Over the next week, Below the Line will be taking a deep dive into the visual effects necessary to bring Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla vs. Kong to enormous life on screen.
In case the title seemed vague, Godzilla vs. Kong brings together two of the biggest movie monsters for the first time in almost sixty years with Director Adam Wingard (The Guest, You’re Next, Blair Witch) pulling together elements introduced in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island and Legendary’s two Godzilla movies, including 2019’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters.
First up is the overall VFX Supervisor, John “DJ” DesJardin, who has been working extensively with Zack Snyder over the past few years, beginning with Watchmen in 2009 and through his DC Universe movies, including Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. DesJardin was also part of the ordeal that struck Snyder’s next film, Justice League, as the filmmaker left the project, leading to a less-than-satisfying theatrical release. DesJardin was then brought back to shepherd the vast visual effects work needed to finish the four-hour Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Before connecting with Snyder, DesJardin worked on a number of high-profile movies from the early ‘90s including Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Batman Returns, working as digital and visual effects for a number of movies before becoming VFX Supervisor on The Matrix Reloaded and its sequel, The Matrix Revolutions.
Below the Line spoke to DesJardin last week, and as luck would have it, right before this interview, we had a chance to speak with Bryan Hirota at Scanline VFX, who has worked with DesJardin for over 25 years and was involved with the visual effects on both GvK and ZSJL.