The Legend of Hogzilla
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 30th, 2007
Cryptomundo reader The Foywonder tips us off to this new film news. And a reference to The Legend Of Boggy Creek too!
That picture you see is not a Photoshop job. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Hogzilla!
Never heard of Hogzilla? Shot and killed on June 17, 2004 in Alapaha, Georgia. The hog was so enormous the hunter who took it down was incapable of bringing it back with him but was able to take the picture you see here of it hanging from a backhoe, before burying its oversized carcass. Dubbed “Hogzilla,” that pic and the tall tale of such a big pig caught the attention of National Geographic. They exhumed its remains and confirmed it to have been 8 feet in length, weighing in at 800 pounds and with 18-inch tusks — a freakishly large mating of a domestic pig and a wild boar.
If it didn’t sound like something straight out of a horror movie before, it sure will now.
Yahoo! Movies is reporting that indie company Lithium Productions is preparing to produce a horror movie to be entitled The Legend of Hogzilla that will no doubt reimagine the supersized swine as a far more malicious entity. The production has even brought on board Chris Griffin, the hunter who brought down the real Hogzilla (seen posing with it in the photo), to consult with the filmmakers as their resident hog expert. Chris Griffin, no relation to the animated son on “Family Guy” – sorry had to include that since I know many of you were thinking it, will also cameo in the film.
The production is just beginning to take shape with auditions being held next month in Tifton, Georgia, where much of the film will be shot. Quoting producer Rick Trimm, “We don’t need professional actors. We need real people who are interested in the movie.” A page from the Ulli Lommell playbook, I see. Then again, it worked for The Legend of Boggy Creek some thirty odd years ago.
No word on a plot just yet, but I suspect it will have to do with a bunch of people out in the Georgia wild who find their bacon in the fryer when they’re confronted with the pissed-off porker out to show mankind who’s the real boss hog. That’s pure speculation on my part, but seriously, there are only so many ways you can make a movie with a title like The Legend of Hogzilla.
Producer Trimm did tell the Tifton Gazette newspaper that the company producing the film has already told him how the movie has to end in order for there to be a sequel. Ah, welcome to showbiz, Mr. Trimm.
Could The Legend of Hogzilla become the Razorback for a new generation? Only time will tell.– The Foywonder
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Nothing like a Good Hog movie.
hey everyone its sounds like a great new movie, is it going to be on sci fi channel or come straight to dvd. thanks bill 🙂
I saw something on TV recently about this Hogzilla. They dug up the “grave” and measured the carcass, conducted DNA tests, etc. It turns out that Hogzilla was nowhere near as large as the guy who killed it claimed, and it wasn’t even big enough to beat the official size of the largest hog recorded (it was still a very big critter). Of course that’s not to say that it isn’t possible such a gigantic specimen doesn’t exist. If you’re interested in giant pig movies, check out “Razorback” from 1984. It was a decent take on the giant-animal-running-amok genre and I believe was directed by Russel Mulcahy of “highlander” fame.
Well, that certainly is a lot of bacon. Mmmmm.. bacon.
Yes… check out “Razorback”… that was sweet… really fun…
Kamoeba is correct, the hogzilla pictured above is not all that “huge”, but for a wild hog it is at least “real” big. You wouldn’t want to have to face that thing in the woods. There was another larger wild hog caught fairly recently, I just can’t seem to find the link right now. Bigger then this Hogzilla, but same causes, wild animals getting into domestic foodstuffs and growing off the charts… and isn’t that a great idea for a movie… Catzilla, or Hamszilla… a giant Hamster, the size of a hog…
There was a bigger hogziila killed a couple of months ago just south of Atlanta, in fact within 20 miles of the airport. Gives us a new definition of pork bellies.
I can’t post it here, but google up “hogzilla atlanta” for pictures of an 1100 pound beast.
Well, movies are going to be movies. You’re not likely to see a purely factual approach to any cryptozoological subject: even superb based-on-fact movies like Apollo 13 mess with timelines or details, and some like Pearl Harbor are pretty much described as “Yes, the Japanese did attack that day, but forget the rest of it…”
I had an interesting discussion last week with an editor who works in books, web, and film, on my crypto-novel project. We touched on film possibilities, and I said SciFi would probably turn it into a high-body-count monster movie with a fake-looking CGI creature. His response: “If they write you a big enough check, let ’em do anything they want.”
MatteBille- Like I’ve said on past movie threads, I don’t think the bulk of the filmgoing public wants to see cryptids cavorting about minding their own business. 🙂