Interest

London IMAX Screenings of Shin Godzilla on Wednesday and 1954 Godzilla on Saturday

Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki's acclaimed new reboot of the Godzilla franchise, is currently playing in cinemas around the UK and Ireland. One of those venues is London's BFI IMAX cinema near Waterloo station, with the film's screenings listed here.

However, the cinema will also soon show two previous Godzilla films, one of them eight years old, the other fifty years old. On Thursday January 25, it will show Neon Genesis Evangelion creator's Hideaki Anno's take on the franchise, the 2016 film Shin Godzilla, pictured right. Anno co-directed the film with his long-time collaborator Shinji Higuchi, while the music is by Evangelion composer Shiro Sagisu. The screening will be at 6 p.m. and tickets are available here. The film is described on the cinema website as follows:

"It's a peaceful day in Japan when a strange fountain of water erupts in the bay, causing panic to spread among government officials. At first, they suspect only volcanic activity, but one young executive dares to wonder if it may be something different - something alive. His worst nightmare comes to life when a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and begins tearing through the city, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. As the government scrambles to save the citizens, a rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side - the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes."

This will be followed on Saturday January 27 by a screening at the BFI IMAX of the original black-and-white Godzilla film from 1954 (pictured left), directed by Ishirō Honda. The screening will be at 11 a.m. in the morning and tickets are available here. The film is described on the cinema website as follows:

"This legendary film is one of the great classics of cinema, from noted special effects director Ishirō Honda, a friend and collaborator of Akira Kurosawa. Made in 1954, Godzilla was Japan's first foray into the big budget feature, costing ten times as much as the average Japanese movie and twice as much as the same studio's Seven Samurai which was released the same year. Takashi Shimura stars as the revered palaeontologist who uncovers the horrible secret at the heart of the monster (Godzilla is a long dormant Jurassic beast awoken by the atom bomb)."