Oh, no! There goes Tokyo.

Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. announced today that they have acquired the rights to produce a new Godzilla movie from Toho Co (they will handle distribution in Japan). The film is slated for release in 2012 and will most likely arrive in 3-D.

Legendary’s chairman and CEO Thomas Tull tells the Hollywood Reporter:

Godzilla is one of the world’s most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise.

Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop culturally relevant for as long as it has.

Says Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov adds:

Godzilla is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which Warner Bros. and our partners at Legendary are best known.

Legendary & Warner Bros. have co-produced Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and this week’s epic fantasy-adventure Clash of the Titans.

Godzilla made his debut in the 1954 Japanese film Gojira. Master of disaster Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day) took a massive shit all over the iconic beast in his 1998 reboot Godzilla. The film still managed to earned over $376 million worldwide, a testament to Godzilla’s ongoing popularity.

Update: Gareth Edwards (Monsters) is attached to direct the reboot.