How would you make a Hollywood adaption ?

[apex_pretador]

The first movie I'd make a composite of the Pilaf and Red Ribbon arcs. Or really, Path to Power but with Krillin, Ox-King, and Chi-Chi included as well, and with the final act basically being how the original arc ended rather than Path To Power's ending. Since Commander Red's real motives were already pretty ridiculous to begin with, I think it would be a good idea to model his character after Emperor Pilaf.

From there, the second movie would be the Marial Arts Tournament, only in this it jumps straight to Tien and Chiaotzu, ad similar to what happened with the Buu saga, the tournament gets crashed by Tambourine and kicks off the Piccolo story.

And then the third movie would be the 23rd Tournament 3 years later with Piccolo Jr. and from there, more movies that pragmatically adapt the Z story.

Interesting idea, I like this.
Put on paper, I think it'll be something like this:

Dragon Ball : Goku and the mighty shenron

Kid goku - extremely powerful and naive kid, with tail, living in mountains, meets bulma. They go in search of dragon balls. On their way, they meet several dangerous animals - which goku easily deals with, Kamesenin - who gives goku the kintoun, Red Ribbon Army, which goku disposes of mostly, emperor pilaf - who's taken care of, Oolong, YAMCHA - who proves to be equal to goku, but runs away seeing bulma. Then frypan mountain stuff happens. Then they get trapped in pilaf castle, where puar and Yamcha need to cut goku's tail off. However, there are only 6 DB's so far.
Then they meet Bora at the sacred land of karin, having a dragon ball. However, then they encounter Tao Pai Pai, from whom they barely escape while bora is killed.
Goku climbs the karin tower and gets a powerup to kill Tao Pai Pai and use the 7 DB's to revive bora.
The movie ends with goku going to train with Roshi.

Dragon Ball : The world tournament

Goku and krillin are shown training , they fight in the tournament, where goku puts up a fight and loses in the finals against roshi (No transformation, because moon didn't appear)
Then they finish-off the remanants of RRA with krillin and Yamcha, led by general blue. A scene of goku breaking through blue's paralysis by seeing the moon and transforming must be there. Add the scene of roshi catching bullets.

3 years later, Tien & Chaotzu appear in 22nd TB and Tien wins due to luck like he did.
Then show something creepy to end the movie like this:

I think a neat way to foreshadow the Piccolo movie would be ending the first movie with a small scene either directly before or after the credits of somebody stumbling upon an Electronic Rice Cooker conspicuously marked with the "Demon" symbol.

Dragon ball : Demon and gods

The movie begins off as tien celebrating his win as giving a meal to everyone with prize money, and krillin is missing. Soon, they see the announcer fainted, and krillin's dead body with "demon" symbol.
Goku goes mad over this, and then piccolo arc happens.
The spitting of egg is focused part.

Then goku goes to Kami, and meets him & Popo, who both are superior to him. After training, the 23rd TB arc happens, and the movie ends with roshi giving Kami a lecture.

Dragon Ball Z: The unrevealed mysteries

Arrival of raditz, nappa and vegeta covered into one movie. Ends with goku letting vegeta live.

Dragon Ball Z: The strongest in the universe

Namek arc, fully covered.

Dragon ball Z: A dangerous composition

Future trunks arrives but no mecha, no KC.
After training, goku is just sick 3 years later, and not even senzu beans can heal him so they take goku to Kami, who uses god magic to treat him, but goku needs 10 day rest because he's in too critical condition.
Vegeta hasn't turned super saiyan , nor piccolo has powered up that much. However, they are more than a match for Dr gero & #19.
17 & 18 are completely opposite, much more powerful. Piccolo is forced to join with GOD. He nearly defeats cell, but he manages to escape. Cell absorbs people and the becomes powerful enough to sneak up on androids and absorb them. Piccolo is too tired to do anything because of the fight with 17.
Trunks and vegeta train in time chamber and achieve super saiyan. They fight against semi-cell pretty well, and he's noted to be stronger than freeza himself.
However, then vegeta lets cell absorb #18 too, so that he can get serious.
Cell absolutely demolishes vegeta and trunks. However, trunks bulks-up and cell lets him live, announcing a tournament.

