How would you make a Hollywood adaption ?

[Lord Beerus]

I found Hellboy very boring.

[z_cherub]

I found Hellboy very boring.

^Can we do this now? Cause I'm okay with that...

z_cherub, obnoxiously posting an image macro is not a worthwhile or acceptable response. Please don't do it again

[ABED]

I stand by that statement, it was incredibly boring. The enemy is unmemorable and gets even worse when he turns into that giant thing at the end. It's awful and one of the reasons I didn't care for the end of Batman v Superman. It's why I'm happy Dragon Ball's villains were always humanoid with the ability to speak instead of just giant monsters.

[Gorou]

Hellboy II was quite entertaining
Anyway, I don't think that a real action movie will real work with DB. People are too accustomed to anime's version

[ABED]

Hellboy II was quite entertaining
Anyway, I don't think that a real action movie will real work with DB. People are too accustomed to anime's version

I don't think it's primarily a matter of what people are accustomed to as much as some things not transposing well from an animation to a live action.

[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.

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

I would approve of him. He can make a pretty awesome DB film. We could have Ron Perlman as Piccolo (rumor has it that he was offer the role but turn it down for Hellboy 2).

[Gorou]

Any ideas on how to portray on the screen the typical sajyan's hair?

This Freeza looks very good

[ABED]

They'd probably use motion capture and CGI for the villains instead of prosthetics.

[Kaboom]

In the aftermath of Evolution I've given a decent amount of thought to what my ideal Dragon Ball film(s) would be like, and I always end up picturing a Piccolo-Saiyans-Namek trilogy. It would center around the story of Goku's origins and destiny, and those particular parts of the story focus on that the most. I'll try to give summaries that are succinct as possible and not give away all my ideas...


The first film is the one I've given the most thought, and it would do a lot of the same things that DBE tried to do... it would introduce the main cast, the world they live in, and the general legend of the Dragon Balls. Piccolo being the villain is a good albeit obvious idea, given how he's connected to the DBs themselves, and the bulk of the plot would be a combo of the classic "Dragon Ball hunt" story and the King Piccolo arc... kind of like DBE.

My "Piccolo" character would be Kami, King Piccolo, and Piccolo Junior all rolled into one with a condensed version of his backstory, to keep things simple. He came to Earth with his Dragon Balls in his youth centuries ago, was revered as a god-like figure for his powers and gifts, and peacefully led humanity for a few centuries before being corrupted and deciding they were just scum who needed to be ruled and/or exterminated. He's sealed away by his own former follower Master Mutaito, and then obviously the film's main story would be about him being released, striving to get his youth back via Shenlong, and taking another whack at the whole genocide thing.

A teenage Goku would defeat but spare Piccolo, setting him on his path to redemption. Goku's origins would be hinted at, and a near-death healing boost would be what ultimately makes him strong enough to defeat the young-again Piccolo in the film's final fight. Piccolo might even be the one to put the puzzle pieces together and utter the word "Saiyan" or something. Otherwise, the full-blown revelation would be saved for the second film.

Bulma, Yamcha, Muten Roshi, Grandpa Gohan, and Chi-Chi would all be in the film as well and play the roles you'd expect them to, again kind of similar to how DBE used them. It would also feature the Red Ribbon Army as the ones who release Piccolo, Tao Pai Pai being charged to seek out the Dragon Balls for him, and Tenshinhan as Tao's student who switches sides late in the game to help bring Piccolo down. Grandpa Gohan, Muten Roshi, and probably Tenshinhan would all die in various ways. Gonna be lots of deaths in these stories, but for good reason.


The second film would be set a few years later and be about the 3 other Saiyan survivors — obviously Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta — trying to recruit "Kakarrot" for a planned revolt against Freeza. The problem is that they're all kind of scummy themselves and go about it with threats and ultimatums, which leads to some beatdowns. Goku would nearly die against Raditz, who's sent ahead of the other two, but Piccolo would save his life as sort of payback for sparing him before. He places Goku in some kind of magic-based healing stasis, which gives him another near-death healing boost in time to fight Nappa and Vegeta. I would re-envision the Kaio-Ken as not a technique, but bursts of Goku's dormant power that come out during his fight with Vegeta. This, along with Goku getting larger power boosts from healing than most Saiyans (or maybe getting them at all) would be hints that Goku is... well, you know what.

The second film would also introduce Kuririn, who was already Muten Roshi's student but sent away for his own safety when Piccolo was released. Kuririn now blames Goku for their master's death, but after spending the film fighting aliens together they become friends. While Goku and Chi-Chi would be married by this film's start, I think Gohan would either not be around yet or still be a baby, to keep the cast of active, screen time sharing characters to a minimum. So instead of training Gohan, Piccolo may instead do what Kami did, and be the one who trains Kuririn and Yamcha for the forthcoming Saiyan invasion. Yamcha would get killed by Nappa anyway.


Finally, the third film would center around one big tidbit that I've not mentioned until now... that the Dragon Balls brought to Earth by Piccolo have limits, and one of those limits is being unable to revive the dead. But the "master" set of Dragon Balls, back on Planet Namek itself, have no such limits. So the final film is one big race between multiple parties to reach Namek and snatch up its Dragon Balls. The crew from Earth want to revive their friends who died fighting all these pesky aliens. Vegeta wants unlimited power to salvage his "take down Freeza" ambitions. Then of course, we're finally introduced to Freeza himself, who wants immortality to make sure he stays the strongest thing around forever. Everyone's reached Namek by the film's second act, and from then on there's a variety of clashes and team-ups all setting up the climactic final battle.

