Before the legendary monster Godzilla terrorizes cities on the big screen for Legendary Pictures’ reboot of the classic giant monster franchise, there’s a battle raging behind the scenes. Two of the film’s major producers, Dan Lin and Roy Lee have just left the project mere weeks before production is set to begin. According to a report from Hitflix, the pair refused to reduce the fees that they signed on for when the deal was inked, so Legendary is opting to initiate a, as Deadline puts it,  “pay or play clause and paying them upfront money to go away, with no back-end or credit on the film”. Sources say that this will likely end up in court because Lin isn’t some small time producer. He’s been with Warner Bros., which is financing part of ‘Godzilla’, for 15 years.

That’s not the only news to emerge about the new film from indie/sci-fi director Gareth Edwards, and it’s not all bad either. The film has just added a new writer to do the final draft of the script and a shortlist has emerged for potential stars of the film.

In a move that certainly won’t hurt the script, Frank Darabont will take the final pass at the ‘Godzilla’ script. The script already features rewrites from David S. Goyer (‘Man of Steel’), Max Borenstein (‘The Seventh Son’), Drew Pearce (‘Iron Man 3’), and David Callaham (‘The Expendables’), and now it’s the former ‘Walking Dead’ showrunner’s turn to take a crack at it. The iconic writer/director likely won’t affect the plot very much, but it’s likely that he could punch up some characters.

Could this guy be fighting Godzilla?

Finally, Cinemablend revealed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s recently been talked about in conversations about Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, is among the front-runners for the lead in the film. Also on the list is ‘Man of Steel’ star Henry Cavill, ‘Monsters’ star Scoot McNairy, and Caleb Landry Jones, who played Banshee in ‘X-Men: First Class’. A decision on a lead likely won’t come until after Darabont finishes the script, but keep an eye out for the announcement soon as production is scheduled to begin in March.

What do you think about all of this ‘Godzilla’ news? Are you excited for the giant lizard to surface again? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

‘Godzilla’ is scheduled to open on May 16, 2014.