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After not hearing about it for quite some time, we’re finally getting news on the live action Hollywood adaptation of Akira. No longer is it under the production of Appian Way, DiCaprio’s production company, but under the watchful eye of Warner Bros. The old preliminary script has also been scrapped and a new one is in the works by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, better known for their work on the immensely thrilling and tense Children of Men.

At least now it feels like the franchise is under more expert hands. Maybe it wont be turned into a half-assed teenage angst flick with a Linkin Park soundtrack, which months ago we explained in the above picture. Children of Men had a fantastic script, mature and sensible, we can only hope some of that makes it through here. If said script ends up getting the green light we’d see the film produced next year and hitting the big screen as early as 2011. I’m confident by 2011 our CGI technology will be capable of photorealistic giant mutant babies, otherwise why bother?

As we await for the squad based Halo 3: ODST, Microsoft has treated us to an extended viewing of their previously 1:30 TV Ad Spot. While there is the on again/off again Peter Jackson film of Halo. I sit and wait desperately hoping it will come true. I don’t know if the hype surrounding ODST is warranted, but I look forward to more well designed commercial spots.

Hoping to catch Blood: The Last Vampire in all its live action goodness this summer? We’ll you may just be out of luck. Samuel Goldwyn Films is only doing a very limited theatrical release of the film in the US. When it debuts on July 10 of this year the movie will only be showing in 9 theaters in the US Check the list to see if you’re in luck.

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Explosions coming from every corner of the frame? Check. Torched cars barreling through the air? Check. Dozens of bullets blanketing the screen? Check. Could this perhaps be the latest action-packed film from Michael Bay?! No, surprisingly its not. Its Gamer from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. You know, Neveldine and Taylor. The gentlemen who brought us Crank and Crank: High Voltage.
Didn’t see them huh? Don’t sweat it, neither did I. That’s not to say they weren’t any good…I just never got around to seeing ‘em.

The duo’s latest film, Gamer, takes place in the not too distant future and follows Kabel (300’s Gerard Butler), one of many death-row inmates forced into participating in “Slayers”: an ultra-violent multi-player online game created by the reclusive twisted billionaire, Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall).

In Slayers inmates are controlled remotely through by high-paying participants using a pseudo-virtual mind control interface. To Kabel’s highly-skilled controller Simon, and the other paying customers, the inmates are nothing but disposable sacks of flesh that serve as a form of entertainment. Not only for them, but for the millions who tune in to watch Slayers online each week. However, to Kabel, Simon’s skill might be the key he needs to put a stop to Slayers and eliminate Castle.

Now if the core premise of inmates being forced to run a gauntlet of death and destruction in exchange for huge ratings sounds at all familiar to you, that’s because its been done before. You may recall a little film from 1987 called The Running Man which is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

Rather than sit around twiddling your thumbs while you wait for Lionsgate to release Gamer into theaters later this year on September 4th, perhaps you can ponder some of the following questions:

Pending Gamer warrants a sequel, I’ll bet dollars for donuts that they use a videogame-related term(s) in the film’s title. I can see the possibilities now: Slayers: Time Extended. Or Gamer: Powered-Up.

[FirstShowing.net]
[Gamer - official site]

While summer of 2009 isn’t a solid release for the U.S., Blood: The Last Vampire will open internationally in Japan on May 29, June 12 in the U.K., June 17 in France, as well many other European countries.  We’ve been following Blood since the teaser was first posted and it’s nice to see they plan to release it across North America. This is one of many anime adaptations, getting the Hollywood treatment. Recent reports also hint that Warner Bros. plans make an American version of Death Note. 

[KungFu Cinema]

So Dragonball Evolution came out, and as horrible as the movie was, it could have been much much worse. We survived and now there’s only about a dozen more anime movies in the making to go through, right? Wrong, it doesn’t end here! With Dragonball Evolution having been a moderate success worldwide and the movie already turning profits, the Hollywood tycoons aren’t going to give up. That’s right, there’s a sequel, and its already written.

When talking to MTV news, Justin Chatwin revealed that a sequel for the movie has already been written and its only awaiting a green light depending on the success of the Evolution. Furthermore Spike the Vampire… I mean Piccolo himself, James Masters, has stated that:

“We’re going to get to ‘Dragonball Z’ later, where Piccolo becomes youthful and he’s going to become the Piccolo that most people recognize.”

So are we looking at a second part based on Dragonball Z’s first act? Will we get to see Vegeta and Napa? Will its profit level be over 9000?!

Whenever we learn something more about Dragon Ball Evolution 2 we’ll be posting it on our homepage, so be sure to subscribe to our site for updates on Dragon Ball Evolution 2. You can get our updates via email or RSS, it’s free and easy!

[MTV]

Unlike other less reputable anime live action projects, the long awaited Blood: The Last Vampire live action movie actually looks fucking awesome and… you know, looks like the original. It looks amazing to say the truth, Jeon Ji-hyun knows how to don the schoolgirl outfit. The film will see a May 29 release date in Japan, so you can expect a subbed version within the week. No US release date has been announced for this film, but with schoolgirls kicking ass with katanas in a skirt well, it wont be long until there’s one.

[ANN]

Time for the latest disaster in the Dragonball live action movie production. Apparently a picture showing Goku in his Oozaru form got leaked to the internet which you can see above. Its getting a lot of flack and for good reason! You see Oozaru is Japanese for ‘Big Monkey’, that’s a pretty simple description. Its a monkey… and its big, what could go wrong?

Well, somehow they managed to fuck it up and turn it into another Ivan Ooze / vampire lookalike! What the fuck?! FOX has replied saying that this was merely a test for the Oozaru form, which is another way of saying “’this was the real deal until everybody started yelling’. So in the spirit of making things better, or at least more faithful I took the liberty to fix this ‘test’ Oozaru. See it fixed after the jump.

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Big news conglomerate IGN reports that the premier for the Dragoball live action movie has been moved closer by a couple of days. April 8 is the new date. Supposedly moved for strategical reasons the movie will be competing against the Hannah Montana movie that week. A smart move to make the movie look better? An all out competition with Hannah Montana for the bad movie crown? Only time will tell.

[IGN]

It seems we simply cant escape the hunger Hollywood has for turning anime into live action flicks. Warner Brothers has recently bought the rights to Ninja Scroll, much like a sick rich man buys a 12 year old bride from some poor village. The ninja epic is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, who are also producing the Akira live action adaptation, with the screen adaptation being written by Alex Tse, who did the Watchmen adaptation.

Now I’m going to do the obvious thing and say that this will turn out badly, but not for the usual reasons. Its not that Hollywood will turn this timeless classic into a bastardized action flick. It’s because Ninja Scroll was a really cheesy ninja story that could only be considered as acceptable in anime. Once you put real people in those roles it instantly becomes an unbearable cheesefest. You’d think they would have learned after video game movies… Oh wait they are still doing those too.

[Variety]