According to Hollywood Reporter (and also being posted on sites like comingsoon.net and movieweb.com), Justin Chatwin (known for the most recent “War Of The Worlds” theatrical adaptation), and James Marsters (most well known as Spike in the “Buffy” & “Angel” universe) have apparently been picked up, and the story is reporting a 15 August 2008 “worldwide release date” with James Wong indeed at the helm.

That information somewhat contradicts the news from the other day of James Kyson Lee (who auditioned for the role of Yamcha) saying that it is looking like a 2010 release time frame. This does not mean that Lee was simply wrong in everything he said, and this does not mean that everything we have heard thus far has been complete Hollywood fabrication… so, eh, do what you will with the info.

Atari has been on a roll today (in addition to that whole “shipping a new Dragon Ball video game” thing). Two additional press releases have come out, (1) announcing the complete departure from the production business, a refocusing on the distribution business, and a workforce reduction, and (2) announcing the departure of their current CEO, David Pierce.

What does this mean for Dragon Ball? Nothing, quite yet. “Budokai Tenkaichi 3” has already shipped, and they are nothing more than the North American (and abroad) distributor for the game (remember, it is created and developed over in Japan for Bandai by Spike as the “Sparking!” series). As far as we know, they are also still in corporate shenanigans land with FUNimation regarding supposed breaches of contract. We will let you know if anything else surfaces.

According to Toei, the first set of Dragon Ball GT individual discs will be released 06 February 2008. There will be 11 discs released, covering episodes 1-64 (complete series), and two discs will be released on the first Wednesday of every month. Unfortunately, they did not tell us how they are handling an odd number of discs, but we will find out eventually. If you loved GT, now is your chance. Check out Amazon Japan and pre-order the first two discs today.

“Budokai Tenkaichi 3” (originally released in Japan as “Sparking! METEOR”) for the Sony PlayStation 2 has officially hit store shelves in North America:

Atari’s Dragon Ball Z(R): Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for Wii(TM) and Playstation(R)2 System Headed to Store Shelves for Holiday Season
— The Ultimate Dragon Ball Z Title Features More In-Depth Story Mode and Enhanced Graphics –

NEW YORK, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), one of the world’s most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher, today announced that Dragon Ball Z(R): Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has shipped to retailers in North America for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and will be arriving for the Wii(TM) later this holiday season. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is rated T for Teen and is available for a suggested retail price of $49.95.

Developed by Spike, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is the first Dragon Ball Z title to incorporate online play with the Wii, making it one of this holiday’s must-have fighting titles. Fans playing on the PlayStation 2 system have the option to unlock several more hours of hidden game play with the Disc Fusion System, which requires either Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 1 or 2 to unlock never-before-seen battles.

“We’re pleased to bring exclusive content and online play to the loyal fans of the Dragon Ball series,” said Donny Clay, Producer, Atari, Inc. “We have delivered what we believe is undoubtedly the best Dragon Ball game yet. This is a must-have for the holidays.”

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 features a roster of over 150 playable characters, 30 enormous and varying 3D battle environments, fine-tuned fighting controls for the Wii and revamped audio, including the original Japanese voices. For more information on Dragon Ball Z video games, please visit http://www.atari.com/dragonballz.

While the music in the North American version is supposedly better than average, there is no selectable Japanese music option, which is a bummer for all of you that were holding out hope. The Japanese voice cast is at least selectable, though.

As a reminder to everyone, Meri and I gave our initial thoughts on the game (based on the JP “Sparking! METEOR”, of course) back on Episode #0099 of the podcast. We will be following up with our final thoughts on the game in the next week or so — look forward to it!

As we reported a while back in July, Viz has announced they are going to be putting out a so-called “omnibus” version of the manga, which in a single volume will collect three individual volumes of the original “graphic novel” run. The first of these is apparently due out 06 May 2008 for a retail price of $17.99, though RightStuf has it listed for a pre-order price of $13.49. This should cover Dragon Ball volumes one, two, and three… which itself covers chapters one to thirty-six.

We will give details on the cover art and assorted other things as they come in.

MidoriVX points us over to SuperHeroHype.com — apparently some filming for the upcoming American live-action adaptation of Dragon Ball is going to be done in Mexico…? This negates what we heard earlier about being filmed in Canada. Then, of course, there is what was posted earlier today on Anime News Network regarding James Kyson Lee (who I guess does something in the TV show “Heroes”…?) auditioning for the role of Yamcha.

These covers have been out for a while, but it just would not be the same without posting something about them. Discs #22 and #23 contain six episodes, while disc #24 contains five episodes, all covering episodes 127 thru 143. These beautiful DVDs were released 07 November 2007.

You can still order any of the released Z discs or any of these discs from Amazon Japan. Also, for the first time, you can pre-order the first two Dragon Ball GT discs.

Word on the street from quite a few people is that the new re-release of both the Bardock and Trunks TV specials, which FUNimation is releasing as a “double feature” combining both TV specials on a single DVD, is going the route of the faux-“remastered” nonsense as the rest of the TV series. We are extremely disappointed to hear this, although it comes as absolutely no surprise. Apparently the latest disc inserts from FUNimation have a confirmation on this.

Thanks to everyone on the forum for the info.

Tanooki Kuribo points us to toywiz.com, which has updated with some pre-orders for new DBZ figures from Bandai:

I guess these look kinda cool. We will check them out upon release, which appears to be in February.