Destroying the most recognizable building of your Waikiki resort for marketing purposes may sound misguided — unless the wrecking crew is Godzilla. Then the idea is worthy of a summer blockbuster.
When the king of the monsters arrives on movie screens May 16, the gigantic star of "Godzilla" will rumble through the Hilton Hawaiian Village’s iconic Rainbow Tower.
If you’ve seen the film’s international trailer on YouTube, you know what happens: Most of the 35-story tower, including the famous rainbow mosaic created in 1968 by artist Millard Sheets, is reduced to rubble. The camera sweep of the scene offers a fleeting but memorable image of a Waikiki never seen before.
The damaged tower is a computer-generated image, including what’s left of the rainbow, but the debris along Duke Kahanamoku Beach is real. Sort of.
The filmmakers built an elaborate set last summer and hired hundreds of extras to wander through it, dazed and bloodied.
In the foreground of the shot are 10-foot-tall pieces of foam cut to resemble busted concrete walls. There’s a broken helicopter, a boat and an undamaged yellow Honolulu Fire Department truck. If you were there last July when it was shot, you’d also see detail that included furniture, suitcases and mattresses scattered across the sand.
Mike Fantasia, locations manager for the film, called the end result "beautifully destroyed."
"Filmmakers always like to destroy iconic structures," he said in a telephone call not far from California’s San Quentin prison, where he was scouting for another film.
"When you go to Honolulu the Rainbow Tower is one of the most iconic buildings in the whole city," he said. "Everyone recognizes it. Everyone knows the mural and the location because it’s seen so frequently."
Even though movies are fiction, filmmakers frequently need permission to depict a building being destroyed, especially if the building is considered a landmark, Fantasia said. Many buildings have copyright protection, and in the past 10 years, filmmakers who did not heed that often found themselves in court, he said.
Hilton wasn’t bothered by the plot, though.
"There was not a second of hesitation," Fantasia said. "We were very clear. We sent them images of the building as it is and an image of how it would be depicted in the film, and they were just fine with it."
The "Godzilla" filmmakers, who were rebuffed by owners of the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, thought there would be lengthy negotiations with Hilton, and when that wasn’t the case, Fantasia kept bringing it up.
"I asked the same question a few different times and followed up with emails just to be sure the answer was yes," he said.
But Hilton executives loved the idea, and the amount of detail that went into the devastation scenes impressed them, said Rob Palleschi, global head of Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
"We are thrilled to be part of the movie magic," he said via email. "Having production include the destruction of the Rainbow Tower is a testament to the power of this Hilton icon and the place it holds as an important setting in Honolulu’s story."
The scene also inspired a marketing arrangement between the makers of "Godzilla" — Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures — and Hilton. Each will be part of the other’s online, social media and emailed products. There are room giveaways, prizes and a dessert that features a Rainbow Tower torte and a chocolate Godzilla cookie.
DESTROYING the Rainbow Tower in "Godzilla" wasn’t the director’s original idea. It was Hilton’s.
Gareth Edwards, the British filmmaker at the helm of the reboot, initially planned to use the Hilton property but not identify the hotel chain. He sent Fantasia to scout the location several months before the cameras rolled. When Fantasia met Cynthia Rankin, the hotel’s regional director of corporate communications, he couldn’t tell her what the film was about.
But she got an idea anyway.
"They were already going to destroy the building, but it wouldn’t be identifiable," Rankin said. "But then I said, ‘What if we show the Rainbow Tower?’"
Hundreds of emails buzzed back and forth, drawings exchanged and details discussed — right down to what kind of debris would be scattered and where. The computerized image of the damaged Rainbow Tower would include a Hilton sign that doesn’t exist on the real tower, and the filmmakers asked whether the hotel chain would care if there were a few giant letters in the rubble.
"It was a huge H," Rankin said. "We wanted to keep it but it was 10 feet tall."
The deal also required approval from the artist, but Sheets died in 1989, so Rankin called his 71-year-old son, Tony, who lives in Grant’s Pass, Ore.
The Rainbow Tower mural was one of his father’s favorite pieces, Tony Sheets said. Tourists saw it as they arrived by jet, and cruise ship passengers saw it as they sailed past Waikiki. That always made his father smile.
"I think he would have gotten a kick out of it," Sheets said in a call from a beach campground in Northern California. "It’s all a spoof, so what the heck? If they were really going to tear it down, I would be really upset."
"Godzilla" isn’t the only film to trash Hawaii — the aliens in "Battleship" damaged Oahu freeways and military installations — but destroying an international landmark carries weight in Hollywood.
"It is definitely a very hefty calling card," said Donne Dawson, state film commissioner. "It’s always a case of, ‘Wow, they did that. Where did they do that and how did they do that?’"
But it’s more than special effects, said Walea Constantinau, commissioner of the Honolulu Film Office. When filmmakers create epic destruction in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, they’ve chosen those cities because people care about them, she said.
"They mean something to people, and their destruction strikes a chord within the moviemaking landscape," Constantinau said. "I suppose it’s our statement that we are now one of those cities. In an odd moviemaking way, you know you’ve made it when you’re a target of an attack."
