FOX extends DBZ Live action Movie Domain Rights Another year

Friezafan120 · Post by **Friezafan120** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:50 pm

"I'd be interested in seeing something like that, personally. There's a whole bunch of potential for unintentionally comedic awesomeness. Any movie made would most probably be laughable anyway, so it might as well be some kind of crazy awesome laughable."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBMxb2J6S-k

There's your musical. I find this video hilarious.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:47 pm

Honestly (I guess this is the place for this) I can not understand why people do not want to see a live action dbz

Manga is basically Japanese comics (more to it yes but i'm looking for simple version for this) Now with hollywood looking to make comic book movies DBZ should be made.

Now people will argue you will loose some of the effects and style. Look at superman. The beautiful blue and red that are very bright and passionate colours. He has/ had a square jaw.

Now Look at Superman returns. Darker costume and more realistic environment. What is to say they can't do Dragonball Z very well with darker colour and more realistic look.

-instead of cartoony dinosaurs why not Jurassic park style dinosaurs.
- You want Oozaru (not sure on spelling) look at king kong style ape
- SSj transformations instead of just blonde hair why not actually make it glow yellow more with a lightsaber type effect
- Reckon they can't do frieza/cell/buu? Look at spider-man 3. they can do venom they can do frieza or cell or buu
- flying? superman returns
- space ships? star wars prequels , serenity and more
- fighting? I mentioned in another thread agent smith vs neo in matrix 3 is very dbz style
- energy? easy cgi

yes it will be different but still very well done. I have read spider-man for years and yes the films are different but still good to watch. Another advantage to live action movie would be it would bring in a lot of new fans.

New fans means dvds and games sell more so we get more dbz games ands stuff plus could even lead to new anime of it.

Seriously NOW is the perfect time for a dbz movie to come out and just blow us all away

Sebastian (SB) · Post by **Sebastian (SB)** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:22 pm

SSJmole wrote: Seriously NOW is the perfect time for a dbz movie to come out and just blow us all away

No, I disagree. First they need to go back & make movies of other manga/anime/Japanese-related franchise before seeing any possibility of a Dragon Ball film. Whether it's Tetsuwan Atom, Mach Go Go Go(confirmed), or heck maybe a good Street Fighter film. Sure we see the potential of a good fight scenario from the Matrix films. To me, Dragon Ball in particular is more about the fighting & I'm afraid that'll be the only centralization regarding the film, or even worse, strip down all the character's personalities, give it an all-American cast, & throw some grunge metal into the mix. In the end, the Dragon Ball universe is completely distinctive & different from our own & the only way to make it live action would be to take some liberties to strip down some of those elements. In short, it could bomb or be really good.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:33 pm

Sebastian (SB) wrote:No, I disagree. First they need to go back & make movies of other manga/anime/Japanese-related franchise before seeing any possibility of a Dragon Ball film. Whether it's Tetsuwan Atom, Mach Go Go Go(confirmed), or heck maybe a good Street Fighter film.

Maybe. I just fear fear the hold off two long and it'll be too late.

Sebastian (SB) wrote:Sure we see the potential of a good fight scenario from the Matrix films. To me, Dragon Ball in particular is more about the fighting & I'm afraid that'll be the only centralization regarding the film, or even worse, strip down all the character's personalities, give it an all-American cast, & throw some grunge metal into the mix. In the end, the Dragon Ball universe is completely distinctive & different from our own & the only way to make it live action would be to take some liberties to strip down some of those elements. In short, it could bomb or be really good.

Not really. Dragonball universe is a mixture of (not literally) Lord of the rings world and our own. the main cities are like ours but then out in the "unexplored" part you have these fantasy creatures like dragons and monsters and dinosaurs.

an all american cast is fine with me as long at is good. Just like i have no problem with an anime version of transformers (armada was cool) again though as long as the story was good.

Do them like the comic book movies 1 movie = one main villain or two and have them as 3hrs. 1st film = vegeta saga , 2nd = frieza (would have to water down ginyu squad but could work) , 3rd = androids and cell , 4th = buu.

film back to back. I honestly believe that it would work and be phenomenal

Drabaz · Post by **Drabaz** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:54 pm

Didn't they do a real cool looking two person Kamehameha struggle in X-Men 3? I think it was between Iceman and Pyro.

And they kind of had a good looking beam struggle in the 4th Harry Potter movie with their wands.

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:57 pm

Dragonball has live-action movies. Roshi never looked so sexy.
And did someone say Street fighter movie?

It's not like anime's haven't been put into live-action before. Both in TV (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon comes to mind) and in big-screen movies (I have the Death Note movie on dvd)...

