Hollywood Anime Film Roundup

With the new year and the growing popularity of movies based on comic books, I thought I would do a round up of Hollywood films based on Anime and the status of them. In my opinion so far we haven’t seen anything but disastrous results. Speed Racer had too many bright colors and reminded me of playing CandyLand as a kid for some reason, and Dragonball: Evolution was one of the worst movies I have ever seen period.

Then there was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I actually liked it, as I was not expecting poetry from a Transformers movie, but then again, it could have been much better, one thing I hated more than anything was the Deceptican College girl.. Anyway, below are the titles that I know of which are based on anime or manga and are in some form of development.

Cowboy Bebop: Fox is moving forward with Cowboy Bebop which is set for a 2011 release date. Keanu Reeves is rumored to be starring with Erwin Stoff Producing. Hopefully Fox won’t turn this one into a train wreck like they did with DBE.

Akira: Scribes Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who worked on Ironman are working on the script and have completed a few drafts, but recently contributing writer Gary Whitta, has said that they have not worked on it for a year. If Warner Bros likes it, it will go into production next year. Its not known if Leonardo DiCaprio is still set to produce. Whitta also said that the film will follow all 6 volumes of the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, unlike the famous 1988 animated film that only really covered the first 2.

Ninja Scroll: the IMDB has this one set for a 2011 release date, and says that Leonardo DiCaprio is producing. DiCaprio has said that he would be interested in using SMAP members Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Goro Inagaki and Shingo Katorito to star, but would not act in this one or Akira himself. To that I say, not a bad choice, maybe someone in Hollywood gets it, as Leo, a big anime fan, has said that he doesn’t intend to use anyone other than Japanese people for Ninja Scroll or Akira.

Macross: Known as Robotech in the US – I haven’t heard anything on this one, other than Tobey Maguire is pretty passionate about making, and starring in this movie, but with Spider-Man 4-6 down the pike it doesn’t look like he is going to get the chance to take on another potential franchise. Thinking of this movie, by the way, think of this brings to mind the Jamie Foxx movie Stealth, which was a blatant Macross Plus rip-off if I’ve ever seen one..

Battle Angel Alita: James Cameron has been talking about making this movie for what seems like 10 years. He told MTV news that Avatar (which has been a box office smash despite mixed reviews.) would be a testing ground to see if a Battle Angel Alita could even be made with today’s technology. Even though I have not seen it, it seems to me, and from what I have heard, Avatar is visually stunning. Cameron plans to make Battle Angel Alita a trilogy if the first one is successful and have it follow the manga closely. Sounds good, but Cameron has also just announced 2 more Avatar sequels. This may push Battle Angel Alita for a few years at least.

Tekken: Not really an anime based movie, but since it has had anime and manga incarnations I decided to add it, but I must say, from what I hear, this film is awful. Complete with actors and actresses who you would never think to associate with the characters they are actually based on, a director (Dwight H. Little) whose credits include the gems Anacondas 2: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, and an incoherent story – Tekkenpromises to be one of the worse movies of 2010.

Ghost in the Shell: As of 2008, DreamWorks, who also did the US release for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence acquired the rights to produce a live-action film adaptation of the original manga by Masamune Shirow with Steven Spielberg directing. Avi Arad and Steven Paul are confirmed producers; Shutter Island scribe Laeta Kalogridis is currently writing a script. The live-action film is set to be released in 2011.

Voltron: The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment and Jason Netter’s Kickstart Entertainment has picked up film rights to the 1980s anime series and are currently looking for a screenwriter before they shop it around to studios. I remember the president of Fox Studios saying that when it came to Sentinals in X-2: X-Men United and X-Men 3: The Last Stand and Galactus in Fantastic Four 2: The Rise of the Silver Surfer – He will never allow giant robots in any movie his studio makes. But with the insane success of the Transformers franchise, attitudes seem to be changing and this one should be picked up by a studio quickly.

Neon Genesis Evangelion – The IMDB list this film as an Untitled Neon Genesis Evangelion Project with a release date of 2012 (the world end year.) There have been talks, and even concept art of a live action Neon Genesis Evangelion floating around the internet for years now, and this movie is still being pushed forward, however, there is no script, and again, like the Voltron film, ADV director Matt Greenfield has said the delay on the project is due largely to the Transformers movie: The studios wanted to make sure that a “giant robot” movie would appeal to an American audience. The negotiations between the U.S. studios and Gainax are being handled by Joseph Cho, who assisted in the production of “Appleseed: Ex Machina”, an animated film based on the Appleseed series, so Mr. Cho has previous experience in dealing with studio types. It is also reported that this film will cost over 100-120 million dollars to make, of which Fortune Magazine has reported ADV Films has raised half of that. There has been no official announcement in about a year though, and the current status of the film is unknown following the sudden collapse and asset sale of A.D. Vision on September 1, 2009.

Gatchaman: Is scheduled for a 2011 release and will be in animated CGI created by Imagi Animation Studios (the company that did TMNT) in association with Tatsunoko Production and Warner Bros. Pictures. The film will have a PG-13 rating and a 110 million dollar budget. Here is a trailer for the film that was recorded at Anime Expo ‘09.

Gigantor (T-28): Hikari Productions and IMAGI launched a teaser trailer for this one, however they have stated that further production on T-28 would depend on the world wide success of Astro Boy which as of this article has only made back ,159,327 of its 65 million dollar budget.

Dragonball 2: Reborn: Despite no positive reviews, fans hating it, and the French holding a funeral for Goku here, it still brought in about 60 million dollars worldwide, not including DVD sales (the movie only cost about 20 million to make.) A script has already been written, but it is unknown if DBR will be a sequel or a remake. But I am guessing it will be another Train Wreck.

Thundercats: Thundercats is an american cartoon produced by a Japanese studio in America. However, watching this when I was a kid, and it being one of my favorites I had to see what I could find on it. Unfortunately though, the CGI film, which was supposed to be an original story that expanded on elements of the first episode, has been shelved, probably due to the failure of Speed Racer…