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Lupin III Coming to Hollywood
Secret anime ninja writes "A story in today's Toronto Star says, "Master thief Lupin the Third, a comic book hero in Japan for more than 30 years, will soon make his Hollywood debut." The story goes on to say that it's been optioned by the producer of Minority Report, Schindler's List and Jurassic Park." Lupin III is currently airing on Cartoon Network and several Lupin movies are available on DVD. Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Miyazaki is a great movie.
for those of us not in the know, anyone wanna step up and fill us in a bit about this?
What im wondering is how much money they'll be able to make off the crazed American anime fans. Are there more than i think?
John Hancock
Castle of Cagliostro is an excellent anime movie, with lots of humor and action.
Recommended!
As for life-action: we'll see it when we see it... I doubt Hollywood can do it, the character of Lupin the 3rd doesn't seem to fit any of their stereotypes.
Bloody lupins!
First american movie based on a japanese anime based on a french book (arsene lupin).
Will a french adaptation be made after that?
It is indeed from the 70s, or most of it is anyway. Many, many changes were made by the dubbers. This would be acceptable perhaps if the actual dub was good, but alas it is not. I'm a huge Lupin fan but I couldn't make it through more than about 15 seconds of the CN version.
jello.
aka aron.
I think they would have trouble finding people with legs that skinny.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
The artist leaving artistic control in the hands of a Hollywood producter? Boy, I can't wait! ...Am I the only one who smells disaster?
It is often hard to derive Japanese art and not lose that something that made the movie enjoyable.
I hope Hollywood does a better job with Lupin than with The Ring... I don't have much hope, touch, since Lupin is 1) animation and 2) based on humor.
Maybe it will be better than scooby-doo...
Karma cannot be described by words alone.
And shoes that big. And eyes that big. Man, I hope it's animated.
However, it's being renamed Lupin to accommodate the foolish americans who haven't seen Lupins I or II
I have it on good authority that this will be distributed by Dennis Moore.
I've been watching the cartoons on cartoon network. I get the sense that it was probably really funny in its original japanese, but it's all lost in the translation, and whats left is sort of a lukewarm and lame attempt at humor.
Humor just doesnt translate like action does.
The premise is solid enough to make a good movie. Just so long as some good writers write a good script in english, and dont try to translate some old scripts.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Man, I just can't but help thinking "sellout" when I read that article. Kato says he'll leave artistic control to the film professionals. Ouch. I don't like the way hollywood does anime. =(
Lupin and his gang will save some Jews from the Nazis and steal some fertilized dinosaur embryos, but are finally captured when Zenigata uses some prescient bald freaks who live in a quantum hot tub to finally get their man.
Thanks to Cartoon Network, I've been able to finally see the Lupin III TV series. Despite it's dated nature and the modernization of the dub script (tons of modern refferences), I find the show enjoyable, and watch it damn near religiously.
But a live action Lupin movie? And from Hollywood, no less? Has anyone here seen G-Savior?
I think that, because it's Lupin, I'll hold on to a little hope that the fruitcakes in Hollywood won't mangle it, but I'm afraid that my hope is misplaced. They might try a live action "Cogliostro," which wouldn't be bad, but would probably insult the greatness that is Haiyo Miazaki (just like I'll bet they'll snub him at the Oscars).
Another sad option is that they'll try to turn this whole thing into another "Hudson Hawk." They could try to turn it into an action flick (almost making Jigen and Goemon the stars as opposed to Lupin), but then they'd offer the part to not-so-awesome "action stars" like Vin "I Look Good Standing Next To Hot Cars" Diesel or Duane "The Rock" Johnson.
If Hollywood were smart, they'd drop the idea entirely. But they're not smart, they're money hungry, so they'll jump all over it and turn it into overproduced fluff. Still, I have hope that somehow, someway, by some wild twist of fate, Hollywood can overcome it's current stigma and actually make a good flick based on an excellent Anime...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
If they just translated it word for word, it'd probably make little sense and virtually none of the jokes would survive.
Puns and wordplay and snappy dialogue doesn't translate.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
However, Cliff Hanger was a very close second. Space Ace was a tad bizzare.
I wonder where you can find those old games to buy.?. hmmm.....