But I think if you tried to take a live-action DBZ movie... seriously... it wouldn't come out right. I want to say that DBZ is just too animated. They'd try to play up as being really epic, lots of orchestral music and bold statements (The greatest story... ever told... about.. BALLS... is back... THIS SUMMER!) and you'd end up having cartoony CGI Oolong and Puar and Kame-sen'nin's turtle... and then you'd have small people playing Kuririn and Vegeta standing next to steroid, skin-head Nappa while someone flys in on a CGI cloud...?
I don't even want to think about what Piccolo, Tien, and Chaozu would look like...

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:02 pm

See, I want a Dragonball film. Even if it's not the most greatest thing ever. Most people don't want a movie because a bad movie may hurt the property. But the thing is: It can't. If anything it'll give people a reason to take a look at it. This is one of those "there's no such thing a bad publicity."

I disagree about needing a different live-action anime movie first. Simply because there are live-action anime adaptions out there(I recently discovered that there was a really popular Prince of Tennis one made). Whether it's an Asian crew or American or Iranian it's still gonna be somewhat awesome.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:41 pm

MisterFlashdude wrote:But I think if you tried to take a live-action DBZ movie... seriously... it wouldn't come out right. I want to say that DBZ is just too animated. They'd try to play up as being really epic, lots of orchestral music and bold statements (The greatest story... ever told... about.. BALLS... is back... THIS SUMMER!) and you'd end up having cartoony CGI Oolong and Puar and Kame-sen'nin's turtle... and then you'd have small people playing Kuririn and Vegeta standing next to steroid, skin-head Nappa while someone flys in on a CGI cloud...?
I don't even want to think about what Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu would look like...

But it could work as a serious (with comedy in the right moments) epic movie. as for midget playing vegeta and krillin I don't think so for vegeta. Wolverine is/was around 5" in x-men comics but huge jackman is taller and best for the role

krillin don't do him mini me size but around 4ft" to 5" so short but not comical short.

instead of (The greatest story... ever told... about.. BALLS... is back... THIS SUMMER!) it would be (This summer ....... One man discovers his origins ...... but when he faces the darkness will he join it ..... or will he fight it? *cue vegeta or nappa saying "join us Kakarot" * or tv trailers do the star wars episode 1 intro thing

gohan's tv spot - "I'm just a child , a child who must stand up for what is right like my father before me"

goku "I have discoverd what I am. A saiyan. sent to destroy. Who I am is goku the warrior for good"

vegeta "I am an elite , A solider , No one can stand up to me. What I want I get and I want the immortality"

Piccolo you make a mixture of cgi , make up and live action like Mystique in x-men films

nappa instead of a giant bald guy why not someone like goldberg? He looks intimidating and strong with out been overly huge

Anonymous Friend · Post by **Anonymous Friend** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:09 pm

SSJmole wrote:
MisterFlashdude wrote:But I think if you tried to take a live-action DBZ movie... seriously... it wouldn't come out right. I want to say that DBZ is just too animated. They'd try to play up as being really epic, lots of orchestral music and bold statements (The greatest story... ever told... about.. BALLS... is back... THIS SUMMER!) and you'd end up having cartoony CGI Oolong and Puar and Kame-sen'nin's turtle... and then you'd have small people playing Kuririn and Vegeta standing next to steroid, skin-head Nappa while someone flys in on a CGI cloud...?
I don't even want to think about what Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu would look like...

But it could work as a serious (with comedy in the right moments) epic movie. as for midget playing vegeta and krillin I don't think so for vegeta. Wolverine is/was around 5" in x-men comics but huge jackman is taller and best for the role

krillin don't do him mini me size but around 4ft" to 5" so short but not comical short.

instead of (The greatest story... ever told... about.. BALLS... is back... THIS SUMMER!) it would be (This summer ....... One man discovers his origins ...... but when he faces the darkness will he join it ..... or will he fight it? *cue vegeta or nappa saying "join us Kakarot" * or tv trailers do the star wars episode 1 intro thing

gohan's tv spot - "I'm just a child , a child who must stand up for what is right like my father before me"

goku "I have discoverd what I am. A saiyan. sent to destroy. Who I am is goku the warrior for good"

vegeta "I am an elite , A solider , No one can stand up to me. What I want I get and I want the immortality"

Piccolo you make a mixture of cgi , make up and live action like Mystique in x-men films

nappa instead of a giant bald guy why not someone like goldberg? He looks intimidating and strong with out been overly huge

Why are we over examining what the characters look like?

I just care about the story and the action. And as long as they keep the farmer with shotgun, I'll be fine.

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:14 pm

I'm not saying you couldn't do it. I mean... I'm pretty sure I could probably force my whole fist into my mouth. Afterall, it's been done before, right? But I'd just end up looking an idiot with my fist in my mouth... really awkward, with a lot of painful moments... much like an 'epic' DBZ movie would be...

