Any word on Akira?

[Brandon Fraley]

What do you mean no anime has translated well? I loved Speed Racer! Hated the look-- but was able to overlook it because I thought it was a genuinely great movie.

I haven't seen Speed Racer so I can't say either way, but that's definitely a controversial statement. I don't think you'll win that argument with most people by citing Speed Racer

 

[Tom Lowe]

you definitely won't win any financial arguments!

in a sense, you could argue that movies like 300 are sort of an example of manga working on the bigscreen, as graphic novels and manga are similar. Berserk, for example, could be marketed in at least a somewhat similar manner to 300, with ultra-violence, amazing visuals, etc, but with a ten times more epic storyline than the simple plot of 300.

the graphic novel adaptation genre might be drying up soon, through, with such a glut of those types of films. the Spirit bombed, it seems. maybe Sin City 2 will be good.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

the graphic novel adaptation genre might be drying up soon, through, with such a glut of those types of films. the Spirit bombed, it seems. maybe Sin City 2 will be good.

you think they're still making it? At this point I think they probably should just leave it alone. Like you said, there's a glut of similar movies, and the first was so acclaimed. If it were my movie, I'd rather see it's legacy intact as it is.

 

[Tom Lowe]

i don't know... it seems like sin city 2 has been in "production" for like 3 years or more. i'm not sure what its status is.

 

[liquidigital]

the graphic novel adaptation genre might be drying up soon, through, with such a glut of those types of films.

You may be right Tom. There's just so much saturation. The next wave is going to be video game/controlling human type scripts, more than a handful of Somali pirate ideas, human trafficking will continue after the success of "Taken." As a writer, I'm constantly trying to think of what's next. What's going to be desirable to a studio two years from now. Whether anime will weather the storm remains to be seen. I think Dragonball will probably bring in shitty numbers, but who knows? Too many contingencies for movie goers now. But I would love to see Akira come to fruition.

 

[Tom Lowe]

Certainly the market lacks good scifi these days, IMO. Let's hope that Star Trek does justice to that genre. The technology is here for scifi, but the vision is lacking in terms of scripts.

Big futuristic WW3-style epics are lacking, too. I guess Sum of All Fears killed off that genre.

 

[Jaime Vallés]

Certainly the market lacks good scifi these days, IMO. Let's hope that Star Trek does justice to that genre. The technology is here for scifi, but the vision is lacking in terms of scripts.

Big futuristic WW3-style epics are lacking, too. I guess Sum of All Fears killed off that genre.

World War Z will hopefully be awesome...:ack2: :zombie_smiley::hurray::coolgleam:

 

[Joseph Ward]

Marketing and Timing is just as important as everything else. Considering about half of a movies budget is spent on promotion and advertising.

 

[Kholi Hicks]

What do you mean no anime has translated well? I loved Speed Racer! Hated the look-- but was able to overlook it because I thought it was a genuinely great movie.

Speed Racer is americanized crap.

No video game OR anime has been translated appropriately. Death Note translation SUCKS, All of the REsident Evils SUCK.

Closest thing we have to good Video Game or Anime translations are Silent Hill and The Matrix, for ripping Ghost in the Shell hardcore.

The reason is that these guys have no idea wtf they're doing with the franchise and either go too hard into fan service or stray too far from the source material.

Shit, even our Legend of Zelda trailer was TOO MUCH fan service, even for an april fools jokebut we did that on purpose. As a fan, I can say that it would have sorely disappointed me, but as the content creator I'm proud of what we did with no money.

I hope Ruari breaks the cycle before Evangelion or Voltron hit. Ugh.

 

[Tom Lowe]

If James Cameron does Battle Angel, it is almost guaranteed to own.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Closest thing we have to good Video Game or Anime translations are Silent Hill

WHOA WHOA Whoa... you lost me there. That movie is in my top 5 worst movies ever made. It also holds the dubious honor of being the only movie I've ever almost fallen asleep to in a theater.

