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Justin Chatwin and James Marsters to Star in Dragonball Z Live-Action Adaptation

Source:  The Hollywood Reporter
Twentieth Century Fox is finally moving forward with a live-action adaptation of the hugely popular manga "Dragonball," casting the stars of the movie and setting a release date of next summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Justin Chatwin is starring as the hero Goku, while James Marsters will play the villain Piccolo in the sci-fi adventure, which will be directed by James Wong. The movie has been slated for a worldwide release date of Aug. 15, 2008.

Stephen Chow, the filmmaker behind Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, is producing.

The story follows an adult humanoid alien named Goku, who discovers that he was sent to Earth to blend in and destroy our population but instead elects to protect it from an oncoming alien onslaught bent on dominating the universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name.

"Dragonball" is one of the most successful Japanese cultural exports of all time. The manga, created by Akira Toriyama and published by Tokyo's Jump Comics, was adapted into graphic novels, video games and a phenomenally successful television series that ran in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. "Dragonball's" popularity also generated more than $4 billion in merchandising sales. In North America, the property was called "Dragonball Z."

Production begins later this year. Other major roles are currently being cast.

Dont't forget to also check out: Dragonball


25 Comments


December 21st, 2007 11:28am
yeh agreed, needs to buff up, but marsters isnt that bad after thinking about it, although he is exactly the character spike is in buffy, as vegeta is in dbz. he used to be evil, still kinda is, and ha a hidden goodness. also he spent his entirity of that show with gelled blonde hair...piccolo? whatever. and jamie chung has a bad image comparison with chi chi, at least justin just needs some protein and iron pumping lol
  (Delete)
December 6th, 2007 5:51pm
i just cant wait to see how they do the hair
  (Delete)
December 5th, 2007 9:07am
this is the 3rd time ive left this message but i just wanted to see peoples responses

as all of us know hollywood is on the brink of being completely dry with ideas. all it is nowadays is this stupid trilogy prequel sequel crap. all the movies known to man are being bought out and expanded upon. so in a sense i can see where most of you are coming from when you say this movie will blow. but look at the facts:
chatwin playing goku=lame
but
chatwin +training group 87eleven=huge buff kid with some positive outlook, it can be pulled off.

if any of you remember that movie volcano high with the kids with powers and the voices of all the rappers, you will see that the ki blasts in that (although minimal) have some serious potential. of course there will be some serious color changes to the blasts but wateva. any way, the movie can start out as the end of dragonball with goku beating KING PICCOLO, not sure if marsters will play the piccolo we all know and love, or his father who was evil. cuz remember piccolo came from an egg after his father was killed by goku. also note that the entire movie is about his as a teen and not the adult from Z. the movie could be about his teen battles with piccolo and towards the end show an adult actor as goku with the chi-chi character holding their son gohan. then they feel an earth shattering quake being raditz crashlanding and then piccolo coming to goku for help. i doubt vegeta and nappa will be in the move but if they are it will prolly be a flashback made by raditz when explainng to goku taht 2 more saiyans are on their way. unless marsters as piccolo gets beat in th ebeginning and gohan gets born and raditz shows up towards the end and gets beat, i really dont know. i think that if the movie is to be released on AUG 15 of 2008, we are all screwd cuz that is far too soon. i mean dont get me wrong i wana see it but if they do it right it should take longer. plus its being filmed in mexico so i really dont want to see a bunch of mexican kung fu masters bouncing around and stuff. but i also heard a guy from the hit tv show heroes has tried out for the part of yamcha. i dont wathc the show but i believe it to be the guy who plays andos or andros or a name similar to that.

all in all i have high hopes for this movie, but i am already prepared do to throw soda and candy at the screen half way thru
  (Delete)
December 5th, 2007 7:43am
agree James Masters does look like piccolo.
about Justin Chatwin, he could pass as goku but he needs to take a load of steroids.
too bad Brandon Lee, "BRUCE LEE SON" wasnt dead he would totaly pull it off as GOKU.
what im curious about whos going to play as CHI CHI she better be hot!!
  (Delete)
December 5th, 2007 7:41am
agree James Masters does look like piccolo.
about Justin Chatwin, he could pass as goku but he needs to take a load of steroids.
too bad Brandon Lee, "BRUCE LEE SON" wasnt dead he would totaly pull it off as GOKU.
what im curious about whos going to play as CHI CHI she better be hot!!
  (Delete)
December 3rd, 2007 8:29am
Mmmm !! If you look the story board, Vegeta is not on this film. The story tell about Goku fighting whit Picolo like the last battle of the DragonBall series. Vegeta appears just in the DragonBall Z series.

