Don, a reader of the website Ain’t it Cool News, has supposedly sent in a complete review of the upcoming Dragonball live-action movie after watching a early version of the movie - without the additional scenes and with some unfinished special effects. Supposedly, at least according to Don, the movie doesn’t suck, which will be a big surprise to many.

Here is the introduction from his review:

Hello to all of you,

I am a huge fan of your site and constantly visit here but this will be my first time emailing you about something. I love geek movies because there is nothing better than a well made geek movie. Well after watching the 95-100 minutes (excluding credits) of the movie i say this movie was solid. Ya you heard that right. I simply love the anime but I was very very nervous about it being made by fox. After all the studio has been making nothing but shit lately. Another reason why I was worried about this movie is that the director is James Wong who made final destination 1 & 3 and The one starring Jet Li. What I watched had unfinished sfx and with no scoring done yet. Also… they will be adding one or two scenes which will be shot sometime end of october.

Don then goes over a big list of the positive and negative aspects of the movie, which I won’t list here because there are some spoilers. Check out the full review here. Remember that this isn’t an official review though, so could just be someone trying to screw with people.

Had everyone else already seen the screenshot I included with this post? Take a look at master Roshi’s shirt, f**k yeah!

ANN [via Variety] reports Warner Brothers, along with Appian Way (A production company owned by Leonardo DiCaprio), have acquired the rights to produce a Live-Action adaption of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll from Madhouse.

Alex Tse, writer of films such as Watchmen and The Illustrated Man, is slated to write script for the live-action adaption. Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Mike Ireland of Appian Way will produce the film in cooperation with Madhouse.

Warner Bros. and Appian Way have already acquired the rights to produce two live-action Akira films. Killoran also plans to produce that film.

Artist Chad Lakkis was apparently feeling rather anxious at the lack of news in regards to the upcoming Gears of War movie. While this film has had relatively no news, and a cast has not been chosen, what’s wrong with having a bit of fun? Taking up the role of The “Cole Train” is Lester Speight, who happens to be the voice of August Cole. Rounding out the cast is Val Kilmer as Damon Baird. Of course, what’s a film based on a shooter without Sarge himself, Dwayne Johnson as Dominic Santiago. Joining them as well is pro-wrestler David Bautista as Marcus Fenix and does he look the part. Full sized poster after the jump.
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With the release of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe coming, Midway has been fighting hard for a T rating. Unfortunately, that means one of the best Fatalities to ever exist… Will be toned down… Seriously. First up, for those who haven’t seen it, here is the video.

Sadly, that will not be the final product. Instead, we will still get the “BANG” prank gun, but we will not get to witness the final head shot. That will instead occur off-screen now.

Additionally, Kitana’s Double Blade-Fan’s fatality will also be toned down. Apparently, a blade fan in the torso was “A-Oh Kay” for the ESRB when preparing for a T rating. Unfortunately, the second blade fan to the head was a big no-no and equals M. As a result, the animation will now be two blades to the chest instead.

Apparently someone at FOX had a panic attack over the response, or rather lack thereof, to the trailer for the live action Dragon Ball film. The film is shipping back off for more reshoots. Good.

Let’s start with getting Piccolo Daimaō some color. The guy looks sick, and that’s not a good thing. I mean, he really looks sick. This guy needs to be green. Very Green. I mean, dark green. How about some Antennae as well? The guy is a Namekian, after all. io9 reports on this story and also has a list of suggestions for FOX.

Did the overwhelmingly “meh” reaction to the leaked Dragonball trailer cause some panic among the movie’s producers? Maybe so, because the movie is going back for some reshoots, and let’s hope they fix the pasty-white Lord Piccolo and weak fight scenes along the way. Here’s our list of suggestions for maximum DB improvement.

First and foremost, green up Lord Piccolo. I don’t care if you have to spend every single minute on the computer physically painting on CG greenness with your mouse, — fix it.

Goku’s hair — did we need it to be that much of a literal translation? I would have been ok with just a mussy up-do for Goku, this nest is a little much. How did this go through and not a green Piccolo?

And then there are the fight scenes. After watching the trailer, I’m a bit nervous that the fight scenes look kind of haphazard. Yes, yes this is a crazy out there movie where the characters should be able to stand in mid air for hours talking about life, but I still want it to look real. A few of the moments seemed a little “suspended in the wobbly harness” for me, and they’re not leaking enough energy. I’m not sure how the fight scenes will play out, but this may be a big obstacle for live-action anime. I say embrace the fist swooping close ups, power lines careening from the characters and the double takes, but just make it look intentional — not like the main character got stuck in his special effects rig.

According to Actors Status, the reshoots for Dragonball start on October 30th and they’re seeking Tibetan- and Nepalese-speaking actors. I hope everyone takes this as an opportunity to make some much-needed changes.

Fathom Events has been kind enough to give the Otaku Times two tickets for their upcoming cinema screening of Death Note: The Last Name, which we will be giving away to our readers as part of a prize draw.

The movie will be shown at a plethora of different venues across the US on the 14th and 15th of October.

If you would like to enter then simply leave a comment - preferably something intelligible - in reply to this posting and you will be entered into the draw. Winners will be announced on the evening of Friday 24th September most likely.  Please use your real email address when posting the comment, as it will be needed to contact you if you are one of the winners. Commenting multiple times will not increase your chances of winning.

Update (27-09-08): The winners have now been chosen - it wasn’t hard as only two people entered :P. Congratulations to Faust721 and Gigagomu for each winning a ticket to go and see the movie. Please check your inboxes and get back to me so that your tickets can be sent out.

While normally not within the scope of our coverage, this is one story whose implications are to important to pass up. Although in recent times, EA has lowered the restrictions in regards to the limitations presented by the SecuROM Digital Rights Management included with it’s release of Spore, there is little to no doubt that the damage has been done and consumers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. After all, Spore’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stifle piracy of the game.

In response to the unwelcome SecuROM DRM contained within Spore, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within U.S. District Court.

Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its “Spore” game, which “completely wipes their hard drive” and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court.

The class claims that “Spore,” a virtual reality simulation game, contains “a second, undisclosed program” called SecuROM, a “form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer games.”

Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if the uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is “secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations,” the complaint states.

[ GamePolitics ] - ^{This story is also available on The Super Soldiers}

The popular streaming video services Joost and Hulu have announced that they will be adding a number of new anime shows to their libraries. There will be a mixture of both subbed and dubbed shows, and a full list of shows that have just been made available, or will be available in the near future, is as follows:

Joost (available now):

Naruto (subbed)
Death Note (subbed)

Joost (coming soon):

Bleach

Hulu (available now):

Naruto (subbed)
Death Note (subbed)
Mushi-Shi (dubbed)

Hulu (coming soon):

Bleach
Basilisk
Black
Blood
Brothers
Kiddy Grade
MoonPhase
Peach Girl
School Rumble

Unfortunately both of these services have regional restrictions, so if you are outside the US there is no guarantee that everything (or anything) in the above list will be available.

Source: ANN

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As reported by ANN, Cartoon Network has ended the 11-year run of its Toonami programming block. Naruto was the only anime left on the schedule.

The Toonami Jetstream online streaming service will reportedly still continue, albeit under the branding “Jetstream”. It has also been reported that Cartoon Network is working to import the Japanese-animated Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z: A spinoff of the Powerpuff Girls series. To fill in for the now vacant timeslot, the live-action Spider-Man film will run instead of Toonami on September 27. On October 4th, Batman: Gotham Knight will be run at 8:00 PM after which an episode of Naruto will air at 9:30 PM.

Since 1997, Toonami has carried dozens of anime series including, but not limited too: “Voltron, Robotech, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ronin Warriors, G-Force: Guardians of Space, Blue Submarine No. 6, Tenchi Muyo!, Cardcaptors, Zoids, .hack//SIGN, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, The Big O, Outlaw Star, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cyborg 009, Duel Masters, Astro Boy, Gundam, Rave Master, Zatch Bell, One Piece, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Pokémon, MÄR, The Prince of Tennis, Megaman Star Force, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, and Blue Dragon.”

My Internet connection has been down for the past five days! It was tough, but somehow I survived. Anyhow, the reason for this posting is to belatedly announce the opening of the English language Good Smile Company website.

The website is a Mecca for figure fans, giving details of all of Good Smile’s new products (such as the popular ‘Figma‘ line of figures). For the rest of the otaku community it has an exclusive column written by Otaking Danny Choo, and it also demonstrates the latest iteration of his Mirai Gaia content management system - which is looking great. So go Check It Out, Yo!

Also, in other news, during my downtime I finally got around to starting work on a new otaku-oriented website of my own, and will hopefully be making an announcement about this soon.

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