But... I will say was pure eye candy. Absolutely gorgeous look. Great sound design.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

yeah, and the matrix certainly doesn't qualify as a video game adaptation. I don't agree that Matrix ripped off GitS "hardcore" either. Not that there aren't similarities

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Especially if we start digging into the list of authors and stories which Gits pretty blatantly rips from.

Like begats like. I like philisophical socially hard-hitting sci-fi. Therefore anything I write is probably going to be very Philip K Dickish/Gibsonesque.

GITS was also great when it was called neuromancer.

Transhumanism extends beyond one film or book. It's been bandied about by thinkers and artists longer than the moving picture has been taken seriously.

 

[Kholi Hicks]

yeah, and the matrix certainly doesn't qualify as a video game adaptation. I don't agree that Matrix ripped off GitS "hardcore" either. Not that there aren't similarities

Come on, now. Matrix rips scenes right out of GitS. Call it flattery if you must. And I'm talking about video game, comic and anime. Not just video game.

And Silent Hill really was the closest most tolerable adaptation of any video game to-date. Then Lara Croft, then Mortal Kombat. Let me see, just off the top of my head, though, what sort of horridness we've had... Surely these aren't what you call good?



Street Fighter the Movie
Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li
Resident Evil (How do you mess this up?)
Resident Evil 2 (How do you mess it up again?)
Hitman (What?)
Super Mario Bros (Guilty Pleasure, but even I know it's horrid)
Double Dragon (Marc Decostas is a great guy, know him, but boy is that movie terrible)
House Of The Dead (No, please gahd no. A RAVE!?)
Alone in the Dark (Just retire already)
Doom (You really messed up here. Best part was the fight in the pit.)
Dead Or Alive (Boobs do not make movie good)

I haven't seen Max Payne, may On Demand it this weekend.
Far Cry adaptation? We'll see.

Shadow of the Collosus is coming? Serious FAIL I bet. Worst news an SotC fan could ever hear.

Some people I know just wrapped King of Fighters. Yeah. FAIL

We have Tekken coming soon. KNow some of the stunt guys working on that. Heard it was pretty FAIL.

Oh, and how about Jake G in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I heard Bruckheimer quote "Not since Lawrence of Arabia has something like this been done.". PFFFFFFFFFFT. Come on, if I don't see Jake G and Princess dashing across walls epically, it will FAIL.

BioShock's rights got bought up. If they manage to screw that up, well, wait. They probably will.

Castlevania? Come on now. Bet money it's a second rate Van Helsing. Oh wait, Van Helsing is ALREADY second rate. Expect gutter trash.

What can I say, I have NO FAITH in the elderly taking the games that I enjoy and turning them into movies. The best video game movie to date was what? THE WIZARD -- a movie about a kid that runs away to compete in a Super Mario 3 Time Trial Contest.

Just now they're getting the hang of it with Comic Icons. It took HOW long to get it straight? And with much much less respect being paid to video games because they don't have the same long-standing roots as Comic Book franchises, it ain't gonna get better until someone that knows how to bridge the gap grabs the reigns.

I seriously hope Ruari starts it with Akira. I suspect it'll be better than Evangelion. Which I can't imagine how you could make Eva any sort of terrible seein' how biblical the material is.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

oh, if "best game adaptation" doesn't imply "good movie" than you maybe right. I wouldn't be surprised if Silent Hill was better than Resident Evil or Doom. I do enjoy me some WIZARD though

OFF TOPIC: Just wanted to mention I LOVED Shadow of the Colossus. When I heard they were making it into a movie I had the same feelings I have about Akira. Both are Art films that cost $100million. Can't say I have much hope for either reaching much further than summer blockbuster status in the corporate studio system

 

[Kholi Hicks]

oh, if "best game adaptation" doesn't imply "good movie" than you maybe right. I wouldn't be surprised if Silent Hill was better than Resident Evil or Doom. I do enjoy me some WIZARD though

OFF TOPIC: Just wanted to mention I LOVED Shadow of the Colossus. When I heard they were making it into a movie I had the same feelings I have about Akira. Both are Art films that cost $100million. Can't say I have much hope for either reaching much further than summer blockbuster status in the corporate studio system

I mean, let's face it you're right: most games are based on popular media or medium of a different sort. But they all become their own entities, be they weird trips through someone's mind or zombie horror.

