One thing that has been bothering fans of Dragonball for some time now is that Fox is making the movie. Many fans are concerned that Fox has no faith in Dragonball and will not put the resources (namely marketing) into it. Well, according to Tim Rothman, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Dragonball will be a “strongly targeted” film.

“Big studios need to be tentpole driven,” Rothman says. “And we already have our 2009 tentpoles in place.”

“As I look out from where we are, what we look forward to is that we have a consistent supply of all-audience films opening over the next 18 months, and in between those films, we have strongly targeted films like ‘Max Payne,” “Notorious,’ ‘Dragonball Z’ — films that will have a strong, defined avidity among the targeted audience,” he says.

Variety explains Fox’s reasoning for buying screenplays and film rights and then taking their good old time to greenlight them.

As for development, they’re proud that they can beat a screenplay into shape, no matter how long it takes. For example, the studio has already spent more than $5 million on a script for a bigscreen version of “The A-Team,” but has yet to give it the greenlight.

What do you think? Do you think Fox has faith in their property? You can read the full article on Variety.

The Hamilton Advertiser recently previewed the Dragonball movie, and despite all the negativity around the movie at the moment, they seem to be fairly optimistic about it.

Contrary to popular belief that Dragonball Z and everything that goes with it isn’t an important too anime is quite frankly rubbish.

Without it there would be no Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Full Metal Alchemist or Naruto. And it could be said that without it there may have been no Matrix or various other anime-influenced Hollywood blockbusters.

The Dragonball franchise was an enormous factor in popularising anime in the west and is now set to get its own movie, aptly named Dragonball.

…

Goku’s actual origin is almost identical to Superman’s. Both are sent to Earth in a space pod as babies, both of their home planets are about to explode at this time and both have incredible, god-like powers. But other than that, both couldn’t be further apart.

Justin Chatwin stars as Goku and if anything is to be right about this movie, he’ll have to play him as Sean Schemmel played him in the animated series- funny, hungry, absent minded and underdog hero.

James Wong (Final Destination, The One, The X-Files) heads up the project as Director James Marsters, formerly of Buffy fame as Spike, is playing Piccolo and Chow Yun-Fat is playing Master Roshi, Goku’s teacher.

While the initial reception from fans has been one of dismay and disgust, if done right, Dragonball could well be the long awaited breath of fresh air the franchise is waiting for.

Read the full article here. Thanks to craigdbfan for informing me.

Also, as a reminder, James Marsters will be appearing at “The Rift” in London tomorrow. SFX may ask him your questions then.

A little over a month ago, I compared each James Wong film to give you a better idea of what movie style to expect. Then, I compared the fighting styles of different movies that James Wong, Stephen Chow, and 87Eleven (stunts) were involved in.

Today I will be doing comparisons of the cast. The purpose of this is to see their acting range, to give you a better idea of how well they can act as their respective character.

Justin Chatwin (Goku)
Although having “Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2” on your resume isn’t something to brag about, Justin has also starred in some pretty good roles. In “War of the Worlds,” he played an annoying but realistic teenager, in “The Invisible” he played a teen who was killed and forced to walk around the world trying to convince people he was still alive, and in “The Chumscrubber” he played a foul-mouthed bully, a role which Ebert and Roeper called a “strong performance.” Take a look at a sample of his work in the television series “Lost.”

(more…)

James Marsters was (and probably still is) at Creation Entertainment’s Grand Slam XVI Sci-Fi Summet. Could they think of a longer name?

Unfortunately there is no full report on his visit yet, but I have managed to find some random bits of Dragonball news he revealed during his Q&A.

I asked him if he liked Durango and he said the place was amazing and that he enjoyed the scenery and the way light was reflected on it. He also talked about some rock formations and how much [he got his] ass kicked while filming. He said later on that he did his own stunts so I think he was talking about it.

SOURCE

James talked about Dragonball. His First makeup job took 17 hours and was very painful, his suit was tight and so hard to breathe in. They couldn’t use a stunt man for a lot of the scenes because he didn’t look right. The stunt man didn’t look right because of the extensive make-up used on James, but not as good for the stuntman. Sounds like he had fun though, and is proud of himself.

He did many stunt scenes, James did all these jumping scenes off of 30 foot cliffs… and more.

