Live Action Movie Discussion Thread

[SonGokuGT]

I'll pull an EX and eat my shorts if this ever actually sees the light of day in my lifetime.

They said production is scheduled to wrap up July of next year... Can't wait to see that video up on YouTube!

[Furu]

They're rushing these three movies through production, express-style.

It's going to happen.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Shut up! ::Runs into a corner crying, petting Super Mario Doll::

Wah-ha-ha!! Did you go to see it in theaters, too? My family took me when I was little, and I was like WTF?! And my family, they thought that the movie they were seeing was meant to be a direct adaptation of the games . . . and explaining the TRAGIC differences as a result was just . . . just . . .

I dun' wanna talk about it.

They're rushing these three movies through production, express-style.

It's going to happen.

Bah. You can't blame Sun_Wukong for his skepticism-- him and the rest of us have been hearing about this on-and-off for years now. This isn't exactly the first time that "official" information has leaked out about the filming . . . though yeah, I'll admit that this is certainly a lot more credible than anything we've heard thus far. It certainly seems to be the real deal.


~Da Lemmy

[Steven Perry]

I hope they've spent these last two years planning this, and not just jumping into it and producing it in just one year...

[DaemonCorps]

Diz'aam. With several posts every hour and over three pages worth in less than a day, I haven't seen a thread this active since we first caught news of the Season Sets back in the latter half of last year.

Well can you blame us? I mean the series is 20+ years old by now, so any kind of news about the series is um... welcome.
As for how the movie will be handled, I'm gonna go with the rest of you guys and say that it'll just be a re-make of each main saga (Saiyan, Freeza, Cell, and maybe Buu), with each one being one movie long. As for stuff like the one year training, I can see all the Z-Fighters learning of the Saiyans coming pretty early on in the movie at Kami's place, with all of them freaking out about this new threat and with Kami merely saying something like "You've got one year, so it's best that you start training with me now." followed by a fast forward to Vegeta (and maybe Nappa) landing on Earth. Sure, stuff like Gohan and Piccolo's relationship will most likely be cut out, but that's what the manga's for.

Bah. You can't blame Sun_Wukong for his skepticism-- him and the rest of us have been hearing about this on-and-off for years now. This isn't exactly the first time that "official" information has leaked out about the filming . . . though yeah, I'll admit that this is certainly a lot more credible than anything we've heard thus far. It certainly seems to be the real deal.

Aw great, the news hit me so hard that the possibility of (yet another) bit of false info completely went over my head. But yeah, this new bit of info does seem more reliable than other stuff we dug up previously, so... maybe?

Also, here's something to chew on: the first Spider-Man movie got to the point that a completely new TV series was made (granted, it was short-lived, but it still came out). The same goes for the Transformers movie-- apparently, yet another series is gonna come out on TV in the near future. So... do you think that once/if this movie comes out and does well enough, an entirely new DB series will be made?

[Steven Perry]

So... do you think that once/if this movie comes out and does well enough, an entirely new DB series will be made?

I don't know, but there's at least going to be something (games, toys, clothes).


Oh, and how do you think Super-Saiyan transformations will be handled? They might not even have blonde hair...

[Li'l Lemmy]

Well can you blame us? I mean the series is 20+ years old by now, so any kind of news about the series is um... welcome.

Oh, I agree completely. I mean, for something as old as Dragonball, it always seems like there's something waiting just around the corner that's gonna keep us talking about it and breathe life into what should by all rights be long-since "dead"-- there are series just as aged and well-loved that aren't afforded this luxury of popular longevity that allows for the new news we seem to get every couple months, so we should definitely count ourselves lucky.

So... do you think that once/if this movie comes out and does well enough, an entirely new DB series will be made?

Ehh, I dunno . . . if a "small" company like FUNimation isn't even willing to pay Toei for access to the DragonBox footage (assuming that this is in fact the reason they don't have it), d'ya really think that Twentieth Century Fox or whomever's in charge'a this thing's gonna shell out what's probably quadruple that amount for the rights to make a brand new DragonBall series all on their own?

Aside from the odds of either of those things happening being similarly astronomical . . . well, what?


~Da Lemmy

[caejones]

DBZ: The Movie summary:

- Goku saves Chichi from Piccolo, the demon lord of kidnapping <insert Rocketman-pleasing adjective here> women.
- Goku and ChiChi get married.
- Raditz fights Piccolo.
- Goku visits one of his friends who freaks out about Gohan despite this making no sense in the context of the movie.
- Raditz leaves Goku crippled and goes off with Gohan.
- Piccolo comes in and is about to kill Goku, but decides they need to work together to stop the Saiyans.
- Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz and Tullece try to get Gohan to join them. Gohan kills Tullece and escapes.
- For some reason there's an epic battle between the heroes and the saiyans, including Saibamen. Lots of people die. Gohan is sad when Piccolo dies despite having not met him at this point.
- The Goku Vegeta fight is visually pleasing, but completely void of creativity.
- Gohan kicks Vegeta's ass.
- The ending is pretty much the same as the end of the Vegeta fight in the manga. Wait, did I say manga? I meant the Syndication version of the end of the Vegeta fight courtesy Saban+Funimation.

