Aaron Johnson set for the lead in Godzilla?

It may be having a lot of turmoil at the moment behind the scenes with producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee getting booted off the project and Variety reporting today that Legendary Pictures are going to court over it, but Gareth Edward's reboot of the classic Japanese monster rolls on with the new rumour from Deadline that Kick-Ass 2 star Aaron Johnson is in line for the lead role.

Should the rumour be true, Johnson will join a list of other names including Henry Cavill (Man of Steel), Scoot McNairy (Monsters) and Caleb Landry Jones (Contraband) as possibilities to lead Godzilla's first big screen outing since Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004.

This will be the second big screen adaptation for the King of the Monsters outside of Japan, where he has featured in 28 movies over the last six decades. The Godzilla reboot, set for release on May 16th 2014, will mark The Big G's 60th birthday. The film is being helmed by Monsters director Gareth Edwards and has been described as a realistic take on Godzilla with a serious tone that is more reminiscent of his first outing in Gojira.

Aaron Johnson will be back on the big screen this year with the sequel to 2006's Kick-Ass, this time directed by Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down).

We reported earlier in the week that Godzilla has now hired on its fifth writer in the form of horror-maestro Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption).