Sep 23, 2026 · 1 hr 21 min · 12 segments
On this episode, we take on some of the biggest kaijus put to screen with our beloved Guillermo del Toro. This episode was recorded on September 7th, 2026.
So this was an original idea written by Travis Beecham.
I wasn't listening when you said his name earlier.
Wow.
But he was on the beach one day.
That's very
fitting for that name.
Yeah.
I think Travis Beecham got his idea on a beach.
He lived in Santa Monica at the time and he would go down to the Santa Monica Pier and just walk the beach to like brainstorm in between writing sessions just to like reset.
It was a foggy day and he saw the pier just about a mile away, almost hidden in the fog.
as he got closer the ferris wheel started to peer out of it and then he got the picture of a giant robot emerging out of the water and i really love that that shot happens early on in the movie with the metal detector i think that's one of my favorite bits of scale in this movie and we'll talk a lot about the scale because it's super impressive amazing So he got this idea of big monsters fighting big robots and it just materialized in that moment.
But Beecham is prone to picture these big things and know that there's not enough here to actually make a script off of, so he just sat on it for years.
And he didn't really know what he had to write about until he had the idea that the robots were driven by two pilots and what happens when one of those pilots dies.
Then it became a story about loss, moving on after loss, and dealing with survivor's guilt.
Once he got that idea, the ball rolling.
I think that was around 2006 that the idea formed for the first time.
So he got the project off the ground on the basis of a detailed 25-page treatment.
And Del Toro got on board as a producer in July 2010.
This is a really hectic time for Del Toro because this is two months after leaving The Hobbit movies.
And as a part of the deal to start working on directing an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.
the studio wanted him involved with the project but the only way he would agree to do it is if he was in the producing role due to the conflicting schedules but in march of 2011 the lovecraft adaptation was cancelled which was on a friday and by monday he was signed on to direct pacific rim
Which, hey, I mean, like, I think they really struck gold when it came to finding a director for this movie.
Because you look at this guy's filmography and, like, he is the monster movie man.
Like, I would say of our modern time.
Like, you look at all the stuff, like...
So this was an original idea written by Travis Beecham.
I wasn't listening when you said his name earlier.
Wow.
But he was on the beach one day.
That's very
fitting for that name.
Yeah.
I think Travis Beecham got his idea on a beach.
He lived in Santa Monica at the time and he would go down to the Santa Monica Pier and just walk the beach to like brainstorm in between writing sessions just to like reset.
It was a foggy day and he saw the pier just about a mile away, almost hidden in the fog.
as he got closer the ferris wheel started to peer out of it and then he got the picture of a giant robot emerging out of the water and i really love that that shot happens early on in the movie with the metal detector i think that's one of my favorite bits of scale in this movie and we'll talk a lot about the scale because it's super impressive amazing So he got this idea of big monsters fighting big robots and it just materialized in that moment.
But Beecham is prone to picture these big things and know that there's not enough here to actually make a script off of, so he just sat on it for years.
And he didn't really know what he had to write about until he had the idea that the robots were driven by two pilots and what happens when one of those pilots dies.
Then it became a story about loss, moving on after loss, and dealing with survivor's guilt.
Once he got that idea, the ball rolling.
I think that was around 2006 that the idea formed for the first time.
So he got the project off the ground on the basis of a detailed 25-page treatment.
And Del Toro got on board as a producer in July 2010.
This is a really hectic time for Del Toro because this is two months after leaving The Hobbit movies.
And as a part of the deal to start working on directing an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.
the studio wanted him involved with the project but the only way he would agree to do it is if he was in the producing role due to the conflicting schedules but in march of 2011 the lovecraft adaptation was cancelled which was on a friday and by monday he was signed on to direct pacific rim
Which, hey, I mean, like, I think they really struck gold when it came to finding a director for this movie.
Because you look at this guy's filmography and, like, he is the monster movie man.
Like, I would say of our modern time.
Like, you look at all the stuff, like...
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