On second thought, there was some awesome in there. But it's trapped in a few crap-bricks. Only with help from a the Poopsmith can we retrieve the awesome and then plant it so that it grows into a tree of might. I mean... movie that doesn't suck.

I'm almost expecting a Fantastic Four treatment.

well, given the shitty summary the article gave of DBZ... let's just hope that was their understanding of it and not the one the studio gave them...

After re-reading the article's tiny summary of the plot of the whole of Dragonball, I'm not even sure if they're talking about Goku or Vegeta. Or... Piccolo? *thinks Goku was intended*

[KinoFourpaws]

You guys shoulden't worry about all the effects much..I mean look at Heroes right?

If a hundred million dollars can't buy better special effects than an NBC TV series, I'm going to purchase a hat and then eat it.

... That comment is now going to be in my signature.



On-topic, though, I'm actually looking forward to how this plays out. I mean, damn! They're actually going to film this now! It's still kind of hard to believe after all the rumors that've been flying around the past several years, but it's an exciting prospect to me.

I really won't mind that much if a lot of changes are made to the story, or if a new one is created entirely from scratch. Considering how all the other film adaptations for comics, etc. have been turning out, that kind of thing is inevitable, and it's just something we're going to have to accept. I'm just hoping that they manage two things with the movie: 1) that they keep the characters themselves essentially the same (making changes/improvements on their personalities only if absolutely necessary to tell a good story, but otherwise keeping them the same characters we know and love/don't love ), and 2) that they make the story itself a DAMN good one, hopefully the best kind of plot (and execution thereof) that they can come up with. At this point, we long-time fans all know the basic story by heart. But if they can make the movie and the story good enough to where someone who's not as familiar with the series can watch it and really enjoy it for what it is, then that's the absolute best thing a lot of us (including me) can ask for. Hopefully it's not too much for them to accomplish; I mean, I've seen Eragon and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix without reading either book through, and I was still pretty disappointed with how the stories of both were handled... they could have done a lot better with both of them. Hopefully this DBZ movie will turn out a lot better.

Whether it ends up sucking or owning, I'll definitely go to see it when it comes out at least once, just so I know what it's like. And really, while I'm keeping optimistic, I'm not going to let myself expect a major miracle in the making of the movie. Too many poor-quality adaptations will make you think twice about that. And hey, if it comes out and a lot of people find they don't like what the movie-makers did with it, like our Desiré here, it won't be too surprising or even that distressing to me if I find I'm one of the people who like it. Movie-making is an art form; everybody's bound to have a different interpretation and opinion of the work when they see it. You've just got to be open to how other people think of it.

[worldmonsters]

Well, the way I hope to see it is just the full Saiyan saga as it was in the manga (with English names of course keeping in line with the franchise, except I hope they change HFIL to hell).
So I would be expecting something like this from a 2 to 2 and a half hour movie.

0:15 First quarter of an hour: Radditz gets down (I hope to god the farmer's there, I love that guy), Goku shows his kid to the crew at Roshi Island. Radditz finds Piccolo and finds out he's not the guy he's looking for.
0:25 Next ten minutes or so: Radditz comes to Roshi's and kidnappes Gohan and tells of Goku's heritage. Goku and Piccolo team up against Radditz.
0:40 Next quarter of an hour: Radditz, Goku and Piccolo face off, Gohan shows his extraordinary strength. They beat Radditz and Goku dies as well.
1:10 Next half hour: Spent on a year of training, Goku racing to King Kai's and Piccolo training Gohan.
1:25 Next quarter of an hour: Goku reaches King Kai and trains with him, the Saiyans arrive.
1:45 Next 20 minutes: Lots of friends die by the hands of Nappa. Goku races back to King Yemma's and down to Korin Tower.
2:15 Next half an hour: Vegeta and Goku fight, Vegeta turns Oozaru, but Yajirobi's gonna cut of his tail, Gohan turns Oozaru, Spirit Bomb, Vegeta is shown mercy by Goku and returns. They all decide to go the Namek, the end.

Well... that's probably cramming a bit, but they don't need to stretch things out long like in the series, I think it could be done and it SHOULD be done this way. Or some completely new story with the same characters.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Well, the way I hope to see it is just the full Saiyan saga as it was in the manga (with English names of course keeping in line with the franchise, except I hope they change HFIL to hell).

I, uh . . . don't think you have to be worried for that, really. Based on the English dub or not, there's no conceivable way that Twentieth Century Fox would refer to Hell as HFIL in its DBZ movie-- unlike FUNimation, they have been using the word Hell since 1989.

I mean, c'mawn. Imagine if they HADN'T?!

