Mobile Suit Gundam Live Action Movie

According to Ain't It Cool News a "big Hollywood studio" has a deal with Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino to produce a live action version of the popular Mobile Suit Gundam anime series.

I have never really gotten into the series myself (mostly because there is just so much of it with all the spin-offs, that I just didn't want to get so caught up in a single series), so I don't have much more to say. But if you want find out more about what the series is all about, try out the Gundam "Official" site.

So there's going to be a Watchmen Movie too?

More big news! Alan Moore's phenominal superhero comic Watchmen which some argue is the greatest graphic novel of all time, is on it's way to becoming a new film produced by Paramount Picutres.

According to ICV2, the movie was first announced back in July. The first I heard about it was an artile today stating the the original director, Darren Aronofsky, has pulled out of the project and been replaced by Paul Greengrass of The Bourne Supremacy. Greengrass will be working with scriptwriter David Hayter of X-men and X2.

So what is Watchmen?

Here's a summary from Wikipedia:

The title is a reference to the Latin phrase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes", often translated as "Who watches the watchmen?". The story postulates a world, parallel to ours, in which superheroes actually exist; Alan Moore explores their impact on this society, and postulates a situation where unaccountable supermen arrange the lives of common people...

Plot: A right-wing extremist vigilante, Rorschach, investigates the murder of The Comedian, another costumed adventurer. This triggers another investigation that causes him to track down and interview his former associates, whom he believes are being targeted by an enemy who is out to eliminate the superheroes. In a world that has been drastically changed (Nixon is still President, the Vietnam War was won by the U.S., etc) by the superhuman powers of another adventurer, Dr. Manhattan, the team members start to reconsider who they are in the midst of a complex situation that seems to push events even closer to the brink of an impending global disaster.

It would suck if this movie turned out like the hack-jobs done to Moore's other graphic novel works -- From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Considering how complex and detailed the novel is, Paramount really has its work cut out for it.

And just in case any of you are wondering how this all connects to anime/manga (not that that stopped me from posting about the Sin City movie), Darren Aronofsky -- the guy who was originally supposed to direct Watchmen -- is set to direct a Lone Wolf and Cub movie.

OMFG!! James Cameron finally confirms BATTLE ANGEL ALITA movie!!

As far as I'm concerned this is bigger -- yes I said BIGGER -- news than the Sin City movie. After years of rumors and speculations, James Cameron finally publicly confirmed to NPR that he will in fact be directing a live action movie version of Yukito Kishiro's awesome manga and my all-time favorite comic/manga/story ever: Battle Angel Alita!

"The film will feature a fully CG rendered protagonist and the film itself will be filmed in 3-D." What the difference between CG and 3-D is, I am not entirely sure, but hopefully it will not be an entirely CG movie like Final Fantasy. To me, it just seems like having a CG character would minimize the emotional impact that the story should have.

I first caught wind of this 2 or 3 years ago when 20th Century Fox bought the www.battleangelalita.com domain name. Then, every so often, Cameron would hint at wanting to work on a BAA movie, but never actually confirmed when/if production would begin. Now, he says that production will begin this upcoming summer.

So what is Battle Angel Alita you ask?

Here's the word strait from Yukito Kishiro's official site:

Tiphares, the gigantic and mysterious mid-air city, covers the sky. Underneath, junkies and cyborgs live in the ruined city known as the "Scrap Yard".

Within the giant pile of ruble cast off from the city in the sky, begins the story of a girl.

One day in the Scrap Yard, and ex-Tipherean citizen and cybernetic doctor named "Ido" finds the partially destroyed body of a young cyborg girl. He names her "Alita".

Even after being restored by Ido, Alita has no memory, so she fights to recover her true self that is hidden somewhere inside her body. While helping Ido against a powerful enemy, Alita's ability to use the "Panzer Kunst", a long lost fighting technique, returns.

By fighting through various encounters in this sci-fi action epic, the cyborg girl, Alita, grows as a human being.

The original manga (known as "Gunm" in Japan) concluded after 9 volumes. Kishiro proceded to worked on a few decent projects including Aqua Knight and Ashen Victor. Then, in 2002, Viz released the english version of the sequel -- Battle Angel Alita: Last Order -- which is currently on the fourth volume. The sequel is actually a very extended alternate ending to the original series (as Kishiro was never fully satisfied with the original ending).

There is also an anime OAV called Battle Angel. The anime loosely covers the first 2 volumes of the manga. It is very good, and relatively popular in the US. But unfortunately what is popular in the US isn't necessarily so in Japan, so follow-up animation was never made.

As you might be able to tell, I am psychoticly in love with this series, so just like with anything else, I am praying to God that Cameron does this manga the justice it deserves.

Yet again...The Sin City Comic Con Trailer

Since the link to trailer that I posted before seems to be down, here is another link to the trailer which is hosted on another site. Plus, here's a cool little image [edit: changed image and description] from Sin City: That Yellow Bastard. As always, enjoy.

Stand Alone Complex Rocks the Cashba'

According to Anime News Network:

Saturday's premiere of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex ranked #1 against all ad-supported cable broadcasts among "persons & males 12-17, 12-24, 12-34 and 18-24." Cartoon Network saw an impressive jump of 294% among adult male viewers 25-49 during the broadcast, versus the same time slot the previous week.

If you missed out on Saturday and want to see if it's really as great as all that (which it is), the first episode will air again tonight at 1:00am.

New Howl's Trailer and Review

I'll make this one quick:

Dark Horizons has a new (XviD encoded) extended trailer for Howl's Moving Castle. And Ain't It Cool News has a somewhat positive review of the movie.

Enjoy.

Samurai Champloo Teaser Trailer

This is definitely a title that I am looking forward to: Samurai Champloo which is Shinchiro Watanabe's hip-hop martial-arts follow-up to the jazz martial-arts western sci-fi tv series Cowboy Bebop.

GATV is hosting a new teaser trailer for the show, and from the looks of it -- coupled with the latest early reviews (if that's not an oxymoron) of the show -- this is going to be a breakout hit when is reaches US shores. The first volume is scheduled for release January 11, 2005.

Broken Saints DVD Release

According to the Broken Saints website the DVD version of their 24-chapter ground-breaking flash-based internet epic will be on sale November 12.

If you have somehow not seen or heard about it, you can still view the entire series via their "classic" site. Otherwise, check out the very impressive trailer for the DVD.

Other than Casshern, more of the same...

IGN.com reports that Casshern, the live-action adaption of the 1970's anime Casshan: Robot Hunter, has been aquired for US distribution by Dreamworks. I've seen positive to mixed reviews for the movie. Regardless, after seeing at the beauty of the trailer, it's hard to not get excited about this one.

In other news, Anime News Network reports that the Appleseed movie will see limited theatrical release in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Miami on February 14, 2005.

According to it's official website, the Steamboy movie will hit US theatres on March 18, 2005.

Disney's February 2005 DVD release of Miyazaki's Porco Rosso, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and My Neighbor Totoro has been delayed yet again until some date not yet known.

And last, but definitely not least, don't forget that Fullmetal Alchemist and Stand Alone Complex are going to be airing on Cartoon Network this Saturday, November 6, at Midnight and 12:30AM respectively.