SOURCE

He had to sit down for a few songs, because he says that Goku kicked his ass then Superman kicked his ass again, so he’s got some nerve problems in his hands, but not to worry, it’s nothing that a chiropractor can’t fix.

SOURCE

More news from fans at the convention:

-They wanted Piccolo to be more beautiful than he wanted to be. The character was in prison for 2000 years, so he should be old, ugly and decrepit. But they went for makeup that was safer and more young and beautiful, so he went to the makeup guy and said, hey, we can add back with paint what they removed from the sculpt because the producers aren’t here, and the director was fighting the same fight, so they made him older again.

-They have changed a few things in Dragonball, but the script reflects the heart of it. So much of Dragonball is about power and unrepentant violence. So much of it relies on post production. He’s in so much trouble - 20th century told him not to talk about it. Oh, but he’s not telling anything about the plot, he’s just saying his experiences as an actor, so they can’t sue him, right?

This was a surprising bit of news I received from a Fox representative. Apparently, Fox is so sure the first movie will be successful that they’re already planning a Weaver (Luis Arretia) television spin-off.

“The anime was pretty good, but it wasn’t great. Weaver, a new character made by our marketing team, is a different kind of super hero. When we set out to create this new character, we made it our top priority to make a character that we felt everyone would be able to relate to, and we think we’ve been very successful in that regard.”

“He’s a nerd, but he also has super strength. He’s not good with the ladies, but that all changes when he’s bitten by a radioactive dragon. I don’t want to give anything away, but he plays a huge part in the first movie, and maybe in the sequels as well. The first movie ends with a huge cliffhanger, but it’s a surprise that the fans will have to wait for, and we don’t think they’ll be disappointed. Oh, hell, I’ll tell you: Weaver is Goku’s father.”

“Dragonball Origins: Weaver,” airs on the Fox television network May 4th, 2009. Fox also hinted at further projects with other movie-made characters.

A reader who claims to have seen a revised issue of “Wizard” magazine, tells us that it will have a “massive exclusive” on the film.

Just a moment ago, I received scans (I can’t share, and I’d expect you to know why) of Wizard’s ‘revised’ issue. They were alerted about a week beforehand of the date change, and were shipped new images to host. As a teaser poster is not ready, but the prototype in the former issue (Chatwin, his back to us, our first amazing look at his hair and stature) wasn’t the first image the studio wanted out. So, it was swapped for two images and a few more interviews with the cast.

This is possible since Eriko Tamura did say they shot “posters” on February 28th and 29th.

Images

The first is Goku, his hair larger than expected and resembling the television show fiercely, watching from the sidelines at an Arena match. Curiously enough (and this was reported awhile back), a hot dog cart is in the background if you look hard enough.

The next image is our first clear, sure-to-make-everyone-excited look at Piccolo. He’s texture is awesome, and in the picture he’s launching someone over him (*not Goku). An amazing publicity shot to release. FYI, this was also from the earlier issue as the studio had no problems showing us the first look at Piccolo.

I hope that’s true, because it sounds awesome!

Interviews

As for the interviews section, Bulma (Rossum) has now been interviewed. No blue hair — or at least, not that they could tell — she was excited to earn the role based on her audition — can’t wait to see the final product — loves her character — hasn’t studied the actual cartoon as the screenplay was well rounded and had enough of the mythology to fulfill her enough for the role.

Chatwin watched the animated show — loves playing this character — had to bulk up — doesn’t want anyone to be disappointed with his performance - thinks Wong’s awesome.

And I really hope this is true as well.

I was really excited by this, but disappointed no scans were included. Though, understandable since this individual might have gotten into trouble if they did publicly release them. I asked when this issue would be released, but haven’t gotten a response yet.

UPDATE: My source says Wizard hasn’t decided what issue to release them in. My guess is the May issue, which is supposedly two issues in one.

I’ve been asked recently what the fighting style in the movie will be like. Without seeing any footage it’s hard to say, but since some films have fight scenes similar to that which can be found in the Dragonball series, we can assume this movie will have similar. The following are a few examples of fights that the crew involved in this movie have done. Which would you prefer?

“The One” - James Wong (director)

(more…)