Wingard, as a director, loves an arresting palette. His home invasion breakout hit “You’re Next” grows increasingly blood-splattered as the bodies start piling up, whereas his found-footage horror sequel “Blair Witch” becomes ever grungier as it goes along (much like its characters, as they find themselves trapped in an endless forest). However, it’s in his cult thriller “The Guest” that Wingard fully lets loose, bathing the proceedings in vibrant neons. So, of course, he’s only continued to embrace his artistic impulses while playing in the MonsterVerse sandbox. In his own words:
“Whenever I was talking to the visual artists, what I told them was, ‘I want the color palette of this film to resemble the experience of what it was like to walk down a toy aisle in the 1980s when you had ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, and Transformers.’ There was just this orgasmic feeling. So many colors and textures. That’s what I wanted to bring to this movie. This new, heightened reality. I wanted to find out: can you take that over-the-top toy-aisle experience, but then find a way to ground that into a reality?”
Considering Wingard is loosely attached to helm a live-action “ThunderCats” film at some point after finishing “Godzilla x Kong,” it’s clear he intends to bring even more bold shades to the modern blockbuster landscape going forward. It could certainly use some, too, after years of tentpoles that either feature muddy colors or place so much emphasis on visual realism that it sucks the joy out of their spectacle. Building on “Godzilla vs. Kong” and director Greta Gerwig’s beamingly colorful blockbuster “Barbie,” there’s no better time for the King of the Monsters to add a little pink to his own aesthetic.
