Legendary horror director, John Carpenter, just hinted at a Godzilla themed project in collaboration with Shout Factory!

John Carpenter just dropped something big on fans today. On Thursday, the famed director and musician tweeted a special video, tagging Shout Factory and its various side companies (Scream Factory, TokuSHOUTsu, Scream Factory, and Shout Cult). The tweet in question can be viewed below.

The video is a simple one. Carpenter enters an empty movie theater, rubs his hands in excitement, and watches the screen as a projector starts up. As the film rolls, the video fades to black with white text reading “Coming Soon.” The white lettering quickly morphs into green as an iconic monster roar can be heard over the sound of the projector. That's right, it’s Godzilla.

While this video doesn’t reveal a lot out front, the implications are endless. Like many modern horror directors and writers, Carpenter’s initial spark was with a childhood love of monsters. One of Carpenter’s old favorites is Godzilla, he professed his love to Emma Westwood for her book, Monster Movies.

I’m a big Godzilla fan. I believe I have all the movies. Every Godzilla film is brilliant. He’s a perfect example of a monster who changes depending on his time. He began as, sort of, the A-bomb – this evil creature. Then he becomes a hero. Then he fought for the environment. Then he came back in the ‘80s as a terrible monster.

So we know that Carpenter and Godzilla go way back, but not so much in the professional sense, right? Well… that’s not exactly true. Currently, one of the big rumors about this teaser is that Carpenter is finally unveiling a long-hidden title from his early years. Like many aspiring filmmakers, Carpenter’s youth involved making student films in his spare time. One of those side projects was a little film titled Gorgo vs. Godzilla. Little is known about the film other than it stars Godzilla, features a new monster named Gorgo, and it has never seen a proper release. This is kind of obvious on multiple levels; for one, Toho is very protective of its rights to use Godzilla; for another, Carpenter has expressed he’s not interested in a release either! In the Gilles Boulenger book John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness, Carpenter made a comment about wanting to keep his earlier films under lock and key because “they are so devastatingly bad.”

While the Gorgo vs. Godzilla theory has plenty of ground to stand on, not all fans agree on it being the focus of Carpenter’s teaser. Some fans are pointing out other possible options for Carpenter to collab with the king of the monsters. Some of these theories include an original score by Carpenter for one of the movies, a special series of commentary tracks, a brand-new original movie or short, or even hosting a special Godzilla movie marathon on Shout TV!

Whatever this special teaser could be hinting at, if Carpenter is involved, fans will find a reason to scream in excitement (or terror). For now, we’ll have to keep an eye out on the director’s social media, as well as Shout’s, to see what lies in waiting.

Caroline is a longtime admirer of film, music and the arts. She's been giving movie opinions online (warranted or not) for over a decade, and putting those thoughts to Movieweb since early 2021.