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Dragonball Evolution
Director: James Wong
Release Date: April 8, 2009
Starring: Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Joon Park, Eriko Tamura, Randall Duk Kim, Texas Battle, Ernie Hudson, Chow Yun-Fat
Language: English
Country: United States
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Dragonball Evolution is an 2009 American live-action film adaptation of the Dragon Ball media 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 is scheduled for release on April 8, 2009. Actor Justin Chatwin was cast as Goku, and James Marsters will be portraying Lord Piccolo, the antagonist of the film.
James Wong adapts the rich mythos of the Dragonball series that grew from a manga into various popular animated series with this 20th Century Fox production starring Justin Chatwin. The plot revolves around Goku (Chatwin), Earth’s greatest champion, who must defend the planet against an invading race of alien warriors hell-bent on dominating the universe. Wong directs from his own script, with Kung Fu Hustle’s Stephen Chow producing. Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s James Marsters co-stars as the film’s villain, Piccolo, with Jamie Chung playing Chi Chi and Emmy Rossum portraying Bulma. Hong Kong legend Chow Yun-Fat rounds out the cast as Master Roshi, Goku’s mentor in the film.
The story begins with Goku, who seeks out upon his adoptive grandfather Grandpa Gohan’s dying request to find the great Master Roshi and gather all seven Dragon Balls. Of which he has one, in order to prevent the evil Lord Piccolo from succeeding in his desire to use the Dragon Balls to take over the world. And Goku’s quest is to obtain the mystical Dragonballs before Piccolo does.
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.
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 Dragonball 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. 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.
On December 9, 2008, it was confirmed that the theme song will be “Rule” by Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki. The choice was because director James Wong wanted the movie adaptation of a manga/anime 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 score to Dragonball Evolution was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded his score with an 82-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.
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 Dragonball is stolen by 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.
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