‘Pacific Rim’ viral teaser: A giant monster destroys San Francisco

What better way to promote a big-budget giant monster movie than by having one of the giant monsters destroy a beloved city in a series of fake news clips? In the first viral clip for "Pacific Rim," director Guillermo del Toro ("Hellboy," "Pan's Labyrinth") offers up San Francisco as a sacrifice to a gargantuan beast from the deep. And there's nothing mankind can do about it!

Audiences will likely have to wait a few weeks to get their first legitimate look at del Toro's upcoming "robots vs. monsters" movie (in the form of a trailer attached to "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," a film that del Toro co-wrote and was once attached to direct). For now, these fleeting glimpses of the massive monster and wanton landmark destruction will have to suffice.

See also: The story behind the 'Les Miserables' poster girl

The $200 million sci-fi film is due out in July 2013, and is meant to be the Mexican director's homage to Japanese monster movies of the 1960s and 70s -- so-called Kaiju movies like "Godzilla" that featured people in creature suits battling it out. After the mysterious emergence of giant creatures from the ocean (as depicted in the viral clip above), "Pacific Rim" sees humanity waging a losing war against an army of mega monsters. To fight this new threat, the nations of the world begin building massive monster-fighting robots called Jaegers. "Pacific Rim" follows the story of the men and women who pilot these enormous bots. As another element of the viral campaign, Wired offered a look at the "blueprints" for one of "Pacific Rim's" enormous fighting robots yesterday.

See also: Five film facts about 'Killing Them Softly'

"Pacific Rim" isn't the first time that Hollywood has tangoed with Japan-inspired giant monster movies. Way back in 1998, the team behind the hugely successful alien invasion flick "Independence Day" decided to take on Godzilla, the king kaiju himself, in a remake of the original 1954 movie. Unfortunately, "Godzilla" barely made back its $130 million budget domestically and was shellacked by critics, a failure that scared Hollywood off the genre for nearly ten years. (We blame boring star Matthew Broderick, not the titular atomic lizard.)

In 2008, producer J.J. Abrams teamed with friends Matt Reeves ("Let Me In") and Drew Goddard ("The Cabin in the Woods") for the found-footage-meets-monster-movie "Cloverfield." The low-budget, hand-held angle and the resulting big box office returns encouraged many found footage imitators, but the movie itself did little to popularize the kaiju genre internationally.

See also: 'Django Unchained' made Leonardo DiCaprio ask 'Are we going too far?'

So, will del Toro's film succeed where movies like the "Godzilla" and "Cloverfield" failed? Or do non-Japanese audiences simply not have an regular appetite for monster-induced destruction? Well, if any filmmaker could sell a kaiju movie to North Americans, it would be del Toro. The man has made gained a loyal following thanks to movies about vampires, demons, and other fantastic creatures. Are 300 foot tall monsters really that much of a hard of a sell for his legions of fans? Beyond that, there's the fact "Pacific Rim" features monster-sized robots to fight the big beasties. The "Transformers" movies proved that people will go see movies about giant robots -- especially if those giant robots are fighting something. Where movies like "Godzilla" and "Cloverfield" saw American cities helplessly victimized by giant monsters, "Pacific Rim" promises audiences that they will get to see the "good guys" fight back on the same level. Will the combination of del Toro's name recognition and monster fighting robots be enough to sell "Pacific Rim" to potential audiences? We think so.

"Pacific Rim" stars Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Idris Elba, Charlie Day, and Ron Pearlman. The film monster punches its way into theatres on July 12, 2013.