Takashi Yamazaki's first English-language film Grandgear announces first cast: Sam Nivola and Nico Parker to star, Paul Giamatti in talks
Japanese director Takashi Yamazaki's first English-language film, Grandgear, has announced its first cast members. According to Deadline, Sam Nivola and Nico Parker are set to star in the film, while Paul Giamatti is in talks to join. Their roles and the plot remain under wraps. The film, written and directed by Yamazaki, is a science-fiction action movie about giant mechs in combat, and follows his Godzilla Minus One and Godzilla Minus Zero.
Yamazaki's 2023 film Godzilla Minus One became a worldwide phenomenon on a reported budget of about $15 million and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, making him the first director since Stanley Kubrick to win that award. Its sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero, premiered at the New York Film Festival in September 2026 and opens in Japan on November 3 and in North America on November 6.
Grandgear was first announced in 2024 as Yamazaki's English-language debut and his first major studio picture. J.J. Abrams is producing through Bad Robot alongside Glen Zipper, and Sony Pictures won distribution rights in a competitive bid. Footage shown at CinemaCon in 2026 featured two giant mechs fighting, shot from ground level. Nivola is known for The White Lotus, Parker won a Breakthrough Performance Award at Sundance for Suncoast and starred in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, and Giamatti, a Golden Globe winner with multiple Academy Award nominations over a thirty-year career, next appears with Julianne Moore in The Debut. Production is expected to begin in 2027, with a release planned for 2028, according to multiple reports.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 山崎贵在2026年纽约电影节留影（资料图）。Photo: Dodoeggs, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
