I came across an article over on VarietyAsiaOnline.com that states Atari’s gigantic problems (including yet another warning from NASDAQ to get their stock into shape) could potentially hurt the upcoming live-action movie set to release next year.

Really? How exactly do you figure? The article states nothing more than:

But if Atari, which recorded a $12 million loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2007, is delisted, it may not sit well with 20th Century Fox, which is producing a live-action “Dragon Ball” pic for an August 15 release in the U.S., with James Wong helming and Justin Chatwin starring as Goku, the pic’s super-powered boy hero.

What does Atari have to do with 20th Century Fox? Unless there is some deal going on for Atari to promote the movie in some way with some sort of gaming experience, I just do not see the connection — which is probably impossible, anyway, since Atari has completely departed from the game production business and exclusively acts as a distributor now. The only upcoming promotional tie-in I could see would be “Burst Limit” happening to be available around the same time. Even if Atari were to completely crumble, FUNimation would sell off the remaining time of the license (or sell a new one, entirely) to a new bidder and keep going from there. As far as I can see, Namco-Bandai themselves would just take over the job (since they are the ones creating the games over in Japan).

Furthermore, the following is completely inaccurate:

Atari “Dragon Ball Z” license expired last September and, after negotiations with Funimation, signed a deal in December for a reported $3.5 million that renews the license until January 2010.

As we know, the license did not expire; FUNimation claimed Atari was in breach of their contract due to marketing shortfalls, and Atari paid the difference to keep things amiable and still-going. The license always was until 2010, and it remains so.