Live Action Film Question

[Steven Perry]

Arcwave, if you ever become a professional film maker, make a Live-Action Dragonball Z movie, called 'Z'.


We're all counting on you...

[Acid_Reign]

I think that, if nothing else, a good idea would be to start with the 23rd Budokai. It would probably be a better way to set up the characters for the next parts of the series. It would also work better to show Piccolo's transformation from good to bad, if you are able to compare to a time when he was evil, unlike how a majority of the U.S. was

I think starting off with a tournament in general is a bad idea. It works for the show, but can you imagine an entire feature centered around it? It'd be like going into a theater to watch Pay-Per View.

One of the things that makes the budokai exciting is familiarity with [at least one of] the characters beforehand. You've got to be rooting for someone already, so that the twists and turns matter to you as a viewer. For the dedicated fan, we already know were our allegiance lies, but for the average moviegoer, it would seem boring.

As an introduction for Goku or Piccolo, it doesn't make a lot of sense seeing as the 23rd Budokai is the culmination of their previous encounter. There needs to be a bigger motivational conflict: what does Goku want to achieve? Why does he need to win the tourney? It'd require flashbacks that quickly "summed up" the Daimaō saga... unless you set the movie further back in time, but by then I think you're getting too far away from Z, which is the real money-maker.

Here are the major selling points of DBZ:

• The Dragon Balls
• An ensemble cast of characters
• World-threatening situations
• Crazy fight scenes
• Big huge blasts
• Super Saiyan

The ideal movie would need to have most, if not all of these elements.

Hopefully, they won't do Buu at all, and any DBZ movie series will end with Freeza, or Cell at the latest.

But I imagine Buu himself would be mostly, if not all, CGI. He's just too alien and "existensial" a character to be done with real-life. Freeza having a real actor in makeup will be hard enough.

Are you serious? Boo's arguably the best character anyone could do for a movie. Sure, he may not have the same stage presence as say Freeza or Cell, but his existentialism is what makes him such a dynamic character.

I for one, would want him to be played by an actor, and use CGI only for stretching and "absorption globs."

[Xyex]

I think DragonBall would need to be the one of the movies in my ideal trilogy that would need to be altered the most. It would just have to be condensed, really. A lot. As in, manage to establish DragonBall universe stuff AND have a storyline with Piccolo as the villain in a 2-3-hour movie. It can be done. It just needs someone good to do it.

Nah, you really wouldn't need to do DB. And really, unless you changed ages, you really couldn't. But, you'd need 2 DB movies.

I think doing something Path to Power style, and with Goku 15 or 16 would be the best start if you really wanted to do DB first. You'd just have to mix in Krillin's introduction at some point and end the movie with Goku and Krillin training with Roshi for the upcoming 22nd Budokai. After that the second movie would start with the 22nd Budokai and end with the 23rd.

Or, you could just do like I've done in my DBZ Movie Script and recap the basics of DB during the opening credits and make sure people understand the characters simply through their interactions with each other in the first few minutes. Of course, all of this is assuming that they make the movie bassed on the series. Probably the best way to do it is the way the animated movies went. Ignore the series and do something different.

[Arcwave]

Arcwave, if you ever become a professional film maker, make a Live-Action Dragonball Z movie, called 'Z'.


We're all counting on you...

Hah! I've actually really thought about that. The problem is still my current position (I'm still in college). However, I have gotten off to a great start. I'll be starting a new film this autumn with the help of film composer Carl Johnson as our music man.

If no one does it within the next 5-6 years, then I'll really consider it. But in the mean time, would you guys think Michael Bay would be a good choice for a director?

/j

[Acid_Reign]

Hah! I've actually really thought about that. The problem is still my current position (I'm still in college). However, I have gotten off to a great start. I'll be starting a new film this autumn with the help of film composer Carl Johnson as our music man.

If no one does it within the next 5-6 years, then I'll really consider it. But in the mean time, would you guys think Michael Bay would be a good choice for a director?

/j

Agh! I feel the exact same way. Ever since the movie was "announced," I've been dying to work on it, as an actor/screenwriter/director/whatever. But, I'd need more experience, and like you, to get out of college first. I'm curious as to how one would actually go about obtaining the rights to such a title though...

All I know is, if either of us is working on it, we should definitely collaborate (or at least hire the other guy, lol).

As far as Bay goes, I like him. If he were behind it, the action would likely be nothing short of incredible. But he's very Hollywood, and I feel that the story would suffer at the expense of the visuals. There needs to be a proper balance.

