $65.00 and be available in October wherever books are sold.