Screenwriters

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Shinichi Sekizawa

Shinichi Sekizawa, born in Kyoto, Japan on June 2, 1921, began his career in film in the late 1930s working on an animation film in Kyoto. However, in 1941 he was called to serve his country in World War II and did not return to Japan until 1946. Later, in 1953, Mr. Sekizawa made his debut as a screenplay writer for “Profile of the City”. His career in science fiction writing, however, didn’t begin until 1956 when he wrote the screenplay for and directed the film “Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucer”. He would later join the writing team at Toho Studios and after writing the screenplay for “Varan”, he only wrote science fiction films for Toho, forming the studio’s science fiction team of writers with fellow writer Takeshi Kimura. According to famed director Ishiro Honda, Shinichi Sekizawa was given the light-hearted or more childish stories to write, while the more serious or political stories were given to Takeshi Kimura. Mr. Sekizawa also wrote the lyrics for many songs during his time with Toho, among which were original songs used in several of the 70's Godzilla films. Also, together with Mr. Honda and science fiction producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, he wrote the lyrics to the infamous Mothra Song, which first debuted in the 1961 film “Mothra”, and was reused in the films Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), Rebirth of Mothra (1996), Rebirth of Mothra II (1997), and Rebirth of Mothra III (1998). One of the songs he wrote during this time also earned him a Japanese Grammy award. Shinichi Sekizawa passed away in 1992.

Bio information obtained from The Internet Movie Database

Filmography
Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucer (1956)
Varan (1958)
Mothra (1961)
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
Atragon (1963)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Dogora: The Space Monster (1964)
Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Latitude Zero (1969)
Godzilla’s Revenge (1969)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (1974)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!

Wataru Mimura

Born in May 1954, Wataru Mimura was first introduced to Godzilla with the film “King Kong vs. Godzilla” in 1962. The film’s screenwriter, Shinichi Sekizawa, would soon become Mimura’s greatest influence. He attended the Scenario Center writing school for several months, but did not graduate. However, Mimura would later attend the same school as director Masaaki Tezuka, Nihon University of Art, and graduate in 1977. After completing his education at Nihon University of Art, Mimura became the apprentice of popular director Yoshitaro Nomura. Under Nomura, Mimura co-wrote the screenplays to the films “Sinbad” in 1987 and “Love Always – Almond Pink” in 1988. The same year, Mimura went solo with the film “Freeter”, a college film. Mimura then worked on two more films over the next few years before submitting a treatment to Toho for “Godzilla vs. Mothra” in 1992. The treatment wasn’t used, however, but Godzilla co-producer Shogo Tomiyama was very impressed with Mimura’s writing talents and asked him to write a screenplay for “Orochi: The Eight-Headed Dragon”. During this time he was also chosen to write the screenplay for Godzilla’s next film, “Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II”.

The final script for Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II took Mimura six months to write after entering three drafts to Toho. The first draft was very different from the final one for many reasons. In the first draft, two pteranodons were going to be discovered on Adona Island, and one of them was going to be killed by MechaGodzilla (who originally had the ability separate into two different vehicles like MOGERA), however, budgetary constraints forced all of that to be changed. Budgetary constraints also caused a brief scene set in prehistoric times, which Mimura was fond of, to be cut (a pteranodon and a Godzillasaurus were going to be battling in the scene). The ending was also changed quite a bit. Godzilla was originally going to be resurrected by fallout from the explosion of the nuclear reactor aboard the Garuda, not Fire Rodan. By changing the ending, Toho thought that it was keeping with the theme of real life against artificial life.

In the end, the film did very well at the box office and with fans, so Mimura was brought back in 1999 to co-write “Godzilla 2000 Millennium” with Hiroshi Kashiwabara, the screenwriter for “Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla”. Mimura also wrote for “Godzilla X Megaguirus,” “Godzilla X MechaGodzilla”, and most recently worked with Shogo Tomiyama and director Ryuhei Kitamura to put together the story for Godzilla’s 50th Anniversary film, “Godzilla: Final Wars”, which is scheduled for a December 11, 2004 release in Japan. Also, during the time Mimura was working on Godzilla X MechaGodzlla, he made his directorial debut with the independant film “Spooky Eyeglasses”.

Thanks to Henshin! Online for a lot of this information!

Filmography
Sinbad (1987)
Love Always - Almond Pink (1988)
Freeter (1988)
Green Boy (1989)
Little Sinbad (1991)
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II (1993)
Orochi: The Eight-Headed Dragon (1994)
Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999)
Godzilla X Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla X MechaGodzilla (2002)
Spooky Eyeglasses (2002) - "Directorial Debut"
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!