I'm just saying it wouldn't work out the way you're hoping it would. There's a lot more to it than just getting the characters alive on screen. I didn't mean that 'midgets' should Vegeta and Kuririn... I just meant that the object of contrast between Vegeta/Kuririn and Nappa would be ridiculous up there on big screen. And god forbid they actually had a 4 year old playing Gohan. I think his TV spot would be, 'I'm just 4 years old... and I'm about to get the poopie beat out of me!'

As far as Superhero movies go... DBZ just isn't like Superman and X-men, that have kid's tv shows and comics that tend to lean towards a more mature audience (Wow, if the Teen Titans fans could see Nightwing and Starfire nekkid in bed and 3 or 4 condoms on the floor... heh). DBZ is more like... Underdog... It's a kid's show that doesn't put a lot of effort into being anything other than a kid's show.
Of course, they're making an Underdog movie... and Underdog's live action/cgi... and it doesn't take it's self that seriously. It's tagline is 'One Nation Underdog!' and parodies the Superman opening...
But what you're hoping to pull off with DBZ making an X-men-esque transition into something really dark and mature wouldn't work. You'd show the live action Kaio-sama and Goku chasing Bubbles and lose the credibility.

I think DBZ should just stick to animated movies in the future.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:20 pm

MisterFlashdude wrote:I'm not saying you couldn't do it. I mean... I'm pretty sure I could probably force my whole fist into my mouth. Afterall, it's been done before, right? But I'd just end up looking an idiot with my fist in my mouth... really awkward, with a lot of painful moments... much like an 'epic' DBZ movie would be...

I'm just saying it wouldn't work out the way you're hoping it would. There's a lot more to it than just getting the characters alive on screen. I didn't mean that 'midgets' should Vegeta and Kuririn... I just meant that the object of contrast between Vegeta/Kuririn and Nappa would be ridiculous up there on big screen. And god forbid they actually had a 4 year old playing Gohan. I think his TV spot would be, 'I'm just 4 years old... and I'm about to get the poopie beat out of me!'

As far as Superhero movies go... DBZ just isn't like Superman and X-men, that have kid's tv shows and comics that tend to lean towards a more mature audience (Wow, if the Teen Titans fans could see Nightwing and Starfire nekkid in bed and 3 or 4 condoms on the floor... heh). DBZ is more like... Underdog... It's a kid's show that doesn't put a lot of effort into being anything other than a kid's show.
Of course, they're making an Underdog movie... and Underdog's live action/cgi... and it doesn't take it's self that seriously. It's tagline is 'One Nation Underdog!' and parodies the Superman opening...
But what you're hoping to pull off with DBZ making an X-men-esque transition into something really dark and mature wouldn't work. You'd show the live action Kaio-sama and Goku chasing Bubbles and lose the credibility.

I think DBZ should just stick to animated movies in the future.

I see your point I really do. I'm also sure that an epic dbz movie would work. things like chasing Bubbles you eliminate and replace with him lifting weights or something.

do not need an 4 year old for gohan I say someone around the age of little anakin in episode 1

It could work very very well. But like I said I see your point too. I'll agree to disagree

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:48 pm

Meh, if you can find a four-year-old actor that can fit the role... however unlikely that'd be...

I'd say keep the Bubbles-ness, but play it off so that it fits what's going on around it--it's a light-hearted moment for dire training... the kind of thing that people see for a few seconds and laugh at, then the scene is over and we're back in serious. Harry Potter4 comes to mind... though I do suggest that a DBZ movie would focus more on adapting a good story and getting the world solid rather than making unnecessarily long fights (though if Aniken Vs Obi-wan length fights can fit without sacrificing anything else, then by all means, go for it!).

But the problem I see is... do the characters--the characters as personalities, not in visual presentation--translate well into what is expected from an epic action story? Many of them do, but one of the main characters--Goku--egh, he has his moments, but he's got that happy-go-lucky streak. I'm not saying it can't work, just that it'd take some very fine writing to work in everything that has to fit--and a lot would have to fit.

We have to know that Piccolo is the reincarnation of the demon king of another world, and why he hates Goku so much, and why Tenshinhan and Chaozu exist... We have to know all of this before Goku can learn his heritage. We don't need movies for the original DB sagas... but we'd need a freaking awesome opening to capture all of that. And while it's relatively easy to derive, it can only fit at the expense of one awesome bit (I.E, we could go with the 23rd tournament and lose a lot of backstory and just play Goku and Piccolo as rivals... we could go with the end of Daimao, which means we'd probably have to sacrifice the tournament... and while I think the latter is the best, people would probably complain if we covered Daimao but not the tournament).