IDEALLY, I'd get one of the original writers of the animated movies to do a spec script in Japanese, then have it translated over to English and edited as necessary. Then I'd put a martial arts expert in charge of the action, get ILM to do the special effects and have someone who grew up with the series, or who is at least appreciative of the art style, to do the directing.

...But maybe that's just a pipe dream.

[COCONUT MILK]

Live will never work, look at a dragonball/z character and then look at a human, nobody looks as good as a dragonball character.



This is as good as you will get , basicly just look at the dead or alive movie change the theme to dragonball and there you go, still crap.
No amount of art/script/action direction will change the fact that the people in the movie look like cosplay fans.

[Bomber Greek]

I for one, would want him to be played by an actor, and use CGI only for stretching and "absorption globs."

Imagine what that would look like. If they were taking the movie seriously, they'd make Buu all CGI.

[Acid_Reign]

Imagine what that would look like. If they were taking the movie seriously, they'd make Buu all CGI.

Uh, I am and it looks fine. Haha, what would be so bad about it?

[Kaboom]

What I meant with the Buu comment was that, by the time they get to Buu, they'd probably be pushing it in numbers of movies.

[Acid_Reign]

Live will never work, look at a dragonball/z character and then look at a human, nobody looks as good as a dragonball character.

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This is as good as you will get , basicly just look at the dead or alive movie change the theme to dragonball and there you go, still crap.
No amount of art/script/action direction will change the fact that the people in the movie look like cosplay fans.

Oh come on. You honestly think a big-budget movie like that would make anyone look as unpolished as that coincidental Satan look-alike? Puh-lease.

What I meant with the Buu comment was that, by the time they get to Buu, they'd probably be pushing it in numbers of movies.

Depends on where you start. If the movies go by sagas, I can see it as either the 3rd or 4th movie, depending on if they include the Saiyan arc or not. And, ridiculous as it sounds, that's not a lot for a movie series these days. Everyone anticipated 3 Spider-Man's, and oh look, there's a 4th coming up in another two years. Basically, if it sells tickets, it'll keep coming. I agree though, that eventually, I would probably want it to end. But hey, we got 13 animated ones and no one's really complaining about that.

[caejones]

I think Vegeta is a bit ... hmm... too associated with the series for a movie franchise to not include him in the first movie.
And I really don't like when movies start with narration explaining things (spidey3) unless it's Starwars... so my view of a DB/Saiyan saga adaptation would have to start with, say, Tenshinhan storming Chao Castle (Maybe keeping Chaozu alive so he can be killed by Piccolo?), eventually having Goku save the day, lots of cleverly placed dialogue so we know what's going on, a DB quest montage, all that fun stuff so that we have Piccolo as the villain and we're introduced to the characters in a dramatic character-revealing situation.
After that, though, I got nothin'. I like the idea of somehow including Tullece though... but we'd probably have a "too much for one movie" complaint if there are four saiyans.

Why do I find it very easy to imagine a live action Goku, hair and all? Of course I'm confused when people are like "Oh, YOUR HAIR! WAHAHA! GO FIX IT!".
(But surely someone in the movie would comment on Goku needing a haircut?)

Beh, I'm of the opinion that it could be done well, but the likelyhood of such is in ill health.

[Kaboom]

I think Vegeta is a bit ... hmm... too associated with the series for a movie franchise to not include him in the first movie.
And I really don't like when movies start with narration explaining things (spidey3) unless it's Starwars... so my view of a DB/Saiyan saga adaptation would have to start with, say, Tenshinhan storming Chao Castle (Maybe keeping Chaozu alive so he can be killed by Piccolo?), eventually having Goku save the day, lots of cleverly placed dialogue so we know what's going on, a DB quest montage, all that fun stuff so that we have Piccolo as the villain and we're introduced to the characters in a dramatic character-revealing situation.
After that, though, I got nothin'. I like the idea of somehow including Tullece though... but we'd probably have a "too much for one movie" complaint if there are four saiyans.

The best way I could think of would be having the first movie start with Planet Vegeta being destroyed, and showing Bardock himself sending Goku away before confronting Freeza, who wouldn't be shown yet.

From there, have a complete rip-off of Superman's opening credits as Goku's pod flies through space.

Why do I find it very easy to imagine a live action Goku, hair and all? Of course I'm confused when people are like "Oh, YOUR HAIR! WAHAHA! GO FIX IT!".
(But surely someone in the movie would comment on Goku needing a haircut?)

Trying to make movie Goku's hair exactly like ihis anime counterpart's would be ridiculous, and suicidal.

