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I Did the Asking: A Guest Post by Greg Keyes

By Greg Keyes / April 23, 2024 at 1:05 am

Whether it be a giant radioactive lizard or a massive humanoid ape, we’ve loved monsters for decades, and these are some of the most iconic. With the smash box office hit Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Greg Keyes set out to pen the novel tie-in and welcome in even more mega monster fans. Here’s Greg Keyes, in his own words.

Paperback $16.99

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – The Official Movie Novelization

By Greg Keyes

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Paperback $16.99

For anyone who can’t get enough of mega monsters, Godzilla x Kong is now a novel tie-in from the movie. Smartly written and as action-packed as any movie featuring Godzilla or King Kong, this boasts satisfying character depth and plenty of smashing and destroying.

I’ve written over thirty novels and many of them have been books based on films or video games. I’m usually asked to do this, but in the case of the Monsterverse, I did the asking. I loved Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island. I was impressed by Legendary’s treatment of these iconic characters, and I was intrigued by the idea of Hollow Earth. I had been working with Titan on other projects and told my editor there that if any more of these movies came along, I would really love to be considered for the books. Fortunately for me, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was right around the corner, and I got my wish.

I had already worked with Legendary on a Pacific Rim book, and it had been a great experience. They were always on top of things, quick to get me scripts and visual assets (movie stills, video clips, artist’s renderings – basically anything that helps me know what the movies look like) to answer my questions, and to keep me updated.

That last part is important. Novelizations usually start with a script, but in the process of making the film, the script always changes, often many times, and the version I initially work from can quickly become outdated. Even after the shooting is done, as the film moves through post-production editing process, it can change quite a lot. If I’m not constantly updated on these changes, the novel and the film can diverge wildly. Legendary is extraordinarily conscientious about keeping me in the loop. I work a lot with the mythology manager (that’s a real – and awesome — job title) and with Legendary Publishing, But I’ve also spoken to producers, writers and directors when the need arose. This ensures the film and the novelization are in sync.

The fun thing is, in the book we can keep material from earlier versions of the script and film. Editing often cuts bits that are terrific but don’t fit within the time constraints of a feature film. A novel is a much longer form, so anything which didn’t make the final version of the movie can live on in the book. Likewise, to produce a book-length manuscript from a much shorter script, I not only get to add original material, I often must invent new scenes and characters. For me, this is the fun part, creating content for this amazing universe. Of course, I don’t have free reign to do whatever I want. New content is created through collaboration and with the approval of the studio, and here again, fluid communication is the key. In this book, I got a lot of enjoyment from fleshing out the backstory of a Titan we haven’t seen before, a Titan integral to the history of the Monsterverse.

Godzilla and Kong clearly have staying power. Both are older than me, and I expect they will still be featured in all sorts of media long after I exit. It’s been terrific fun and a great honor to participate in telling stories about them, and to in turn be a small part of their story.