Dragonball Evolution

Dragonball: Evolution
Directed by	James Wong
Produced by	Stephen Chow James Wong
Written by	Screenplay: James Wong Ben Ramsey Manga: Akira Toriyama
Starring	Justin Chatwin James Marsters Jamie Chung Emmy Rossum Chow Yun-Fat Joon Park Eriko Tamura Texas Battle Luis Arrieta Randall Duk Kim Ernie Hudson Shavon Kirksey
Music by	Brian Tyler
Cinematography	Robert MacLachlan
Editing by	Chris G. Willingham
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	Japan: March 13, 2009 North America: April 8, 2009
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Budget	$100 million+
Official website
IMDb profile

Dragonball: Evolution (produced under the tentative title Dragonball) is an upcoming 2009 American live-action film adaptation of the Dragon Ball franchise being produced by 20th Century Fox. The story centers around the adventures of the lead character, Goku, from his childhood into adulthood. The film began development in 2002, and is directed by James Wong and produced by Stephen Chow. It was released in Japan on March 13, 2009, and is scheduled to screen in North America and the United Kingdom on April 8, 2009. Actor Justin Chatwin was cast as Goku, and James Marsters will be portraying Lord Piccolo, the antagonist of the film.

Synopsis

Goku (Justin Chatwin) goes on a journey to find Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat) and gather the seven mystical Dragon Balls before the evil Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) can. Along his way, he meets Bulma (Emmy Rossum) who then joins him to help him in his mission. When arriving at Roshi's place, he is not welcomed with an embrace but has to fight Roshi. Roshi soon learns that Goku is the grandson of Gohan (Randall Duk Kim) and thus trains him to prepare him for the ultimate battle with Lord Piccolo to prevent him from collecting the powerful Dragon Balls.

Cast

• Justin Chatwin as Goku: A powerful warrior who protects the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominating the universe and controlling the mystical namesakes of the film.
• James Marsters as Lord Piccolo: The villain of the film. Marsters explained that this incarnation of the character is "thousands of years old and a very long time ago he used to be a force of good, but [he] got into a bad argument and was put into prison for 2000 years. It got him very angry, and he finds a way to escape and then tries to destroy the world." Marsters is a fan of the television series, which he described as being "the coolest television cartoon in the last 50,000 years [because] it’s got a Shakespearean sense of good and evil." Piccolo was intended to look handsome, but Marsters and the make-up artist chose to give him a decrepit complexion, having been trapped for thousands of years. Although the make-up process tended to take four hours, the first time it took seventeen hours to apply, and Marsters had difficulty breathing. Ron Perlman was offered the role of Piccolo, but turned it down to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
• Jamie Chung as Chi-Chi: Goku's love interest. Stephen Chow had been interested in casting Zhang Yuqi, whom he worked with on CJ7, in the part.
• Emmy Rossum as Bulma: She aids Goku after her father's Dragon Ball is stolen by Lord Piccolo.
• Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi: Goku's mentor.
• Joon Park as Yamcha: A desert bandit that aids Goku and Bulma on their quest. James Kyson Lee auditioned for the role.
• Eriko Tamura as Mai: She is a chief enforcer of Piccolo's and a shapeshifter.
• Texas Battle as Carey Fuller: A high school bully. He is an original character created for the film.
• Luis Arrieta as Weaver: A classmate and friend of Goku. He is an original character created for the film.
• Randall Duk Kim as Grandpa Gohan: The adoptive father and grandfather of Goku who teaches Goku everything he knows about martial arts.
• Ernie Hudson as Master Mutaito: Master Roshi's former sensei and the one who sealed Lord Piccolo away for centuries.
• Shavon Kirksey as Emi: A high school friend of Chi-Chi. She is an original character created for the film.

Production

An early teaser poster bearing the original title, Dragonball.

In March 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise. In June 2004, Ben Ramsey, who wrote The Big Hit, was paid $500,000 to adapt Dragon Ball Z. In 2007, James Wong and Stephen Chow were announced as director and producer respectively, and the project was retitled Dragonball: Evolution. Wong rewrote the script. The first full color image of Justin Chatwin as Goku was released in the 24th issue of Weekly Young Jump. Chow was a Dragon Ball fan, citing its "airy and unstrained story [which] leaves much room for creation", but explained he would only serve as producer because he believes that he should only direct stories he had created. 87Eleven, the stunt performance company that worked on The Matrix and 300, is working on the film. Ariel Shaw, who worked on Wong's entries in the Final Destination series and 300, is visual effects supervisor. Robert MacLachlan, who also worked on Wong's Final Destination films, serves as cinematographer.

Shooting began on December 3, 2007 in Mexico City, Mexico. Locations included the Universidad Tecnológica de México. From January 2, 2008 the crew shot at Durango. The crew will move to Estado de México in March for some shots at Nevado de Toluca. Shooting is also scheduled at Los Angeles, California. In adapting the Dragon Ball manga, the futuristic cities were kept, however, the anthropomorphic creatures and talking animals (such as Turtle, Oolong and Puar) were dropped. Many of the locations are very Oriental, and there will be some Aztec influence too, particularly from their temples. It was thought that Rossum would wear a blue wig to resemble her anime counterpart, but due to some promotional images, it was turned out that she would not be wearing a blue wig. Instead she will have her natural brown with a blue streak down the middle of her hair. Chatwin will not wear a wig as the director felt Chatwin's hair resembled Goku's. A large amount of Dragonball: Evolution was shot in an abandoned jeans factory, also located in Durango, Mexico.

Dragonball: Evolution special effects are being done by Amalgamated Dynamics, while the visual effects are being done by Ollin Studios, Zoic Studios, and Imagine Engine. The film will also have the anime style of fighting in Dragon Ball Z, such as ki energy waves and auras.

On December 9, 2008 it was confirmed that the theme song will be "Rule" by Japanese pop icon Ayumi Hamasaki. The choice was because director James Wong wanted the movie adaptation of a series born in Japan to be sung by a Japanese person and was particularly impressed with Hamasaki. "Rule" will be used as the theme song for every country's release.

The film was originally slated to be named Dragonball, however on December 10, 2008 a trailer was released using the name Dragonball: Evolution and Fox licensed the domain name "DragonballEvolutionMovie.com" indicating the film had been renamed.

Release

Dragonball: Evolution was initially scheduled to be released in North America on August 15, 2008, then moved to April 10, 2009 to allow time to do additional filming and post-production work. On November 11, 2008 it was formally announced that the film's release had been changed to April 8, 2009.

Though an American film, Dragonball: Evolution will be released in Japan on March 13, 2009, nearly a month before its American release.

Merchandise

A film novelization written by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon, Dragonball: The Junior Novel, has been solicited by Viz Media with a February 2009 release date. A 16 paged sticker book based on the film is being published by Viz on February 3, 2009. On January 19, 2009, Namco Bandai Games and 20th Century Fox announced that a PlayStation Portable video game based around the film titled Dragonball the Movie would be released in Japan in March 2009, with a North American release to follow in April. The game will include all of the major characters from the film and feature various playing modes, including an arcade mode for one-on-one combat, a story mode in which players will Goku through the film events, a mission mode where players attempt to complete specific tasks, and a training mode for practicing fighting moves. It will also offer an online battle mode.

Sequels

Actress Jamie Chung, who plays the role of Chi-Chi in the film, has revealed in an interview with MTV that 20th Century Fox is preparing to produce two sequels to Dragonball: Evolution. "We're signed on for two more," she clarifies. "Hopefully, I hope the movie does well. There's lots of places that Fox wants to go with this."

External links

• Official English website
• Official Japanese website