[Bomber Greek]

This is probably gonna be one of those movies that regular people liked, but the majority of original fans hated.

[Kaboom]

This is probably gonna be one of those movies that regular people liked, but the majority of original fans hated.

...yet was still an awesome movie, despite a percentage of fans who were overly picky and negative about it from the get-go.



Like Transformers.

[Kendamu]

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children nice?

I just want something like Path to Power, remixing and re-telling parts of the DBZ story...with Toei's current budget and DB's lasting popularity, they would have more than enough money to make one of the best animated features of all time.

I'd have to agree with you there. But if it's live action or bad CG, I'll pass and just hope for Toei to do something similar with traditional animation.

[Bomber Greek]

Imagine what that would look like. If they were taking the movie seriously, they'd make Buu all CGI.

Uh, I am and it looks fine. Haha, what would be so bad about it?

It would look like a Power Rangers costume, or something. Buu doesn't look anything like a human. Cell, on the other hand, could be a human. Freeza would be CGI.

All in all, I'd rather have this movie not be made, unless they could truly make it good. Hollywood would screw the story up.

[Acid_Reign]

Imagine what that would look like. If they were taking the movie seriously, they'd make Buu all CGI.

Uh, I am and it looks fine. Haha, what would be so bad about it?

It would look like a Power Rangers costume, or something. Buu doesn't look anything like a human. Cell, on the other hand, could be a human. Freeza would be CGI.

What the hell? I'm really curious as to what your reasoning is behind this. Boo doesn't look anything like a human? Really? What makes Cell any more different from him and Freeza? They all have a head, eyes, something where ears should be, a mouth, bipedal, upright torso, two arms with [varying arrays of] fingers... what would be so difficult to make someone look like that in real life? Have you ever even seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy? The orcs in those movies were all costumed, and they look even less like humans than the DBZ villians.

All in all, I'd rather have this movie not be made, unless they could truly make it good. Hollywood would screw the story up.

No way of accurately predicting this since no one's been officially announced as being in charge of it. I'd say if there was a director already declared then we could look at his/her track record, and then be free to moan and groan about it appropriately. I don't mean to keep bringing up the Transformers example, but considering his history, and the surreal nature of Transformers, Michael Bay certainly surprised a lot of fans with that one.

Look, it could be horrible; it could be great. It's much too early to be making calls on it either way since it might not even get made. Frankly I think a lot of people are just being grumpy fans that are clinging to the originals because they're afraid of the unknown. The bottom line is it could only help the franchise... nothing that made it great in the first place could possibly be undone. But hey, if it's a pessimist you want to be, then go right ahead and be one. I choose to look forward to future developments.

[SatoSky]

If this ever gets made, I would like them to have Steve Franko in charge of color correcting.

[SSJmole]

Hulk, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Cat Woman, Fantastic Four, Superman..... all these movies were nothing short of horrible, even with the advanced CGI that we have now.

You mean Superman returns right? Superman was a great film (unlike III , IV and returns)

Only a handful of good Super Hero movies have come out in the past few years have actually been good movies: Batman, Spiderman (even though 3 wasn't that good), Transformers (not great but not bad either), Hellboy (in my mind, just bearly even made "decent").

Sometimes the classic animation with cels is the way to go.

What about :
X-men
X-men II
X-men III (not as good as others but still fun)
V for vendetta
TMNT

Just to name a few.


Plus there is a load and more to come (Iron man , Dark knight , Hulk sequel)



Besides Dragonball Z is NOT a superhero story. Where it shares elements of them it's roots lie in been more Myth and Martel Arts. It could easily be done and marketed towards both fans and none fans.


Tone down the costumes with darker colours , Make the story and dialogue more realistic , Good actors , a good director and then worry about CGI.

Over the top hair styles can be toned down like Wolverine in X-men. It's very doable.

Will fans nitpick it when it comes out? Yes. But that's natural I still nitpick at Spider-man for getting rid of webshooters BUT I still love the film if that makes sense.

[desirecampbell]

I'm not worried about a live action movie not looking great, I'm worried that it would suffer the same treatment the dub has.

The reason I don't like a lot of the current super hero movies is that the story gets changed for no apparent reason. Spiderman didn't have web shooters? Okay, I don't like it, but I can accept that. But Mary Jane lives next door? That's stupid. MJ taking Gwen Stacy's big story arc? That's pretty lame, but I can uderstand why. The most important story arc in Peter's character development ruined because you can't kill off MJ? Fucking terrible.

I'm worried that a live action DBZ movie would fuck something up so badly, my head would explode.