‘City-smashing’ installation appears in London – featuring two beasts in film

It might look like something from a movie, but your eyes don't deceive you - Godzilla and Kong are lurking in London.
By Charlie Bayliss
Published 25th Mar 2024, 13:01 BST

Godzilla’s bristling pink spikes, brimming with atomic power, were seen poking up from the river Thames next to Kong's giant hand, crushing an iconic London red phone box on Southbank.

The giant titan’s spine stretches an impressive 65 feet, the length of a tennis court. Kong's hand is a mammoth 16 feet tall, with a head seven metres in diameter – 45 times that of a human.

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A team of 40 worked around the clock to create the two sculptures, spending a colossal 6,326 hours over two months, and it took 51 days just to paint the two giant beasts, which collectively weigh more than a tonne.

A beastly collaboration

The city-smashing installation was created to launch Warner Bros. Pictures’ new movie Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, released on Friday 29th March.

The sculptures were fabricated from 3D references from the filmmakers, built in a combination of poly, fibreglass and steel framework, as well as interactive lighting.

Godzilla contains over 70 individual pulsing pink lights to achieve the atomic effect, a spectacular addition in the new film, which sees him team up with Kong as a greater threat to earth materialises.

The formidable Titans have been unleashed in giant sculpture form beneath the OXO Tower which has also been renamed GxK Tower to mark the release of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, in cinemas across the UK and Ireland this Friday 29th March. The formidable Titans have been unleashed in giant sculpture form beneath the OXO Tower which has also been renamed GxK Tower to mark the release of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, in cinemas across the UK and Ireland this Friday 29th March.
The formidable Titans have been unleashed in giant sculpture form beneath the OXO Tower which has also been renamed GxK Tower to mark the release of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, in cinemas across the UK and Ireland this Friday 29th March.

Beasts take over OXO Tower

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Kong is covered in over 30 metres of fur, to create a hyper-realistic finish.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire filmmaker Adam Wingard said: “A lot of the magic of the Monsterverse comes from watching these Titans battling it out in real world surroundings.

“To see Godzilla and Kong actually accessing Hollow Earth portals into London just really blew me away! I felt like I did as a kid, watching the Toho classics on a Saturday afternoon.”

The giant beasts will be available to see beneath London’s OXO Tower – temporarily rebranded the GXK Tower, for today only (Monday), ahead of the film’s release in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from Friday 29th March.

Related topics:LondonFilmRiver ThamesCinemasMagic