Left 4 Dead is an amazing game, but it's based on zombie movies.

I dunno, probably just asking too much because now I can't even conjugate my thoughts properly. I just want there to be some decent adaptations.

 

[Imran Farouk]

*sighs*

*sighs*

they were going to do a Halo one...think that went out the window...but the shorts done for it look pretty damn good i have to say.
I don't understand though the need to turn anime (Dragon Ball Z) and games into films that just turn out to be either serious disappointments or just don't follow the games as they should!
Comic book movies seem to be holding up their front...Watchmen was amazing and so was Iron Man...meh...maybe people should stick to comic books and books rather then games and anime...imagine turning Evangelion into a film..given they are appearently doing something with Cowboy bebop...:yikes:

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I wasn't saying other video game movies were good. Just that of all movies Silent Hill took the cake as being both terrible and dull. Without comparison. I would say every single movie on that list beats out Silent Hill for watchability.

House of the Dead - World's Best Directors Commentary Ever. I could watch it with Director's Commentary 100 times and never get tired of it. "See how he carries that box and makes it look heavy. That's the sign of a great actor." It's 90 minutes of the actor subtly insulting the director who is completely oblivious. Pure Gold.

Doom - I actually kind of like Doom. It's stupid. But at least watchable and kind of fun.

Din't really like the Halo Shorts. I like the director's other work just found the Halo shorts to be too indie. Too much shakey and not enough grit. There's docu-style and then there's just undirected randomness I didn't feel like the camera work was intentional enough even if it was shakey and handheld.

The problem I've seen with Video Game movies is they always choose games which had no plots to turn into Movies. While games that have excellent plots are completely skimmed over.

Also you forgot my favorite VideoGame -> Movie adaptation: Wing Commander. Corney as hell but I like seeing space ships blow up and that has some of the most interesting space combat. As eye candy it was fun. As a movie it's terrible.

EDIT: Oh yeah another Video Game Movie also makes it into my 10 worst movies of all time: Final Fantasy Advent Children.

EDIT EDIT: Personally I think most anime gets a 'free pass' on quality because 1) It's animated 2) It's subtitled. I don't think an American Viewer can adequately judge the acting and pacing when they don't speak the language. Just like everyone always says "Dubs suck"... maybe that's because the dialog is actually really bad but like a lot of screenplays is readable.

There are lots of stories which make for good reading but are completely rediculous when actually read aloud.

I think movies with subtitles are easier to pass off as good than a movie which actually has to be understood by the viewer.

 

[Tom Lowe]

This would take a serious budget and a director with incredible vision, but I have always thought a live-action "Nausicaa" film based on the storyline of the Miyazaki's anime could work. It's message is probably more relevant, needed, and understandable now than ever before.

 

[Kholi Hicks]

Also you forgot my favorite VideoGame -> Movie adaptation: Wing Commander. Corney as hell but I like seeing space ships blow up and that has some of the most interesting space combat. As eye candy it was fun. As a movie it's terrible.

EDIT: Oh yeah another Video Game Movie also makes it into my 10 worst movies of all time: Final Fantasy Advent Children.

WING COMMANDER? Wow, you went there.

And Advent Children was all fan service. It wasn't meant for anyone BUT fans, and it served it's purpose in continuing the legacy of Squaresofts (screw Square Enix) much-beloved Franchise featuring the spikey-headed one himself. But it amazes me how WING COMMANDER (the very thought of it makes my stomach turn) can be Corney and great Eye Candy but a Visual Marvel like Advent Children doesn't get the same?

Tsk.