Ian Punnett (Twitter) welcomed filmmaker Adam Wingard, an accomplished director with film credits including You're Next, V/H/S, and Netflix's Death Note. He talked about his career and the release of his highly anticipated Godzilla vs. Kong film, the latest chapter of Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse series (which also includes Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters). Wingard described the 2014 Godzilla movie by director Gareth Edwards as beautiful and, despite its fictional giant monster protagonist, grounded in a cinematic reality. According to Wingard, the MonsterVerse movies have gotten more psychedelic and insane with each succeeding film.
"If you look at Gareth's film it's so grounded and realistic, and then you look at my movie and we're literally in anti-gravity vehicles traveling through the middle of the Earth with lasers and everything," he continued. Wingard admitted he is a Coast Insider and tried to write a scene into Godzilla vs. Kong that would have shown one of the characters calling into Coast to Coast. The scene did not make it into the final movie but Wingard did include the theory of the Hollow Earth (entered via a black hole vortex in Antarctica).
Wingard spoke about the challenge of making a 300-foot tall protagonist, as well as the human-sized characters, relatable at all times. "It feels like a total miracle at the end when you pull everything together and it works," he confessed. Wingard characterized Godzilla as a force of nature, an extension or white blood cell of planet Earth. Because Godzilla seems so impossible to beat it creates an underdog status with Kong, he explained. Wingard pointed out the film is his first ever PG-13 rated movie because he wanted it to play for kids. There are some gory moments but it is softened with a cartoon-like vibe, he revealed.
Knute Rockne's Death
In the first hour, investigative journalist Jeff Harrell discussed his research into the suspicious plane crash that killed legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne on March 31, 1931. He shared clues he uncovered about the supposed accident, which center around Father John Reynolds—witness to a hit on Chicago Tribune reporter and mob bagman Jake Lingle. According to Harrell, the mob wanted to make Notre Dame pay for Father Reynolds' testimony. "The Secret Service was investigating that a bomb had been put in the plane in retaliation for Father Reynolds testifying against the hit men for Al Capone," Harrell said. Killing Knute Rockne was a big blow to Notre Dame as Rockne was the face of the University, he added.