[Movies] Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel

Whooooa. Haven’t really been following this, but Sunrise officially announced plans to bring out a live action movie version of the anime series Cowboy Bebop, with Keanu Reeves taking the lead role of Spike Spiegel. It’ll be a collaboration project between Sunrise, 20th Century Fox, and 3 Arts Entertainment. Good news for the fans of the series I guess is that the original director and script supervisor for the series, Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto respectively, as well as the president of Sunrise, Kenji Uchida, will be on hand personally as associate producers to the film. Original series’ producer Masahiko Minami will also act as production consultant.

I’ll reserve my judgments until we actually see some footage lol. After recently seeing the Dragonball and Street Fighter trailers, I hope it won’t end up grouped up with them. With a big name like Keanu attached to the film and many of the people who were responsible for the original series on the film, it may turn out better than most people currently are making it out to be. However it turns out though, I’ll probably still check it out just in support for the fact that anime series are gaining more exposure in some way or another. Another one that I am interested in checking out is Leonardo DiCaprio’s Akira. Despite what most people may be saying blindly in light of the fact that it’ll be produced by Leo’s production company and will have him star in a lead role as well, I think he might actually make a pretty good Kaneda.

 

from alafista via ANN and image from E! Online

[Movies] Sukiyaki Western Django

Saw this preview up on IGN Movies a short while ago but didn’t really think anything of it till I decided to check out the previews they had on the site. I’m totally gonna watch this movie! lol

An epic tale of blood, lust, and greed.

Sukiyaki Western Django is an english language “Spaghetti Western” film (Sukiyaki here for some japanese flair) directed by Takashi Miike, and featuring a japanese cast along with Quentin Tarantino. The film’s got a pretty neat sense of style, and though the story may be cheesy (actually I don’t really know what the story is lol), this should make for some pretty good entertainment with some friends (in the same vein that Grindhouse was).

Can check out some more stuff at the official movie site.
Wikipedia page on the film. Here you’ll find references to what the Spaghetti Western genre of films is, and also where the name Django comes from.

 

[Anime] Gatchaman CG movie

Well I didn’t even know a Gatchaman movie was being worked on lol. This CG movie is in the works by animation studio Imagi, who was responsible for last year’s TMNT CG movie, and is also working on a CG Astroboy, which will be out along with Gatchaman in 2009. Felix Ip, the creative director at Imagi has a few exclusive screenshots on his blog which have not been released or shown yet, not even at the San Diego Comic Con (There are also a few concept art pieces on Imagi’s site). To be honest I don’t really remember watching Gatchaman/G-Force, but those shots look pretty damn cool. CG + Anime influences + Scifi = hell yea for me! I thought the TMNT CG movie looked very good also, so this should turn out to be pretty mindgasmic in the visuals department.

 

Here’s a summary of the movie/project from Imagi’s site:

Set in a future world grappling with environmental and technological issues, the story focuses on five reluctant heroes whose remarkable genetic code makes them Earth’s only hope of defeating extra-terrestrial invaders. Gatchaman will be a big, effects-rich movie with some of the most ambitious action sequences ever seen in animation.

Gatchaman was created by Japan’s Tatsunoko Production in the early 1970s as a television series called Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Aired in the U.S. as Battle of the Planets and G-Force, it soon became one of the top syndicated shows.

 

Maybe this is the direction the Dragonball movie should’ve gone in eh? lol

[Movies] First look at Dragonball live action movie

HHMMMMMmmmm. Well personally I actually think the people they cast look ok lol. I’m sure most people have already heard that there will be a Hollywood live action version of Dragonball…maybe. It will be directed by James Wong and feature a mix of asian and american actors. Saw it when I was checking Superhero Hype for Dark Knight news.

 

 

 

 

[Movies] Live action Ghost in the Shell movie??

So as with most of the stuff I post here, I recycle from a great source of otakusphere news Heisei Democracy, and this bit of news is also from there. A bit of interesting news this is… a live action infused with 3D version of Ghost in the Shell movie?? Directed by Steven Spielberg?? This could be pretty great I suppose; I haven’t really ever been disappointed by movies directed by Spielberg, so I don’t see why this would either (well…except if the script completely blows). I think Spielberg probably knows what he’s doing though and will probably make the best of what he’s got to work with and give his own input. I doubt he is the kind of person to tackle a universe he knows nothing about.

Full article about this can be read here.

Useless trivia: I went to the same high school that Steven Spielberg went to lol.

 

Don’t know where the picture came from, so I can’t give credit where it’s due. Sorry!