That final battle would feature Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Kuririn, all fighting against Freeza. Freeza would have one single transformation into his true form, which lets him trounce all of them and kill an obvious two of them, but can't measure up to Goku once he becomes the Super Saiyan. A bunch of people would be wished back to life while Goku opens a can of glowing golden whoop-ass on Freeza on the dying Planet Namek, and everyone but the two of them escape. Of course, the film's ending hints at two things in one way or another: 1) Goku may have survived, and 2) he and Chi-Chi's infant son Gohan may have even more potential than him.


The Cell and Majin Boo arcs would be handled in the follow-up cartoon series.

[TekTheNinja]

Thread: How are we going whitewash Goku??

Well first off since Goku's an alien it doesn't really matter what race the person who plays him is, and second, why does everyone complain about whitewashing, but when Japan makes a live action Attack on Titan and Fullmetal Alchemist and casts European characters as Asian, NO ONE COMPLAINS. Sick of that double standard.

[Hellspawn28]

^I see people bitch about the Japanese casting for Attack on Titan and some fans on Facebook was not happy about doing a Japanese cast for FMA. I do funny how no one cared about Speed Racer whitewashing, but people didn't like it when DBE did.

Anyways, what would be a good rating for a Dragon Ball movie. I still say that PG-13 would work since it makes the most money and people can take it seriously. PG could work, but I think most people will be turn off by it and view it as a dumb kids movie. R and NC-17 would not fit for DB at all.

[ABED]

PG could work, but I think most people will be turn off by it and view it as a dumb kids movie.

Simply because of the rating?

[Esfír Dedragón]

I'm a bit surprised no one else has mentioned separating some of the arcs into smaller movies. It would be similar to the way Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was produced.

Heck, I think nearly all of the DBZ arcs should be handled that way without cutting out too much of the source material.

[Hellspawn28]

PG could work, but I think most people will be turn off by it and view it as a dumb kids movie.

Simply because of the rating?

I remember when Tron Legacy came out, I remember two people at my local theater looking for a movie to watch and didn't want to see Tron Legacy because it's PG. They were like "It's PG. It looks like a stupid kids film. Fine something that is PG-13 or R".

Thread: How are we going whitewash Goku??

Well first off since Goku's an alien it doesn't really matter what race the person who plays him is, and second, why does everyone complain about whitewashing, but when Japan makes a live action Attack on Titan and Fullmetal Alchemist and casts European characters as Asian, NO ONE COMPLAINS. Sick of that double standard.

Not to mention no one care about whitewashing Kenshiro in the Fist of the North Star live action movie. Kenshiro is a iconic anime and manga character too.

[ABED]

I remember when Tron Legacy came out, I remember two people at my local theater looking for a movie to watch and didn't want to see Tron Legacy because it's PG. They were like "It's PG. It looks like a stupid kids film. Fine something that is PG-13 or R".

I'm sure those people exist, but you can find anyone who will find fault with something. This is purely anecdotal and I don't think it reflects the general audience. FIlms of any rating can be stupid, but they can also be amazing. Films and TV shows aimed at children can also appeal to adults. Movies like The Incredibles prove that.

[TonyTheTiger]

I'd do a combination Lord of the Rings/Marvel methodology. Make one giant movie but split into six individual films, each released six months apart from each other over the course of three years. Fiddling with the minor details you could easily divide the series into coherent chunks that way without having to stop mid-sentence like the LOTR films do. And, like Marvel, do an after credits scene that is essentially a NEP for the following arc.

[TekTheNinja]

Not to mention no one care about whitewashing Kenshiro in the Fist of the North Star live action movie. Kenshiro is a iconic anime and manga character too.

Yeah, it's weird. It's like people just pick and choose when they want to care about a character's race. And then when a white character has their race changed it's applauded because of "diversity."

[Hellspawn28]

I would like to see Gary Oldman as Dr. Gero. He has a good history on playing villains and I would like to see him pull it off. Michael Fasbender would be a good pick for Cell in my opinion.

[Cipher]

Yeah, it's weird. It's like people just pick and choose when they want to care about a character's race. And then when a white character has their race changed it's applauded because of "diversity."

It's context-based. The system has created cyclical problems for non-white actors in the U.S., so when big roles that could feature non-white actors are given to white ones, it perpetuates that problem. It's pretty uncool to have an entire industry with different achievable heights depending on your race, and by tolerating that practice, we give that system the A-OK to keep going. That's why it's a big deal when a potentially non-white role is given to a white actor, but not so much when some pre-existing material is changed to accommodate a non-white actor (that could be a lazy or unbelievable change, but that's a case-by-case thing; I'm just explaining why you see general outcry against one and not the other).

Japan filling roles that should plausibly feature Europeans with Japanese actors may be a problem as well, and I have no doubt it's more impossible for a non-Japanese-appearing actor to break through in their system than it is or a non-white person in the States, but those kinds of race problems have been part of its culture and homogeneous makeup for ... forever, really. Hollywood systems can and should be doing better, but they're not going to unless audiences and talent keep raising an issue with it.

None of this is to come down on you--just to explain where people are coming from and why many see it as an issue.

[Hellspawn28]

I still think Karl Urban could make a good Goku. He is charismatic and has great personally skills that we see him in movies like Star Trek '09 and Lord of the Rings.