Shutton: What's your name, little boy?
Bart: I'm Bart Simpson, who the HFIL are you?


~Da Lemmy

[bkev]

You know what they'll do for the hair? Make a cheap cardboard thing (shaped to the hair of the characters) and CG it to look like real hair later.

[KinoFourpaws]

Well, the way I hope to see it is just the full Saiyan saga as it was in the manga (with English names of course keeping in line with the franchise, except I hope they change HFIL to hell).
So I would be expecting something like this from a 2 to 2 and a half hour movie.

0:15 First quarter of an hour: Radditz gets down (I hope to god the farmer's there, I love that guy), Goku shows his kid to the crew at Roshi Island. Radditz finds Piccolo and finds out he's not the guy he's looking for.
0:25 Next ten minutes or so: Radditz comes to Roshi's and kidnappes Gohan and tells of Goku's heritage. Goku and Piccolo team up against Radditz.
0:40 Next quarter of an hour: Radditz, Goku and Piccolo face off, Gohan shows his extraordinary strength. They beat Radditz and Goku dies as well.
1:10 Next half hour: Spent on a year of training, Goku racing to King Kai's and Piccolo training Gohan.
1:25 Next quarter of an hour: Goku reaches King Kai and trains with him, the Saiyans arrive.
1:45 Next 20 minutes: Lots of friends die by the hands of Nappa. Goku races back to King Yemma's and down to Korin Tower.
2:15 Next half an hour: Vegeta and Goku fight, Vegeta turns Oozaru, but Yajirobi's gonna cut of his tail, Gohan turns Oozaru, Spirit Bomb, Vegeta is shown mercy by Goku and returns. They all decide to go the Namek, the end.

Well... that's probably cramming a bit, but they don't need to stretch things out long like in the series, I think it could be done and it SHOULD be done this way. Or some completely new story with the same characters.

Well, it seems pretty much set that we're not going to get the movie done that way; just look at all the other screen adaptations what have been coming out recently. SOMETHING's going to get changed, no matter what. I think we all know that. >_>; Besides, to keep to the original story so faithfully, they're going to need to include a lot of extra stuff about it from the original Dragonball to keep it in context and have it make sense. To make the movie according to how you laid it out might satisfy us who are already fans of the story, but it'll very likely confuse and isolate the people who go in to see it fresh and fairly unacquainted with the manga or the anime. At the most, I expect it to be only a semi-faithful adaptation, with a lot of changes here and there to make the plot make sense and fit time constraints.

... Haha... on a slightly different aspect of this topic... I just told my sister about the movie finally being shot, and her reaction was this (and I quote):

"Who's playing the roles?! It better not be a bunch of Asian people who look like '>o<'!" (She made a face here.)

Maybe a bit offensive, but amusing... xDDD

[DaemonCorps]

I don't know, but there's at least going to be something (games, toys, clothes).

DBZ The Movie: The Game! Pre-Order while you still can! Seriously, though, I'm gonna love being able to find DBZ shirts, toys, etc. out in public again.

Oh, and how do you think Super-Saiyan transformations will be handled? They might not even have blonde hair...

I've been thinking about that, too. It's one of those things that defines the series, so they can't just overlook it altogether. At the least, I'm thinking they'll keep the yellow glow. But then, how are they gonna explain stuff like Gohan going SSJ2 later on? I guess the audience doesn't really need to have the SSJ2 hair shown and can get away with some other character looking at Gohan and mentioning how strong he got, but that seems kinda cheap to me.

[balrog]

I see a 40 page thread in the making

[Jerseymilk]

One thing I think people are forgetting about with all this excited talk over new merchandise. You realize it'll be "movie version" merchandise mainly right? You'll have action figures that look like the actors, not like the original manga. Same thing for shirts, posters, etc. Just wanted to point that out so people aren't too disappointed when they don't a bajillion products of like chibi plushies and stuff. ^^;

[TAS]

They said it's being adapted from the manga... Perhaps there's hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

They said Dragonball Z is an adaption of the manga created by Akira Toriyama, ie DBZ is an adaption of (a part of) the manga Dragonball, like they're not going the Sin City route with it and trying to make direct adaption based on the comic/manga or whatever, they were just saying that it all originaly started off as a comic/manga.

[Bura]

Please, no.

[Dayspring]

Montreal? Hmm... I didn't get to act as a bg chara in 300, maybe I'll get in this? Or should I torch the building?

And "Another Night" being shot here is beyond irony. XD

[Jerseymilk]

Montreal? Hmm... I didn't get to act as a bg chara in 300, maybe I'll get in this? Or should I torch the building?

Weeeeeeeeeeelllllll, I was planning to invade the set and sic 10 polar bears trained in Schutzhund on the entire cast and crew, effectively killing them all and then blowing up all trace of the production and evidence of my crime. But I'm having a hard time finding a big enough truck at a reasonable price to haul the bears to your city in.
>>
<<
XP