Getting over the silly description given to this project (kind of hard to imagine a 2D live-action movie), Variety broke the news that the Ghost in the Shell manga / anime series will be adaptated into a live-action movie by Steven Spielberg's company DreamWorks. A movie which, obviously enough, will feature a certain amount of CG imagery, which would explain the pleonastic association of "3D" and "live-action".

Anyway, there's no point in getting over-hyped about this just yet, even if Spielberg himself would direct the movie adaptation (which is in no way official, at this time); and even though he claims that "Ghost in the Shell is one of [his] favorite stories". Keep in mind that we are talking about Hollywood here, and I seriously doubt that anyone there can adapt a Japanese franchise into anything other than a 3D pile of live-action crap. Like that future Akira movie announced a couple of months ago, most probably.

Yay, CAPCOM, our all-time favorite Japanese publisher. As we all know, amongst other exquisite gaming francises, there is this thing called Street Fighter, which will turn twenty real soon. For this awesome birthday, CAPCOM is preparing lots of goodies. Later this year, Street Fighter 4 will be released in Japan, bringing even more instant pew-pew action to all arcade fighting games fans out there.

We will also have a live action movie, set to be released sometime in 2009 (and no, I ain’t talking about that Jean Claude Van Damme bullshit that astonished us all due to its massive amount of gayness), and for that, CAPCOM confirmed the movie’s main cast.

Kristin Kreuk (whose hawtness is NOT debatable) will play our beloved “watch my foot as it breaks your neck” Chun-Li, while Michael Clark Duncan and Neal McDonough will make up for the usual lack of real men in this sort of movies. How good they will do it, it remains to be seen. The Street Fighter movie will be developed with the aid of Hyde Park Films, and it will be published by 20 Centuries and a Rabid Fox.

The official press release can be found here.

What? No Chi-Chi this year? Aw, bummer... I obviously couldn't care less that the Dragon movie itself is being delayed from this August 15, all the way to April 3, 2009 - according to this ComingSoon story. But Jamie Chung's loli character might have been a nice distraction from the hardships of our oh-so-stressful lives. *sigh*... Now I'll have to decide which anime to re-watch instead. Whatever shall I do!

P.S. On second thought, I shouldn't worry. My comrade will probably make me watch one of his stupid Rocky movies or some boring Jet Li pew-pew. Nem fáj!

This calls for a "WTF napkin"... Surely, you've heard of - and quite possibly seen - the classic anime, Akira. It's only one of the most influential (and brain damaging) animations in history, after all (does anyone actually have the balls to say they understood it?). So let me ask you - rhetorically - what the fuck are the Americans thinking, adapting it into live-action movies?! Indeed, fellow lolicons, the unthinkable was revealed by Variety (via ANN), who say that Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's money laundering production company Appian Way will be adapting Akira into two movies, the first of which is to premiere in the summer of 2009.

The way the filmmakers describe them is as "Blade Runner" meets "City of God". But with a cheesy hollywoodian twist, because there won't be any more "Neo-Tokyo", like in the original manga / anime. Oh no, to make things even more perplexing, the upcoming Akira movies will take place in "New Manhattan", a metropolis that was rebuilt after being destroyed 31 years ago. And hell knows what other changes they have in mind... Well, unless they decide to substitute that filthy biker gang with some hawt lolis, I really don't see any reason for this crap-film being made.

I haven't given this movie much thought since my comrade last mentioned it, back in May. But now that we have some pictures to feast our eyes upon, I might just keep a closer eye on Blood: The Last Vampire. Thanks to Twitch, we can present you with this lavish collection of photos presumably taken during the shooting of the film, and "leaked" on a Chinese forum. Among others, they are showing Jun Ji Hyun (Giana Jun) who plays the half-vampire loli Saya in the movie, and Koyuki (from The Last Samurai) as the vampire diva Onigen.

As a quick reminder, the live-action movie is an adaptation of Production I.G's Blood: The Last Vampire animated film from 2000, and it should premiere sometime this year.


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 Continue reading 'Blood: The Last Vampire Movie Photos'...

This week marked the premiere of the over-hyped Cloverfield movie (see the trailer on TVkon if you don't know what the fuss is all about), but it seems there's more to it than meets the eye on the big screen. Specifically, the Cloverfield Clues fansite noticed that there's already a Cloverfield: Kishin manga posted online by Japanese manga publisher Kadokawa. This is only the first chapter (from a total of four), and it's about a Japanese high school boy named Aiba, whose fate is tied to the apocalyptic events that take place in New York, in the movie. The next chapter will hit the internets at the end of February, but each time a new one comes out, the previous will be taken down. So enjoy it while you can, with the help of this rough translation from myOtaku.

The upcoming Dragonball movie has just moved out of my "ignore list", now that the actress playing Chi Chi (Goku's loli) has been revealed to be Jamie Chung, according to the Hollywood Reporter. You might know her already if you used to watch MTV's "The Real World", and recently it was also announced that she would star in some TV series called Samurai Girl.

But getting back on topic, let's not forget that Chi Chi is only about 12-years old in the original Dragon Ball anime (as opposed to her older self from DBZ), so hopefully this will also stay true for the movie. Granted, Chung will need plenty of make-up and some really tight bra to make her look like a loli... but meh, I guess a not-so-flat chest is fine, too!


More recent reports claim that filming will only being in January (once upon a place in Mexico), and that the Dragonball movie will be released on August 15, 2008.

This month. And the release is planned for August 2008, by the way, according to the rumormongers from Variety. In the Dragon Ball movie, Goku will be played by a guy who would be better suited for a generic loser-type anime male character, Justin Chatwin. Some might be familiar with him from "War of the Worlds", "The Invisible", or that TV show everyone's orgasmic about, "Lost" (me, I'm with the Gilmore Girlies). Piccolo will be played by James Marsters, who I must say is a great choice, indeed... for a gayish villain character.

The whole thing is directed by James Wong (Final Destination, X-Files), out of Twentieth Century Fox's corporate pocket. Oh, and imaginary sources tell us that the movie's budget is OVER NINE THOUSAND!

This is what happens when two seemingly opposed cultures merge. The girls at Tokyopop (at least, according to some info cleverly stored in the an(n)als of ANN), have announced their plans for a live action movie, based on the various boobies and panties spotted in Ikkitousen. The same sources that let this info slip are pointing out to a North-American production, probably because Tokyopop, tired of basking only in the glory of Japan, seeks to expand its tentacles (notice the irony) all over the continents. As in, a worldwide brand, not unlike some American animation companies that we grew up with.

Ok now, back to Ikkitousen, we all know the second season was masterfully censored, keeping us away from all the juicy parts. Not me, no sir, I have managed to get my trembling hands on the full-of-half-naked-fighting-chicks edition, and I can say to you, if the live action will be as loaded with upskirt snapshots as the anime, they may as well stamp it as hardcore (almost loli) porn. So we are looking forward to it.

Japanese TV dramas have yet to become a part of our usual program, but that may very well change this winter, thanks to a certain loli actress named Riko Narumi, aged 15. Her exquisite style of putting phallic symbols into her mouth - as pictured below - has already captured my wildest imagination, making me look with anticipation to her role in the upcoming Honey and Clover TV drama. In this new live-action adaptation of Chika Umino's manga (which also spawned two anime series in 2005-2006), Riko Narumi will play Hagumi - the shy and talented loli-student.

According to ANN, the show will premiere on January 8. And in a related story from a few days ago, they also passed word that Viz Media acquired the licenses for the live-action movies Honey and Clover, Love*Com, Nana and Nana 2. These will be released in the US from December and early 2008 onward.