Michael Dougherty

Michael Dougherty Born October 28, 1974 Columbus, Ohio, United States Occupation Director, screenwriter, producer First work Season's Greetings (1996) Notable work Trick 'r Treat (2007)

“	I like the horror community because they're subversive. They question things. If something is held back from them, especially if they've heard that it's good, they seek it out.	„
	— Michael Dougherty

“	Some of my earliest memories are watching Godzilla movies. My mother is Vietnamese, and Godzilla movies and kung fu movies were the only places I could see Asian people on TV. He’s been with me my entire life.	„
	— Michael Dougherty

Michael Patrick "Mike" Dougherty is an American film writer, director and producer. Prior to his involvement with the Monsterverse, he was best-known for writing and directing the films Trick 'r Treat and Krampus for Legendary Pictures, as well as writing for several films directed by Bryan Singer, including X2: X-Men United and Superman Returns. He wrote and directed Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and received a story credit for Godzilla vs. Kong, which he worked on with Zach Shields.

Selected filmography

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) - Director / writer [with Zach Shields] / story [with Max Borenstein, Zach Shields]
• Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) - Story [with Terry Rossio, Zach Shields] / producers wish to thank
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (TV 2023-2024) - Consulting producer [with Zach Shields, Bob Ducsay]
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) - Additional literary material [with Zach Shields, James Ashcroft, Eli Kent, Nicole Perlman]

Actor

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) as fighter jet pilot [uncredited]

Gallery

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  Dougherty with fellow Monsterverse directors Gareth Edwards, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and Adam Wingard in 2018

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  Dougherty with Ken Watanabe in Japan

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  A Godzilla doodle made in a Bible by Dougherty in 6th grade

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  Dougherty at the Godzilla Minus One U.S. premiere

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  Dougherty and artist Matt Frank meeting at the Godzilla Minus One U.S. premiere

Videos

Attack of the Monsters!, a student film made by Michael Dougherty Godzilla: King of the Monsters press conference at San Diego Comic Con 2018 Godzilla: King of the Monsters Entertainment Weekly interview Godzilla: King of the Monsters press junket interview alongside Ken Watanabe Godzilla: King of the Monsters Collider interview Godzilla: King of the Monsters Collider interview alongside Ken Watanabe Godzilla: King of the Monsters Collider Podcasts interview Godzilla: King of the Monsters Nerd Reactor interview Monsterverse Director's Roundtable

Trivia

• Michael Dougherty is the first American to direct a Godzilla film. The directors of the previous two Hollywood Godzilla films, Roland Emmerich and Gareth Edwards, were German and British, respectively.
• In 2008, Dougherty was attached to direct and co-write the screenplay for Calling All Robots, an animated kaiju film by Disney and ImageMovers Digital. Unfortunately, ImageMovers Digital closed down after the box office failure of Mars Needs Moms in 2011, and Calling All Robots was never made.
• In an interview with Cinema Today, Dougherty named Anguirus, Biollante, and Mechagodzilla as some of his favorite kaiju. He initially wanted to include Biollante in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and expressed a desire to bring her onboard a hypothetical sequel, along with Gigan.
• Dougherty's favorite Godzilla film is the original; among the more recent films, he favors Godzilla Final Wars.
  • Dougherty has also expressed his distaste for TriStar's Godzilla, commenting "The 1998 Godzilla was like a mere oversized dinosaur, lacking mythical or spiritual factors necessary for monster movies," and cites reasons for his enjoyment of Godzilla Final Wars being because "all of the monsters were gathered" and "Godzilla crushed the fake Zilla."
• In an interview featured in the February 2019 issue of Movie Hidden Treasure, Dougherty named the original 1954 Godzilla as the Godzilla with the best dorsal plates, and also wholeheartedly believes that Akira Ifukube's iconic franchise scores and themes should never be separated from any Godzilla movie.

External links

• Official site
• Twitter account
• YouTube channel
• Instagram account
• /Film interview (August 2017)
• Tamashii Nations interview (January 2019)
• Famous Monsters of Filmland (February 2017)
• Coming Soon interview (May 2019)
• Daily Dead interview (May 2019)
• /Film interview (May 2019)
• Nerd Reactor interview (May 2019)
• Toho Kingdom interview (May 2019)
• Bloody Disgusting interview (June 2019)
• Screen Rant interview (June 2019)

References

This is a list of references for Michael Dougherty. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

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