Sneak Peek of Dragonball Z movie from Japanese fan site.

Hollywood has discovered what Japanese and scores of American fans already knew that Anime and Manga is hot!  For those of you who don't know- Anime is  (アニメ, Anime^?) (pronounced [anime] ) in Japanese, but typically pronounced /ˈænɪmeɪ/ or /ˈænɪmə/ in English) is an abbreviation of the English word "animation", originating in Japan through the roots of manga.  Although the term is used in Japan to refer to animation in general, in English usage the term most popularly refers to material originating from Japan, a subset of animation.  It is traditionally hand drawn, but computer assisted techniques have become quite common in recent years. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, and internet-based releases, and represents all genres of fiction.

Manga (in kanji 漫画; in hiragana まんが; in katakana マンガ, Manga^?) is the Japanese word for comics (sometimes called komikku コミック) and print cartoons. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II but have a long, complex history in earlier Japanese art.

Either way the content from these hit comics and animated cartoons alike are coming to the big screen.  Everyone knows about Speed Racer in theaters now.  Then there is Dragonball Z starring Justin Chatwin (from War of the Worlds) this new written by director James Wong is due in theaters April 8, 2009 tells the story of of Goku, a young man locked in a struggle with the evil Piccolo (James Marsters) over some mystical globes known as 'dragon balls'.  Fox studios who is distributing the film is keeping the production tight lipped.  However if you are still curious you can cruise on over to Myspace and dig around where one of the movie's co-stars drops in from time to time to give every body a scoop. 

AKIRA: Stephen Norrington (LXG) will direct a live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga Akira for Warner Bros. James Robinson and Stephen Norrington are the screenwriters and Jon Peters (Batman, Batman Returns) will produce. The project seems to be on hold and no date has been announced. Set to be released in 2009

Imagi Animation Studios announced that Freddie Highmore will be providing the voice of Astro Boy in the upcoming CG-animated motion picture adapted from Osamu Tezuka’s manga of the same name.  The young english actor has build a solid track record playing the wide eye wonder kid in many family oriented films, the most recent is The Spiderwick Chronicles.  He is also no stranger to voice acting with roles in Arthur and the Invisibles and The Golden Compass.  Not a bad choice, I think he would fit perfectly as the heroic robot boy. 

Warner Bros. Pictures plans to release Astro Boy worldwide in 2009.

There's more to come and I will keep you guys posted!

There are no comments to this entry.