Dragonball is an upcoming 2009 American live-action film adaptation of the Dragon Ball media franchise. 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 is scheduled for release on April 3, 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 embrace but he 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 orbs. ^[1]

Cast and characters

• 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.^[2]

• James Marsters as Lord Piccolo: The villain of the film.^[2] 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." He also confirmed Piccolo will retain his physical appearance from the anime. 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."^[3] 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. Piccolo was originally green, however, he is shown as a light yellowish green figure. Although the make-up process tended to take four hours, the first time it took seventeen hours to apply, and Marsters had difficulty breathing.^[4] Ron Perlman was offered the role of Piccolo, but turned it down to work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army.^[5]

• Jamie Chung as Chi Chi: Goku's love interest.^[6] Stephen Chow had been interested in casting Zhang Yuqi, whom he worked with on CJ7, in the part.^[7]
• Emmy Rossum as Bulma: She aids Goku after her father's Dragonball is stolen by Piccolo.^[8]
• Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi: Goku's mentor.^[9]
• Joon Park as Yamcha: A desert bandit that aids Goku and Bulma on their quest.^[10] James Kyson Lee auditioned for the role.^[11]
• Eriko Tamura as Mai: She is a chief enforcer of Piccolo's and a shapeshifter.^[10][12]
• 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.^[13]
• 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.^[14] She is an original character created just for the film.

The singer Mario was turned down for a part in the film.^[15]

Production

In March 2002, 20th Century Fox acquired feature film rights to the Dragon Ball franchise.^[16] In June 2004, Ben Ramsey, who wrote The Big Hit, was paid $500,000 to adapt Dragon Ball Z.^[17] In 2007, James Wong and Stephen Chow were announced as director and producer respectively, and the project was retitled Dragonball. Wong rewrote the script.^[2] 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.^[7] 87Eleven, the stunt performance company that worked on The Matrix and 300, is working on the film.^[2] Ariel Shaw, who worked on Wong's entries in the Final Destination series and 300, is visual effects supervisor.^[18] Robert MacLachlan, who also worked on Wong's Final Destination films, serves as cinematographer.^[19]

Shooting began on December 3, 2007^[20] in Mexico City, Mexico. Locations included the Universidad Tecnológica de México.^[21] From January 2, 2008^[21] the crew shot at Durango. The crew will move to Estado de México in March for some shots at Nevado de Toluca.^[18] Shooting is also scheduled at Los Angeles, California.^[9] 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.^[22] Many of the locations are very Oriental,^[23] and there will be some Aztec influence too, particularly from their temples.^[24] 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. Chatwin will not wear a wig as the director felt Chatwin's hair resembled Goku's.^[23] A large amount of Dragonball was shot in an abandoned jeans factory, also located in Durango, Mexico.^[25]

Dragonball 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, such as chi energy blasts and auras.

Release

20th Century Fox originally announced Dragonball would be released worldwide on August 15, 2008.^[2] In March, they announced they were delaying the film to April 3, 2009 as the original release date put it in competition with four other films,^[26] and to ensure that all of the needed special effects were completed.^[27]

Merchandise

A film novelization written by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon, Dragon Ball: The Junior Novel, has been solicited by Viz with a February 2009 release date.^[28] A 16 paged sticker book based on the film is being published by Viz on February 3, 2009.^[29]

References

External links

es:Dragon Ball (película) fr:Dragon Ball (film, 2009) ko:???? (??) id:Dragonball (film) it:Dragonball (film) lt:Dragonball (filmas) ms:Dragonball (filem) ja:??????? (????) pl:Dragonball (film) pt:Dragon Ball - O filme th:?????????? (????????) zh:??? (??)