Hollywood getting a crack at a Anime Movie. It is better than selling the rights to Disney. Honestly, if it is animated, they are probably going to either
1) Port over one of the movies and dub it all to crap, probably casting either Hollywood's bigshots, or some no-name actors/actresses.
2) Redo the entire thing in American Animation, screwing around with all of the character's backstory and personality until they have no relation to their Anime counterparts, AND probably casting either Hollywood's bigshots, or some no-name actors/actresses.
I do wish Hollywood the best of luck with creating Lupin. I do plan on seeing it when it comes out and hope for the best. But, judging from how they are doing American Comics and Games in the Movie Genre, I do not think the Import "Lupin the III" would be as great as most anime fans want it to be.
Oh, and before I forget, one of the Lupin Movies is own by Miyazaki (sp?). If he owns it, than Disney definally has it (Seeing as had they brought all of the rights to all of Miyazaki anime movies), which means that Disney might try something to get in on this Lupin Movie Action. Scary thought to see Hollywood and Disney duke it out over some Anime 007. Eh, what can you do?
The Galatic Freedom Force marches on! Defend!
Lupin III was also used to make the classic 80's videodisc game, Cliff Hanger.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Then you watch something like Cowboy Bebop and you regain some faith in the system.
Bringing it over dubbed and edited can still be good, but only if the company doing it is competent.
Overrated Moderation: This posts sucks... because.
That's news to me, I always heard him referred to by his penname.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Am I the only human being alive who actually likes Hudson Hawk?
If you've never heard of lupin before head to www.lupinofficial.com to catch a glimpse. It's the official website pioneer set up to advertise the tv/dvd showings of the original lupin tv series on CN. You should be able to watch it Monday through Thursday nights at midnight + 1/2 on cartoon network. Before it starting rerunning episodes (because it takes awhile to dub new ones) me and my friends watched it religiously. We also watch every movie we can get our hands on. Lupin is absolutely hilarious. A great party anime.
And I quote
Ahhhh, the old exploding bear trap on the ass trick!
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D'oh, talk about Pop eating itself. Because you known that after the movie comes out, some idiot will option the comic rights to the movie. And then we'll have the comic book of the movie of the anime of the Manga (comic book).
Didn't "Road to Perdition" have a comic come out, based on the movie, which was based on the comic book?
Check out http://www.anime.com, scoll down to the bottom, click on Feb2003, and the first pick will be Lupin for all those who want to get the DVDs.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I know this is heresey, but I don't think that The Castle of Cagliostro stands up with Miyazaki's best work. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, but his best stuff seems to be suffused with a kind of human warmth, a real fondness for and understanding of people, that doesn't come through in Cagliostro. It's not that Cagliostro is a bad movie -- it's not -- it just doesn't seem to have the force of some of the others.
For me the definitive Miyazaki scene is in Tonari no Totoro, when they're at the bus stop, and Totoro shows up. That moment when they're standing there in the rain, and she loans him her umbrella. There's so much that's good in that moment -- wonder, kindness, etc. -- and it all fits together perfectly.
I really loved the Japense version...the american remake seemd like it was trying to hard too "gross out" the audiance.
I'm not really looking foreward to a live action Lupin 3 movie, since I'm a huge fan of the manga....and live action just doesn't seem to fit.
click me
I'd rather see a live-action Cowboy Bebop.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
John and Lionel Barrymore, in 1932, starred in Arsene Lupin (with John as Lupin and Lionel as the plodding detective).
Obviously, this version was based directly on the original French work. Not a samurai in sight.
---Any philosophy that can be put "in a nutshell" belongs there.---
No, actually it's pretty damned mediocre, both for Miyazaki and Lupin. Of course, it's hard to keep it fresh with 20-something movies and over 100 TV episodes, all with the SAME plot and jokes.
Still, for my money, In Memory of Walther P-38 is a far better example of Lupin done right.
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Calm down.. I agree this is on topic; however, you can't expect everyone to know that Cliff Hanger was a laser disk game that used footage from the Lupin III movie Castle of Cagliostro.
Lupin - I 've got no good ideas. Based on looks, maybe David Schwimmer? (note: he can do way more than Ross from Friends)
Jigen - Edward Norton
Goemon - Hopefully someone Japanese. Or at least Asian. Who was the guy they used for the first Onimusha game? Or maybe Robin Shou?