After all of that, we have a lot of characters to build--can we get them all in appropriately? Yes, but only in the hands of a good writer and with the right actors to carry that, which of course requires a director in there...

It can be done. It can be awesome. But it's impossible to please everyone without just filming a live version of the manga, which would vacate the point... So if it happens, I guarantee that there will be hords of fanboys ranting and raving about how many things shouldn't have been changed or dropped or added.

I need to learn how to shapeshift.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:58 pm

caejones wrote:But the problem I see is... do the characters--the characters as personalities, not in visual presentation--translate well into what is expected from an epic action story? Many of them do, but one of the main characters--Goku--egh, he has his moments, but he's got that happy-go-lucky streak. I'm not saying it can't work, just that it'd take some very fine writing to work in everything that has to fit--and a lot would have to fit.

That's actually why I see him been played by a Brendan Fraser type. I know he may be a bad pick but with right training to do moves he can act serious when need be but also can play an innocent child like adult at times too

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:00 pm

SSJmole wrote:I'll agree to disagree

And I'll agree to your agreement to disagree. *Thumbs up*

caejones wrote:We have to know that Piccolo is the reincarnation of the demon king of another world, and why he hates Goku so much, and why Tenshinhan and Chaozu exist... We have to know all of this before Goku can learn his heritage. We don't need movies for the original DB sagas... but we'd need a freaking awesome opening to capture all of that. And while it's relatively easy to derive, it can only fit at the expense of one awesome bit (I.E, we could go with the 23rd tournament and lose a lot of backstory and just play Goku and Piccolo as rivals... we could go with the end of Daimao, which means we'd probably have to sacrifice the tournament... and while I think the latter is the best, people would probably complain if we covered Daimao but not the tournament).

I'd hate to lend support to the idea but... not necessarily. Afterall, most of the American fanbase picked up at Z without Dragonball to begin with... As far as referencing past movies, think starting at Star Wars Episode 4 instead of Episode 1... you don't need to know everything. You see C3-PO and R2-D2 and you don't need their backstory to accept them as characters. (Gee whiz, you mean Vader built theepio...? Never would've guessed...)

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:17 pm

Well, I'd agree that you don't have to know everything... but there are some things that are kind of hard to get from the beginning of Z (Like, what's up with the puppet kid, and all we can get about Piccolo is that he's a bad guy for five minutes...).

Egh, at any rate, I'd imagine it'd be fun to write and H.F.I.L to edit...

.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:20 pm

On the matter of building character backstories, that's why I think there should be a movie adaptation of DragonBall as the first of (my/the) ideal trilogy. Get both the DragonBall world, however it is adapted, the major characters (Goku, Bulma, Kuririn, Roshi, Tenshinhan, Piccolo, etc...) established beforehand, so in the second movie, one could start introducing the Saiyans and such, and rocket ahead into the rest of the story. Heck, if the eventual focus for the story is Z's events, then you probably don't even NEED a lot of the tiny, secondary characters.

Post by **TripleRach** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:06 pm

Sure, it's certainly possible to make a live-action production of Dragon Ball that's visually outstanding, what with the modern possibilities of make-up and special effects. But the thing is, all of that stuff costs big money, and the movies mentioned all have huge budgets.

As popular as anime and manga may be over here, in general, it still seems to be considered a niche market. Spiderman 3 reportedly cost over $250 million to make, and I just can't realistically picture anyone in Hollywood that would be willing to put up that kind of money to finance those kind of effects for a DBZ film. And if the budget were too low...well, just watch the Hong Kong film.

I believe that Fox really did purchase the film rights back in 2002 or so, but I don't think that actual production ever started, and at this point, when the games are the only "new" thing being released over here to keep interest up, it's probably way too late already.

...However, if anyone were to make a movie series, I think a good starting point would be the 22nd Budoukai, leading into the Piccolo arc. During the Budoukai itself, Kamesennin could serve as a narrator describing his students a bit (Gokuu, Kuririn, and Yamcha) as their matches go on, and obviously, Tenshinhan and Chaozu would be introduced through their roles as villains, as would Piccolo later on. (Although, I am biased, since this is my favorite point in the series.)

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:26 pm

Yes, but, unlike the majority of other anime, DragonBall has huge notoriety and recognition in America.

SSJmole · Post by **SSJmole** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:32 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:Yes, but, unlike the majority of other anime, DragonBall has huge notoriety and recognition in America.

Exactly

plus all the American themes in Z e.g making goku like superman and time travel it would be very easy

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:56 pm

Personally I'd rather see all the Dragonball Z movies get a proper theater release before going with a live action release.

However, if a live-action release is done hopefully someone who actually gives a damn will be behind it.

At the very least, though, at least it won't be considered a fuck-up when the Widescreen DVD of it sits on the shelves at FYE.