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Godzilla stomps through Steveston

Film crews descend for silver screen reboot of sea monster

He flattened Tokyo in previous movies. And it looks like he'll be doing a number on Steveston, too.

Godzilla, one of the most famous and enduring classic movie characters since making his debut in 1954, was back before the movie camera lenses in Richmond this week.

The historic fishing village was transformed into a veritable war zone with burned out cars strewn across Moncton Street and military vehicles rumbling through the area.

It's director Gareth Edwards' reboot of a story marking the arrival of the massive sea creature.

Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame is one of the co-stars.

Steveston was being made over earlier this week to portray a section of San Francisco waterfront.

Filming on the movie began in mid-March in other locations across the Lower Mainland including inside BC Place Stadium and Cypress Mountain.

Other sites in Nanaimo and Victoria are also expected to be used.

In Steveston Tuesday, Robyn Germain, assistant manager at Splash Toys said the front of her store was transformed into a watering hole called the Wood Eagle Bar.

"It took them about eight hours on Monday and another four to make the changes," Germain said.

"They changed the front to black brick, put a big sign up, and covered the windows in big cream-coloured curtains."

Despite all the additions, Splash Toys remained open for business, letting customers in the store via the back door.

Germain said she is used to the disruptions like this since ABC's popular Once Upon a Time TV series frequently uses Steveston as the mythic location of Storybrooke.

"They're here about once every two weeks during the season," she said. "And the crews are really good.

"With movies, they give you pretty good notice, about a month or two in advance that they are location scouting."

Filming Tuesday was expected to get underway in the afternoon and move down the street.

The release date for this latest version of Godzilla is scheduled for May 16, 2014.

praphael@richmond-news.com