Fujiko - With a name like Fujiko, you'd have to go with an Asian, though the character looks caucasian... I hate to say change the name...
Zenigata - Fortysomething, Japanese? I really don't know many Japanese live action stars. Sonny Chiba?
What do you think?
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
"That's not a lupin!"
(whips a plant from back of belt)
"This is a lupin!"
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
...that everytime Hollywood uses a much loved idea from other source I get this cold shiver down my spine? ;) Seriously, wouldn't you be worried if Disney decided to do their own version of Spirited Away or Princess Moanoke instead of just getting distribution rights?
;)
Hmmm.. didn't they do that with The Lion King? I'm pretty sure I've seen a series of a similar theme out here that predates the movie... could be wrong though... I may live in Japan, but I still can't read Japanese
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Outside Japan, they had to distribute the Lupin III anime with an alternate name, Cliff or Wolf (the latter being closer to the original as lupus means wolf in latin).
;-)
Anyway story-wise the guy is supposed to be the grandson of Arsene Lupin, hence the number. However, the actual grandson of the original French writer has sued companies airing it for usurping the name, which was settled by changing the character's name.
So, I wonder what kind of deal they have to release a "Lupin III" movie.
Before anybody starts whining that copyrights are bad, just remember that they're going to turn Lupin III into a commercial trademark (it already is in Japan), so it's like Hollywood making millions by distributing "Linux: the movie" and trademarking the name...
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I'm just waiting for Disney to buy it and call it Disney's Lupin. Cus like yeh dood we created it :)
Ah, so you're one for the "Everybody but the main cast must DIIIEEE!" style. ;)
Personally, I had the most fun with "To Hell With Nostradamus!", despite the token cute kids.
I still want to see "The $1 Money War", though.
--
Why can't Hollywood leave Japanese filmakers alone! Are we being punished for the lack of talent in Hollywood enough with 'The Ring' remake and the adaptation of Battle Royale?
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
The Patrick O'Brian series I love -- "Master and Commander," due this Nov, is the source of endless hope and fear among fans -- took forever, with O'Brian getting option money for years and years with no film in the works. O'Brian died before anyone went ahead on a movie.
My former brother-in-law has had the option on a book of his sold, he collected somewhere shy of a million dollars on the rights, and the book's option has bounced around between producers for a long while now. Clint Eastwood supposedly liked it at first. No signs of a movie being made.
There are no guarantees. (And as far as it going on "as long as the 007 series," take things a step at a time.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Of course, a one-shot movie wouldn't have that effect -- it'd be like trying to do a "Friends" movie (or, for that matter, like doing a big-budget Zatoichi revival). And can we trust Hollywood to capture what makes these characters appealing in the first place? I'm betting not.
Although I watch a lot of Anime and have been doing so for many years (my first one being Space Firebird 2772 back in 1980) I first came to know of Lupin III through this pretty cool and unusal game called Punch the Monkey. It's a non-violent game based on your skill to press the various PS buttons to the rythm of remixes of the original Lupin III music and animated flicks. For even more Lupin III games check this out.
Cheers!..
$HOME is where the
-- silver_p
Or are Hollywood producers so deep-stuck in the ruts of their brains that they won't risk unknown new things???
And those assholes pretend to tell us what to do with OUR computers!!!
For those of you thinking this movie will only draw anime fans, I am pretty sure you are wrong. I am nota fan of most anime, but I have watched this show on cartoon network several times, and it seems like the kind of thing that would translate really well into a cinematic format.
The story revolves around adventures of a thief (Lupin) and some travelling companions. The episodes I saw had a lot of people with guns, jokes about sex, and camels. It is a devestating combination.
In some countries, the maker of Lupin III can't publish under the title Lupin III because of trademark problems. In those countries, he becomes "The Wolf" (literal translation of "Lupin") or "Rupan III" (transliteration of kana).
Will I retire or break 10K?
I really enjoy Lupin III. I think the puns and humor are funnier in Japanese, but the dubbed versions they are playing on Cartoon Network are not really that bad.
