Last August word got out that Legendary Pictures, the people behind The Dark Knight and The Hangover, were looking to make a new Godzilla movie, presumably because it's been 12 years since Roland Emmerich made his version and maybe we'd all forgotten by now. Now the news is official: Variety reports that Legendary has in fact picked up the rights to the giant lizard, and plans to get production started on a new movie shortly.

Legendary CEO Thomas Tull said in Variety, "Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."

The one silver lining here is that the film will be distributed by Warner Bros., a big studio that has developed a reputation lately for picking oddball directors to make blockbusters and letting them make their own, weird choices. Sure, it doesn't seem likely that someone the caliber of Christopher Nolan would want to take on the great green lizard, but then again, Peter Jackson followed up his Oscar with a King Kong remake. Many things are possible.