The poeple want to see, in real, the battle : Goku vs. Vegeta. Try to make this film whit the begening of the DBZ series and you can return to the pass,sometime, to explain why Goku is on the planet Earth.

Do this film whit some reality to. I dont want to see Oolong like a pig who can talking or a little cat in tower named Korin.
  (Delete)
November 27th, 2007 4:54pm
oops! i'm sorry! Chuck Norris and Jet Li!! my bad guys! i didn't mean to not capitolize your names!! please don't kill me!!
  (Delete)
November 27th, 2007 4:53pm
really, why must they destroy something which is so great!? it isn't possible to cast this movie the way it should be! bc only chuck norris and jet li are worthy to play any of these charecters!!!
  (Delete)
November 26th, 2007 1:40pm
Justin chatein is too scrawny to play goku, don't cha think? i mean honestly. he'll soil himself trying to go to super sayan.
  (Delete)
November 15th, 2007 8:19am
i just thought he looked like the character you spaz, anyways check this out and see what you think...
http://www.movieweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18610
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 5:23pm
Desde México he analizado cada blog de decenas de paginas, tanto americanas como latinas, y todos quieren que Wong (esperemos no haya sido escogido solo por el apellido), ya que tanbien es el escritor, no regrese a la infancia de Goku (kakaroto) sino se centre en la historia de los guerreros ´Z´. ¡every want that Wang!, Pasenle el recado, plis.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 5:14pm
yeah, just i hope that wong made "Dagon Ball Z" not ´Dragon ball´
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 2:36pm
to tomp1210:

Tyrese Gibson would be a horrible choice. Perhaps your love for Transformers causes you to think otherwise?

I'm open to these casting choices, and honestly, I'm more confident this will be great with Stephen Chow involved. It'll be interesting to see Spike play a Namek.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 12:47pm
3D??? yeah...i think it could be better in 3D, but why not wait and see...hmmmm
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 11:38am
heres the bottom line folks, chris judge as piccolo, or tyrese gibson, if marsters is to be cast then wong needs to open his eyes and use him as vegeta! and justin needs to buff up and get the character, clear in his head.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 11:30am
I agree with Frenzy, the cartoon might not transfer very well into live action. Would have been cooler to do it all in 3D or something like Final Fantasty Advent Children. It would probably work better.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 10:48am
I still don't know, I'm a huge DBZ fan, but I really don't think this is going to translate well to live action. Marsters is cool, I loved "Spike", but I can't see or hear him as Piccolo. I wish they would have let this stay as an anime, I think it's only going to hurt the name the show built for itself. Time will tell, I hope to see some trailers in the next year or so.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 9:29am
yo tomp you should pipe down man am just comment how i feel about this ok.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 9:01am
justin chatwin...he's Robbie in War of the Worlds...hmmm...Stephen Chow producing? hmmm...yeah, i guess i wanna watch this.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 8:23am
wow, erm how? transformers was good, that came from anime, yes it is the same, pipe-down cupidore lol. seriously tho, too many people trying to crucify something that could end up a legend.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 8:12am
dont care hows staring in it the movie is going to be bad.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 7:58am
The last fight of the third Matrix movie was very DBZ like.
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 1:03am
I wish i had james wong's e-mail, ffs, marsters would make an awesome vegeta, can u think of someone who is better suited, he is awesome as a bad attitude, from stuff like buffy, he occassionaly is a bit mopey in buffy, like in the broly movie, and for another thing chris judge has like the most fitting character for piccolo!!!! LOOK AT STARGATE!!!
  (Delete)
November 14th, 2007 12:22am
i know this could go either way, i think they got it wrong, coz they said they were doing saiyan saga, i think marsters is playing vegeta, cos ffs he should be, and chris judge should be piccolo!! justin chatwin could be good as goku if he gets the right look, and character
  (Delete)
November 13th, 2007 9:43pm
I don't know if this is good news or bad news.
  (Delete)

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