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Anime becoming real life action movies?
05.26.03, 00:27:49
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Post #1 (permalink) |
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Well, with the recent announcement of the live-action Evangelion movie, it's brought my attention to the fact that there are actually quite a few anime being turned into live-action movies. Some I think may work, others I'm not so sure about. Let's take a look at some of the announcements, shall we?
DragonBall Z- Borderline. I would be much more skeptical if it weren't for the recent announcement of ILM (the CGI company owned by George Lucas) doing the special effects. Given what they've done with Star Wars, I feel slightly more confident. Also, they've announced that the filming is being pushed back about a year (it was supposed to start some time soon, and it's been pushed back to a tentative date of some time Summer 2004) so that makes me think they may be taking that time (at least they better^^) to think things through more thoroughly. Also, I'm a little confused with their announcement:
"FOX is shooting for a PG-13 rating and a running time of somewhere between 3 to 4 hours. They are hoping for the DBZ movie saga to be 4 episodes (movies) long..."
The PG-13 doesn't seem to bother me, as I'd pretty much expect it to be at least that if they want to pull off some stunts, and an R rating would probably be pushing it, though I could still see that as a potentially good way to go (the only problem with that, though, would be that they would loose a good deal of potential-viewers due to the higher rating). Also, when they say 3-4 hours and 4 movies long, I get a little confused. Now, if they only did 3 hours for 4 movies, that would seem a little short to show in theaters...4 hours total for the four movies (which are divided as follows: (1)Saiyan and Namek Sagas, (2)Frieza, (3)Cell, and (4)Buu)--that being one hour a piece seems a little manageable. If that time was for each movie, I don't see that as being too successful. I mean, 3 hours they might be able to pull off (like Lord of the Rings did) but 4 hours is out of the question. That's why I think they probably meant that would be the length of all 4 movies. the way they worded it just seems a little confusing to me.
Lastly, about the name, they say there isn't a definite one yet, but besides the most obvious and best choice of simply "DragonBall Z," Fox says they're also considering "DragonBall Z: Unlimited" or "DragonBall Z: Fight For Man Kind." If you ask me, they seem too cheesy...I think they should go with something simple like "DragonBall Z", or "DragonBall Z: the movie."
(don't worry, as the DBZ movie has been planned the longest of these, I had the most to work with, the rest won't be as long )
Lupin the 3rd: This one I can see as coming off pretty successful. Unlike two of the other live-action movies I'll be talking about here, there isn't anything "paranormal" so to speak that they'll have to deal with (or, at least less so than ki blasts or giant robots). True, some of the episodes seem a little far-fetched, but most seem quite capable of being transferred into a live-action movie. They're regular people, doing real things (mostly getting chased for all sorts of random crimes, for those who don't know the series).
Also, the movie is in great hands, as the man who directed Shindler's List will be heading this movie, so I'm confident that it's in the hands of an established director at least ^^. I'm really looking forward to this one, but the only problem I can see is it may not fare too well in theaters, as Lupin isn't that established here in the States yet. I know a lot of people here at TFF don't really like the series, but I for one love it, and am looking forward to seeing it; if for nothing else but the fact that it seems the most doable of the 4 current movies I'll be talking about here.
Kite: This is probably the most controversial one I've heard mention of. Here in the states, the Kite was released semi to substantially edited (depending on the version you see) but I've seen the original Japanese version, and it's quite disturbing (it involves some brutal rape scenes, including one flashback of the main character, Sawa, getting raped while she was no older than maybe 13). One thing that really puts me off about this being turned into a live-action movie is that Rob Cohen, (director of XXX and The Fast and the Furious) the man who acquired the rights to this movie, has said specifically that he will not include the "graphic adult situations" found in the anime.
That--I think-- is what is going to make this movie flop--those scenes (or lack thereof). While they may disturb some, they're extremely important into revealing things about not only Sawa's past, but help give you some knowledge as to why she is the way she is. Some aspects of the movie I think they can edit out, such as the bullets the explode after getting lodged into you (as those were just thrown in for dramatic effect). Those scenes, though, are very important to the series, and to take them out will severely hurt the movie they're producing. I can understand where they're coming from, though, as they wouldn't be able to get half those scenes into an R-rated movie, and even if it was an NC-17 movie, they still couldn't show Sawa's rape when she was young, because they wouldn't even be able to film that (and I don't think any movie released in an American theater would promote statutory rape >_< ). Don't get me wrong, I'll still probably see the movie, but I just don't know how successful it'll turn out.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: This is the most recent announcement of the four. This is another like the DBZ movie that has some potential, but it's still on the boarder. Much like the live-action DBZ movie, there are luckily a few things that are sustaining me from being more doubtful. For one, Weta Studios will be producing it. Weta Studios, for those who don't know is the company that was started Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, and was made to handle the special effects for the trilogy. That being said, I think we've all seen what they're capable of, so I'm thinking that the problem of animating the Evas won't be as troublesome for a industry-leading company like them. Also, Ganaix and ADV have said they will be teaming up to co-produce the movie together.
Like I said, the visuals for the Evas seem like they'd be able to be pulled off fairly "easily," (and I use that term lightly) but if they chose to go down the route of involving the Angels in the movie, their design may prove to be more of a problem (unless they just work in an alternate telling of one or more angel battles, which in that case, they'd already have designs to work with).
I think for a movie based on such a well-known series, a possible gripe of Eva fans may be the actors they get to play the roles of Shinji and company. I for one don't really have an opinion on this yet, as it's still way to early to even be thinking about that.
One thing I'm really looking forward to seeing though, is if they include any religious/symbolic imagery or references like the series did...and on a side note, to those who don't know, I'm writing a huge "paper" (I use the quotes because it isn't a literal school paper or anything, just a project I decided to take up) on that subject, dealing with all that religious imagery--I'll be posting it when I get it finished, but first I have to finish the series (currently up to episode 24: I may finish the series this weekend, as I do have the last DVD, but I still don't own the movies). Just thought I'd throw that in ^^
Lastly, I remember hearing something about James Cameron announcing that he was making a live action movie of the Battle Angel series, but I can't comment on that much because (1) I've never seen the series, so I can't offer any commentary on my thoughts about a live action movie and (2)I don't know many details about the planning of the movie, but I do know that pre-production has already (apparently) started.
With all that being said (is everyone tired of reading now? ) feel free to sound off on your opinions on any of these aforementioned live-action movies, or comments about any other live-action movies for any anime that have already been produced and how they should (or should not) influence these movies currently announced. Hope everyone had a good read, but I hope you'll voice your opinions, too |
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