Whoever has done the translations has attempted to translate the same feel of the show into English; which is very hard to do since Japanese jokes, when translated, usually make absolutely no sense. Sometimes the English jokes are too corney; but at least they tried. I hope the movie remains true to the original (which it won't). Hollywood always has to bung things up for some reason.
Lupin III was derived from the character Arsene Lupin by author Maurice Leblanc. Lupin, the cartoon, being the grandson of Lupin the book. Most of these books are now out of print, but can sometimes be found at used book stores and libraries. About five years ago, Amazon.com offered a collector's version of some of them, which I bought, but I just checked and, of course, they are no longer available.
Anyway, these books were fun to read as well, though not as humorous as the Japanese animation, and Arsene Lupin doesn't have cool sidekicks like Goemon and Jigen. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested.
One more interesting bit of trivia. There was a legendary theif in Japan, back in the Edo jidai I think, named Goemon. He got away with all sorts of crimes. I'm sure that is who Goemon of Lupin III was derived from. Unfortunately for the real Goemon, he was caught and the officials of the time boiled him to death in a large pot of water; sort of like they did in the beginning of the book Shogun by James Clavell. Ouch!
Sorry about the rambling.
He was the first steriotypical anime 'american.' Nabeshin (excel-saga) and Spike (Cowboy Bebop) and others are just copies off of his casual afro weilding style.
Lupin (pronounced Loo-PAN/PON. The syllablization cuts after the "lu" and depending on who's pronouncing it, it'll sound like Lu-PON or Lu-PAN. If you watch the dubbed anime in the US, they often refer to him as Ru-pan but that's not quite right.) is pretty much like described above, but in addition, will never take the same punch twice. This is why in certain cases you'll see him absorb a tremendous amount of damage...he's studying the foe's moves for the next time they meet.
Also, Lupin will be smitten by whichever single female the writers put in the plot for that day. He's not really obsessed with Fujiko...she just happens to be in range more often than other women. Lupin has his heart swiped as often as he swipes stuff.
Jigen Daisuke is Lupin's main sidekick. Looks exactly like Abe Lincoln, and is vicious with his gun...as long as he has his hat.
Goemon has a love/hate relationship with Lupin and Jigen. Sometime it seems like the group is begrudging friends, other times it seems like Goemon's only there to get paid. His katana cuts through anything. (In the intro to the PS2 game, he cuts a suspension bridge in half.)
Fujiko is a female character from Lupin's past who hangs around his present to get her share of the loot. It's implied that they had something going on before the comic started but it's never really revealed if this is only in Lupin's mind, or if Fujiko actually agrees upon this. She's a tease and uses her...ample skills to fulfill her role and is basically in it for the money, though if it comes down to it, she'll begrudgingly choose saving the guys over getting away with the loot.
Zenigata is an inspector that runs around trying to catch Lupin. If he does, it's never for more than a couple minutes, kinda like the A-Team. Zenigata will declare various little truces with Lupin, especially in the movies, because he sees that Lupin's trying to stop a greater evil. (usually for money/the girl.) This allows for Zenigata to look like he's still doing work, instead of just chasing Lupin all the time.
Castle of Cagliostro is the Lupin film most fans will recommend you watch. It's good stuff. I also enjoyed "The Legend of Harimao's Treasure" and "The Fuma Conspiracy".
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I'm not saying you don't have a point. Myself, I'd just rephrase it as, "Humour is a lot harder to translate than action."
Nerds --> Technology
Technology --> Japan
Japan --> Anime
It's pretty simple, actually.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I'm not sure why Lupin has so much popularity. The artwork and animation is terrible by anime standards plus the characters are shallow and boring. Even those problems would be forgivable if the writing was worth a damn. Essentially, Lupin is one big tired cliche laced with stale innuendo. I guess hollywood really is out of ideas if they are going to make a movie out of this.
When all else fails, run.
Those Hollywood idiots always seem to cast either someone famous or someone not-famous in their movies. The gall...
Japan-->Sushi...
My Bad I guess :-)
May no camel spit in your yogurt soup.
The original dialog was full of Japanese cultural references, not to mention puns galore. Sure, hardcore fans like myself wouldn't mind those left in...but that's not the audience CN is aimming for by putting the show on the air.
While not faithful to the original dialog, the English dub is pretty faithful to the original intent, tone, and to the characters themselves.
Yeah, I know the dialog's been peppered with cultural references that didn't exist when the show was originally created, but the jokes *work*, and sometimes being able to laugh in the right places is more important than a literal translation.
Besides, the DVDs are in stores now, and contain both the original Japanese language with subtitles, as well as the English dub as heard on CN.
Why is this offtopic?
The footage from Cliff Hanger is actually from the movie "Lupin III: Cagliostro Castle" available now at your local video hut.
From what I've seen on Cartoon Network, Lupin III is pretty much crap. It's got that old school anime look to it and the dubbing is goofy. Anytime I see the bulging eyes or the spindly legs I cringe. I mean the animation is from the 70's and the dubbing is strangely modern, it sucks ass.
Sorry to be such a troll, but I can think of a few more Japanese gems that would make better movies.
--
hecubas
Hecubas
I never could get into Lupin. I always felt that I was outside of its target audience. Cowboy Bebop is a better series anyway. See you space cowboy...
It also used footage from 2 other films.
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
I always enjoy watching it as a goofy play on Willis' typical buddy-action flicks. I thought it was cool, despite the fact that it got universally panned.........
That is of course, unless I somehow end up out of the program before then, and presumably I'm not homeless at that point. Then I might consider the movie thing again.
That there wasn't any of that tenticle stuff!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
posting late, but:
If anybody watched the movie about treasure of Caliostro; in the end, you can see the interpol (Internatioal Police, supposedly) cars, but they have "åY¼çZè¦åY" or somesuch written on the side - which is actually "Saitama Police" - Saitama being a Japanese prefecture north of Tokyo.
Now, this was supposedly in the small but influential *country* of Caliostro, which is supposedly in Europe or something, so I couldn't help but chuckle.
ahem, now a piece of *useful* information has been squeezed out of your brain, I feel a bit better.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
it was made in 1974!
Lupin III "Nenriki Chin Sakusen" (in english - "Strange Psyco-kinetic Strategy")
sure the jokes would survive. a lot (most?) of the jokes in lupin are of western origin or reference. a lot of it is slapstick, which doesn't require translation at all.
besides that, it's not like japanese is some language of space aliens from alpha centauri. plenty of japanese jokes come across just fine with word-for-word literal translations.
It's not so much the cultural stuff I mind (although it wouldn't kill someone to learn a little bit of someone elses culture) so much as the truly horrid voice acting. Made me want to put out me ears.
jello.
aka aron.
>Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Miyazaki is a great movie.
How about the others?
You would be referring to "Kimba the White Lion". A very old anime character. Disney has been accused of ripping it off, which it denies, but anyone with half a neuron can see they did. There are massive parallels in both films. Hell, even the name "Simba" is a ripoff.
More info on it here.
"maybe the people at Sammy, the creators of GGXX"
ARC System created the Guilty Gear series, not Sammy. Sammy is only the publisher. Guilty Gear XX is also the third (full) game in the series, following Guilty Gear, and Guilty Gear X.
"he looks a lot like jigan, but more cool"
He's got no hat, no gun, he's a vampire, and he has a girl that appears every once in a while. Het's just got similar hair and a beard. If you're looking for anime characters to compare him to, Slayer is much more similar to Shocking Alberto (In terms of attacks and attitude, though he looks a bit like Cho-Katsu Komei, as well.) from Giant Robo.
Second, if you're a fan of the Rurouni Kenshin saga, almost nobody refers to it as Samurai X. In fact, if you went ot Anime Expo and said that, you'd likely get slapped by someone...probably some overweight guy in a Sailor Moon outfit.
Samurai X is the name they gave to the 2 prequels they did to the series in the US. The licensed series is still referred to as Ruroni Kenshin, I guess the difference in whoever licensed the movie and the TV series.
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It's not "Plan 9" level of badness, it's more like a "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" level of bogus dumbness (though I though Bill&Ted was better as an entertaining dumb movie.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If you're using American notation for pronunciation, and the episodes of Lupin III that have been on Cartoon Network Adult Swim this week, it's not the French pronunciation - it's more like "loo PONN" or "loo PAHN", with an AHH sound for the second syllable vowel.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks