'Ninja Scroll' gets feature treatment

First it was akira now it's Ninja Scroll, too. Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way will be producing a live-action adaptation of the classic anime movie for Warner Brothers. Screenwriter Alex Tse, who wrote Zack Snyder's upcoming Watchmen as well as Michael Mann's upcoming Frankie Machine, will be writing the script. No director has been announced yet, but considering Akira picked up a no-name director, I expect Ninja Scroll to probably do the same. At one point, it was rumored that James McTeigue's Ninja Assassin was a Ninja Scroll remake, but that was quickly debunked. Now it's actually happening.

Ninja Scroll is a Japanese action thriller anime written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The film was first released in Japan in 1993 and made its way to the US in 1996, where it quickly became one of the most popular anime movies in US history. The anime is set feudal Japan and tells the story of a ninja-for-hire who is forced into fighting an old nemesis who is bent on overthrowing the Japanese government. His nemesis is also the leader of a group of demons each with superhuman powers. In addition to Akira, it's regarded as one of the best anime movies ever made and is just as popular.

One of the biggest questions surrounding this is whether or not all of the violence, gore, sex, and nudity will remain intact in this translation. I'm expecting that Warner Brothers will try to make this PG-13, but then again, it could very well be R. I'm thinking they're waiting to see how Ninja Assassin does in theaters, since that is a very hard R ninja movie. Either way, this is quite an exciting future for anime fans, with Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, and now Ninja Scroll all being converted into live-action Hollywood adaptations. I just hope this trend turns out to be more worthwhile than video game adaptations.

Spielberg Adapting Ghost in the Shell into Live-Action 3D!

After 19 years since its debut in 1989, DreamWorks has finally secured the rights to adapt the Japanese manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell into a 3D live-action feature film. Both Universal and Sony were also chasing the rights, but Steven Spielberg himself took a personal interest in it and made sure it ended up in the hands of his company - DreamWorks. Spielberg says that Ghost in the Shell is one of his favorite stories and is "a genre that has arrived and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks." This plays off of the announcement from February that Akira, one of the other heralded Japanese anime properties, is being adapted by Warner Brothers as well.

Street Kings screenwriter Jamie Moss has been hired to write the adaptation. Ex-Marvel CEO Avi Arad and Steven Paul, who originally brought the project to the studio, will both produce. A director has not been announced yet. DreamWorks president of production Adam Goodman enthused that Ghost in the Shell is a property "that epitomizes 3-D live-action motion picture possibilities." A production schedule has not been announced, however it's likely DreamWorks will be aiming to get this together to follow Akira's debut in the summer of 2009.

Created by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. Ghost in the Shell is a futuristic police thriller dealing with the exploits of Motoko Kusanagi, a member of the covert operations section of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission, Section 9, which specializes in fighting technology-related crime. Although supposedly equal to all other members, Kusanagi fills the leadership role in the team, and is usually referred to as "the Major" due to her past rank in the armed forces. She is capable of superhuman feats, and bionically specialized for her job - her body is almost completely mechanized; only her brain and a segment of her spinal cord are organic.

I'm a huge fan of the two Ghost in the Shell anime movies and am incredibly excited to see this finally come together under Spielberg's discretion. It looks like the new trend in Hollywood definitely is adapting anime and it looks like both Paramount (Ghost in the Shell) and Warner Brothers (Akira) have their big properties. I only hope that Jamie Moss is a talented enough screenwriter to maintain the brilliant subtleties and undertones of the Ghost in the Shell series and not turn it into a steaming pile of Hollywood crap. For now I'll remain confident and maintain my excitement as this project develops.

Source:FirstShowing

Dragon Ball Pushed Back to 2009

20th Century Fox has pushed back the studios' big screen Dragonball adaptation from August 15, 2008 to April 3, 2009. On the old date, it was facing The International, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Tropic Thunder and Wild Child, while it is currently by itself on the new date.

Written and directed by James Wong, the movie stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson.

Dragonball is based on the manga created by Akira Toriyama; the work was also turned into a Japanese anime series that played all over the world. It tells the story of an alien sent to destroy Earth, who has a change of heart and decides to join the humans in their fight against various aliens and bad guys.

Dragonball Movie Wraps Filming

On her official MySpace page, Emmy Rossum confirmed on Saturday that filming wrapped on Friday for 20th Century Fox's Dragonball movie, written and directed by James Wong. Rossum, who plays Bulma, said...

I've been so busy in Mexico finishing up Dragonball but we just wrapped yesterday so I JUST got home and this is my first opportunity in front of my computer to write to you. It's been nuts for about a month and a half working nights (on a schedule of about 5pm-8am) outside, but our spirits have been high and it was such a blast. I've missed writing to you but I've been exhausted after coming home from work early in the morning. I'm finally home (at least for a few weeks) and it's a mixture of happy and sad. Wrapping a movie is kind of like the end of school, you miss all your friends that you've bonded with so much but you are eager for a little rest and a break from all the hard work. I'll be starting work on something else in 3 weeks so I wont have much time to rest...

Adapted from the manga created by Akira Toriyama, the pic also stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson. The studio is planning to release the film on April 3, 2009.

Source:ComingSoon