Piccolo, goku and gohan train in the ROSAT as well, vegeta and trunks go in also.
By the end of training, gohan is able to barely turn super saiyan, but he has powered up a lot in his base form, already comparable to super saiyans.

No SS2, gohan just goes plain old SS against cell and destroys him. Goku dies, cell returns and gets defeated after killing trunks.

Not sure about buu arc.

[sintzu]

Like a lot of you have said, if they try to do a live action version then they'd need well known actors to play the main roles but is there anyone popular in Hollywood who looks like any of the Saiyans ?

I think they should motion capture Goku and the other Z fighters while the rest of the cast like Bulma can be played by normal actors cause I'm sure they could manage to find someone who looks and acts like her, Chi Chi and Roshi.

Screenwriter
I have no idea. However, Toriyama should be part of it and be given veto powers if he doesn't like the script.

DB doesn't have award winning or complicated writing so they won't need more then one writer and he/she won't have to be someone that well known cause all they'd have to do is fit the arc's story into a 2-2:30 hour time limit.

Unless they're going to do something original then 2 writers might be better.

If they're going to make original movies then Toriyama should definitely be part of the writing team but if they're just going to take the manga and turn it into a movie then it probably won't be necessary however they should sit down with him and see what he thinks would work best.

[Jaetinh]

For starters, I'd hire an Asian actor to portray Goku. (Ludi Lin as my prefered choice, he's the new black Power Ranger in the 2017 movie)

God was I damn furious and disappointed when I saw Chatwin as Goku in DB Shi- Evolution.

[Captain Strawberry]

The fight scenes can be like man of steel

to make a good dbz movie would take like 2 an a half years or 3 years

the spikiness doesn't have to be faithful as long as they look like their manga counter parts. Example, they could have Goku's fringe/bangs on point but only have the rest be a little spikey.

I would make them read the manga if the actors aren't even fans of the show

the movie has to be long like 2-3 hours . Depending on the story, release some of them in parts so part 1, part 2 of Majin Buu Saga

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

Adapting any portion of the story will inevitably be compared to the original and inevitably be found lacking. So I would want to cover something new since there's little point in making a worse version of what we already have. I would go for the Mutaito and students vs. Piccolo story. It has at least one recognizable character, and the more grounded fighting would let us avoid fake looking special effects. We could still keep the mystic ki stuff with techniques like the Demon Containment Wave, though.

I just don't know what to name the students. Surely they weren't always called the turtle and crane hermits?

[sintzu]

I would go for the Mutaito and students vs. Piccolo story.

That could work as a flashback in a Piccolo arc movie but there isn't enough material to make a whole movie about it not will it attract many people to go see it.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

I would go for the Mutaito and students vs. Piccolo story.

That could work as a flashback in a Piccolo arc movie but there isn't enough material to make a whole movie about it not will it attract many people to go see it.

Well, you'd have to expand on it to make it feature lenth. And why won't people go see it? If they are in the know about Dragonball they will appreciate the fleshed out backstory, and people who've never heard of DB before will considered it just it's own martial arts fantasy movie

[sintzu]

And why won't people go see it ?

If they are in the know about Dragonball they will appreciate the fleshed out backstory.

Because it isn't what they know or want, when people think DB they think Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, huge fights,ect.

Would people appreciate a movie that covers Bruce Wayne's childhood only ? or his training only ? sure it could be good like what you want but they're not what people want or know so they won't be financially successful cause not many people would go see them.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

Would people appreciate a movie that covers Bruce Wayne's childhood only ? or his training only .

Isn't that what the new TV show is? And if people will only like what they already like then nothing except cave paintings would be commercially viable.

[ekrolo2]

I would make it so dark, so gritty, so realistic that it would be nothing but starring into a black screen for two hours that would make you very eyes bleed from the edginess on display!

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

I would make it so dark, so gritty, so realistic that it would be nothing but starring into a black screen for two hours that would make you very eyes bleed from the edginess on display!

Have Goku read depressing poetry the whole time and make the chairs out of knives so we really feel the edge!

