Now than Shin Godzilla has lumbered its way into American theaters, leaving a trail of devastation and bureaucracy jokes in its wake, it’s time for Universal to start getting serious about its upcoming sequel to Gareth Edward’s 2014 Godzilla movie. Finding a writer for a movie is generally a good place to start, and Variety reports that Universal has turned to two proven monster-mayhem specialists for the task. That would be Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields, who collaborated on the script for Krampus for Universal. (Dougherty also directed that film, as well as the cult-classic-in-the-making Trick ‘r Treat.)
Dougherty has experience with big-budget projects like this one, having written the screenplays for X-Men 2 and Superman Returns. (He also received a story credit on X-Men Apocalypse.) Shields, on the other hand, has worked mostly in horror, save for a stint writing for Dollhouse. But they’ll probably have some help, as Variety also speculates that Universal could be setting up a writer’s room for its upcoming shared monster universe, rather like the one Paramount recently put together for its Transformers franchise.
Whether this means Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island writer Max Borenstein, who was announced as the screenwriter of Godzilla 2 back in September 2014, is still in the fold is unclear. If not, they’ll just have to solve their problems the old-fashioned way: