Among the directors who reportedly were engaged to prepare a U.S. version were studio chief Hal Roach and his son, Hal Roach Jr.. They already had experience doing a dinosaur movie with One Million B.C. (1940), which became a box-office sensation.
Despite the large number of well executed special effects and explosions, the US theatrical trailer did not contain any scenes from the film. The trailer was made up of still images with graphics and narration and ran only approximately 45 seconds.
The rights to the original film were acquired from Toho by a company that planned to use the special effects footage to create a new feature (tentatively titled "The Volcano Monsters") with additional special effects and main unit footage. Before the project could be completed, the production company went out of business. The rights were then picked up by Los Angeles entertainment attorney Paul Schreibman. He arranged to have the film edited and dubbed (changing Godzilla's name to Gigantis) for release under the title "Gigantis the Fire Monster"). He also had the rights to the ultra-low-budget Teenagers from Outer Space (1959).He was able to negotiate a deal with Warner Brothers to release the pair as a pre-packaged double feature.
Among the directors who worked on preparing the English-language version was the very prolific "B" veteran Sam Newfield. He was uncredited and it would be his last work on a feature film, ending a career with over 250 directing credits.