[ekrolo2]

I would make it so dark, so gritty, so realistic that it would be nothing but starring into a black screen for two hours that would make you very eyes bleed from the edginess on display!

Have Goku read depressing poetry the whole time and make the chairs out of knives so we really feel the edge!

Poetry? Please! The movie will open with him clutching his dead sons decapitated head on top of a gargoyle as a rain storm smashes into him, his eyes covered in shadow as he asks the question: what does it mean to be a hero?

[Lord Beerus]

- Have Guillermo del Toro or Zack Snyder direct (A live action DB movie needs a good visionary director)
- Have Kevin Feige produce the movie
- Have Simon Kinberg write the script
- Have Rick Baker be in charge of makeup and hairstyling
- Have Emmanuel Lubezki in charge of cinematography
- Have a budget of $100 million+

[sintzu]

If people will only like what they already like then nothing except cave paintings would be commercially viable.

I'm not saying people won't like it, they don't know what it is so it won't be a mega hit at the box office which is what the studio would want if they're going to truly invest in this franchise.

In order to make a movie like that they'd need an established brand name that people would go to see regardless of the story so starting with the Saiyan arc and building a fan base would need to be done 1st before they could do that kind of prequel.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

If people will only like what they already like then nothing except cave paintings would be commercially viable.

I'm not saying people won't like it, they don't know what it is so it won't be a mega hit at the box office which is what the studio would want if they're going to truly invest in this franchise.

In order to make a movie like that they'd need an established brand name that people would go to see regardless of the story so starting with the Saiyan arc and building a fan base would need to be done 1st before they could do that kind of prequel.

Or they could just make a smaller movie. If their first and only priority is being a mass appeal mega hit it won't have very much heart, and won't build a fanbase at all.

[z_cherub]

Like this, but with better acting:

https://youtu.be/opji5DgE_nQ

[UltimateHammerBro]

I personally think it should be a "Path to Power"-style film followed by a second one adapting both Piccolo sagas, and only then moving on to DBZ.
The tone of the first film would be action comedy, and the sequel could be more DBZ-like, since I'm sure there'd be some backlash from those who were expecting an extreme version of DBZ from the very beginning.

Also, I'd get rid of most of the tournaments. The first film could end with Roshi training Goku and Krillin for a future Tournament, and the next film would open with Goku fighting Ten in the finals of said Tournament, sparing the audience of watching fight after fight.

Andy Serkis would make a good Kid Buu if Buu was ever adapted in live action.

I'd rather see him as Frieza.

[Hellspawn28]

Zack Snyder direct (A live action DB movie needs a good visionary director)

After seeing Batman v Superman, no thank you. The guy has only directed two movies that I like which are Watchmen and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. I found 300 and his Dawn of the Dead remake to be overrated. Sucker Punch sucked and Man of Steel was alright. His storytelling is not very good if you ask me.

[Lord Beerus]

Zack Snyder direct (A live action DB movie needs a good visionary director)

After seeing Batman v Superman, no thank you. The guy has only directed two movies that I like which are Watchmen and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. I found 300 and his Dawn of the Dead remake to be overrated. Sucker Punch sucked and Man of Steel was alright. His storytelling is not very good if you ask me.

What about Guillermo del Toro? He's a wonderful visionary director and a great storyteller.

[ABED]

Zack Snyder direct (A live action DB movie needs a good visionary director)

After seeing Batman v Superman, no thank you. The guy has only directed two movies that I like which are Watchmen and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. I found 300 and his Dawn of the Dead remake to be overrated. Sucker Punch sucked and Man of Steel was alright. His storytelling is not very good if you ask me.

What about Guillermo del Toro? He's a wonderful visionary director and a great storyteller.

I haven't seen enough of his work, but I've never gotten emotionally invested in any of his movies. Blade II is fun, but it pales in comparison to the first one, and the villain isn't compelling. I found Hellboy very boring.

I think neither man is good for DB, but I do think Jay Oliva might be good in crafting the fight sequences. He has gone on record as saying DBZ influences his fight scenes. Ultimately, I don't think Dragon Ball would work in live action.