Leonardo DiCaprio Loves Anime; his production company acquired Ninja Scroll

[Vyse]

Either that or someone in Appian Way (Leo's production company) loves it because they have just acquired Ninja Scroll for a live-action film to be released by Warner Bros, sayeth Variety. (ANN Link (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-10-26/warner-brothers-to-produce-live-action-ninja-scroll)) These are the same entities that have acquired the rights to do two movies based on the epic Akira (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-02-20/warner-leonardo-dicaprio-to-produce-akira-live-action). Some other infobits:

Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Mike Ireland will produce the movie along with Ninja Scroll's anime studio, Madhouse. Killoran is also producing the Akira adaptations.
Alex Tse is slated to write the screenplay. His recent (and upcomming) work include Watchmen and The Illustrated Man.
Leo is planning to not act in this film.Thoughts?

[garfield15]

...

(sets self on fire)

[thenewme93]

(Joins garfield15 and sets self on fire)

[Space Cadet]

So for WB, the list for anime-to-Hollywood movies include:

Speed Racer(came out)
Akira(suppose to come out next year; two picture deal)
Robotech
Astro Boy(well, they aren't making it, but distributing it)
Gatchaman
Ninja Scroll


And for Twentieth Century Fox, its slate is:

Dragonball(April 2009)
Cowboy Bebop(pre-production)
Voltron

And for Dreamworks, its:

Ghost in the Shell


We have quite a few coming down the pipe.

[Joe]

So for WB, the list for anime-to-Hollywood movies include:

Speed Racer(came out)
Akira(suppose to come out next year; two picture deal)
Robotech
Astro Boy(well, they aren't making it, but distributing it)
Gatchaman
Ninja Scroll


And for Twentieth Century Fox, its slate is:

Dragonball(April 2009)
Cowboy Bebop(pre-production)
Voltron

And for Dreamworks, its:

Ghost in the Shell


We have quite a few coming down the pipe.

Also, isn't Battle Angel supposedly in pre-production?

I wouldn't stake too much on some of these actually getting made. Remember the live-action Evangelion that was suppose to come out?

[Space Cadet]

Also, isn't Battle Angel supposedly in pre-production?



James Cameron put it on the back burner since he's making another movie after he's done with post-production for Avatar.

[veemonjosh]

So for WB, the list for anime-to-Hollywood movies include:

Speed Racer(came out)
Akira(suppose to come out next year; two picture deal)
Robotech
Astro Boy(well, they aren't making it, but distributing it)
Gatchaman
Ninja Scroll


And for Twentieth Century Fox, its slate is:

Dragonball(April 2009)
Cowboy Bebop(pre-production)
Voltron

And for Dreamworks, its:

Ghost in the Shell


We have quite a few coming down the pipe.

Don't forget, there's also plans for an American Death Note movie.

Unless Dragon Ball becomes a gigantic bomb, it looks like we'll be seeing a typhoon of anime-related movies in the coming years. Only a matter of time before Viz tries to get someone to make a live-action Naruto movie...

[Unwardil]

Yeah, you know I can actually picture a live action ninja scroll much in the same fashion as a crouching tiger hidden dragon kind of visually appealing action wank fest but...

I'm sorry Akira worked so well BECAUSE it was animated and amazingly well animated at that. Take the same movie and put it into live action and all of a sudden you'll be noticing that all that pedantic exsitentialist banter neither makes sense nor is particularilly deep or mind opening and is really just a flimsy shell upon which to build the story of a distopian future to animate out the wazoo WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

[jph139]

I'm (kinda) glad for the Live-Action Anime boom. We'll probably have a lot of "Fantastic Four" and "Ghost Rider" and "Superman Returns" level stuff, but I'm sure, if it goes on long enough, we'll get some "Spider-Man" and "Batman Begins" quality work.

...I hope, at least. :sweat:

[LoneToonman]

And I liked Akira. Now they're gonna try and ruin that for me too!?

*goes on Jason-ish killing spree*

Just in time for Halloween!

[Animeforever'04]

(Joins thenewme93 and sets self on fire)

[Master Moron]

So, do you think the rock-man rape scene will make it into live action?

[Space Cadet]

I'm sorry Akira worked so well BECAUSE it was animated and amazingly well animated at that. Take the same movie and put it into live action and all of a sudden you'll be noticing that all that pedantic exsitentialist banter neither makes sense nor is particularilly deep or mind opening and is really just a flimsy shell upon which to build the story of a distopian future to animate out the wazoo WHICH WAS THE WHOLE POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Well, to be fair to the live-action movies, its suppose to adapt the manga. That's one way to distinguish it from the animated movie.

[LoneToonman]

So, do you think the rock-man rape scene will make it into live action?

Of course!!! Yummeee!!!!

[Rolling Cloud]

Well, this is awkward. Ninja Scroll? Seriously?

What's next, Bokurano? :sweat:

[Pomegranate]

(Joins Animeforever'04 and sets self on fire)

[Beat]

I've grown to admire DiCaprio for becoming a daring actor outside of "LOL heartthrob" but Ninja Scroll?

Live action Snake Lady...

Nuff said.

[Space Cadet]

Don't forget, there's also plans for an American Death Note movie.

Also, there are plans for a live-action Afro Samurai movie. So yeah, there are a lot of anime movies in the planning stages.


Unless Dragon Ball becomes a gigantic bomb, it looks like we'll be seeing a typhoon of anime-related movies in the coming years. Only a matter of time before Viz tries to get someone to make a live-action Naruto movie...

Well, Viz does have a movie division that tries to pitch anime and manga series into potential live-action tv shows/movies. So...

[The Overlord]

Also, there are plans for a live-action Afro Samurai movie. So yeah, there are a lot of anime movies in the planning stages....

Yeah in the planning stages, remember there were a lot of comic book movies that were in development hell for years at a time, so planning doesn't mean anything, when its in production, then you know things are rolling.

At this point, I don't think Hollywood knows how to handle manga adaptions, there are problems that don't exist with comic adaptions (cross cultural adaption issues, casting concerns,etc.) Speed racer was the first major manga movie and it wasn't a home run like superman was in 1978. Hollywood still hasn't gotten a handle on this yet.

[I.D.Will19??]

All I want to know is will there be any Asian/Asian-American casts in any of the upcoming live-action adaptations?

[Katsumara]

Our childhood/teenhood..slowly being destroyed by Hollywood. le sigh.

[The Overlord]

All I want to know is will there be any Asian/Asian-American casts in any of the upcoming live-action adaptations?

See this one major problem with turning Manga into movies, casting. Often you have a bunch of characters who have Japanese names and are supposed to be Japanese, but they don't look like Japanese people at all. Like who would you cast as Sailor Moon, she is supposed to be Japanese, but she looks like she is from Sweden.


Our childhood/teenhood..slowly being destroyed by Hollywood. le sigh.

This is problem number two with making Manga into movies, otakus are pretty well an unpleasable fan base. When a comic book movie is announced most comic book fans are at least somewhat happy and wait for more details till they cheer or compalin. When a managa movie is announced, many otakus complain instantly.

[Joe]

Like who would you cast as Sailor Moon, she is supposed to be Jaapnese, but she looks like she is from Sweden.

Personally, they barely look human

[The Overlord]

Personally, they barely look human

Well there's that too, but seriously Sailer Moon has blonde hair and blue eyes, she looks completely white, yet she is supposed to be Japanese. Who do you cast?

Casting a character with giant purple, spikey, hair is even harder.

Compare that to Superman, he's easy to cast, hire a white guy with black hair, who is kinda buff and your done.

[NewcomerDC]

(Joins thenewme93 and sets self on fire)
:D What's with everyone setting themselves on fire?

You know what? with Shymalan working on The Last Airbender, it would be funny if he was chosen to create the live action Naruto film.

As for the comments on the live-action American Death Note, will it be better or worse than the Japanese live-action films? With a good strong cast, it could be a possibility and with everyone saying that Zac Efron would make a good Light, it would be funny just to see him turn it down for the role to be given to someone else.

[HG Revolution]

I call this a year or two in advance:

People who don't know any better are going call this Ninja Scroll movie a rip-off of the Wachowski's "Ninja Assassin" movie. XD

[creativerealms]

See this one major problem with turning Manga into movies, casting. Often you have a bunch of characters who have Japanese names and are supposed to be Japanese, but they don't look like Japanese people at all. Like who would you cast as Sailor Moon, she is supposed to be Japanese, but she looks like she is from Sweden.
.

Isn't that also the problem with manga? They have Japanese names but don't look Japanese at all?

[NayokoKihara]

Like who would you cast as Sailor Moon, she is supposed to be Japanese, but she looks like she is from Sweden.

That's when you pull shortcuts such as: this (http://www.freewebs.com/superpgsm/group_pgsm.jpg) to this (http://patoescritor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pgsm_complete1.jpg) like they did with the Live Action "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" drama. (At least, in this case. I've never seen Ninja Scroll, so I don't even have an idea of what the characters look like. I do think they could've done better on casting in the upcoming DBZ film, though. It's kind of sad when an extremely petite teenage girl has more muscle than your supposed-to-be-musclebound main character.)

[garfield15]

So are they going to keep the "trees" scene?

No wait even better, the "conversation" scene.

EDIT: I actually saw PGSM. It was cute.

[defunctzombie]

Ninja Scroll? Aww man. :sad: That movie is great, I can't see how it will translate successfully into real life.

And the only way I can see them making a faithful GitS is if it has a hefty rating. :sweat:

[The Overlord]

That's when you pull shortcuts such as: this (http://www.freewebs.com/superpgsm/group_pgsm.jpg) to this (http://patoescritor.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/pgsm_complete1.jpg) like they did with the Live Action "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" drama. (At least, in this case. I've never seen Ninja Scroll, so I don't even have an idea of what the characters look like. I do think they could've done better on casting in the upcoming DBZ film, though. It's kind of sad when an extremely petite teenage girl has more muscle than your supposed-to-be-musclebound main character.)

You do realize that second picture looks really silly and is not the kind of thing most people would want to see in an Hollywood film.


Isn't that also the problem with manga? They have Japanese names but don't look Japanese at all?

Yeah, that's my point, how to cast something like that?

[Unwardil]

Ninja Scroll? Aww man. :sad: That movie is great, I can't see how it will translate successfully into real life.

And the only way I can see them making a faithful GitS is if it has a hefty rating. :sweat:

Nah, with CG they could probably get away with less no more than a 14a rating just by making all the violence cyborgy, so that while the HV bulets could still rip appart and dismember things all flashy, they just turn all the blood into some sort of viscous amber fluid and all the body parts into plastic and wires and junk. Could still look damn cool.

As for the nudity well, you can do cunning things with censoring to get around that while still heavilly implying nudity or do like they did with Major Motoko in Stand Alone Complex, where she has this sort of one-piece bikini thing actually built as part of her cyborg body so she can still do the whole walking around naked and invisible trick.

Actually as far as crossovers go, I think GITS is the best candidate on the list for something that might not complettely and utterly destroy the original for me.

[NayokoKihara]

You do realize that second picture looks really silly and is not the kind of thing most people would want to see in an Hollywood film.

Hollywood also generally has a much larger budget for these sorts of things. Obviously they would make it look better. It was just an example (using the show mentioned) to show you can make those kinds of things work.



EDIT: I actually saw PGSM. It was cute.
It was.