Evangelion Live Action Movie

Rob Sollanych writes "ADV Films has just announced the production of a live action movie based on many people's favourite anime series of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Special Effects will be developed by Weta Workshop, Ltd, the company that made the Lord of the Rings look so good."

Comments

why am I unenthused?

[Doktor Memory]

...perhaps because low-budget live-action anime adaptations do not have a reputation for quality?

Animatrix

[gerf]

I never really thought much of Anime in general. I grouped anime watchers in with goths, freaks, Magic the Gathering players, and others i just ignored.

I'm a Matrix fan, and as such, i downloaded The Animatrix: The Second Generation, Part I. I was astounded. Rather than large mouth monkey drawn, slow plotted, boring anime, such as is found on the Cartoon Network, instead, something more akin to what i thought Asimov's robots would be like was presented. I've since downloaded all the free short stories from the Wachowski bro's, and plan on buying the DVD.

What i want to say though, is that perhaps this anime converted to real life will have the same effect on people, perhaps to a larger audience, showing more people that anime isn't just a cartoon for the vast unlaid, but rather something more meaningful, with great plots and scriptwriters. On another note, I'm going to watch Spirited Away this weekend, due to its great reviews, and the fact that i saw the first 5 minutes, and was impressed at the overall feel of it.

Good luck with this project, i hope it does great!

How long do they plan on making it.

[darkmayo]

Seriously.. Alot goes on in the anime.. 13 angels to destroy.. a shit load of character development and thats not even including the End of Evangelion movie.

The series is done. Let people look back and say.. "damn that was an awesome series" instead of " What the hell was that live action POS"

Re:How long do they plan on making it.

[Jerk City Troll]

Most of the angel battles were, in my opinion, just there for fluff. It was action to keep the less philosophically inclined audience glued to the TV sets for the next episode. All the plot development could probably have been condensed down into 4-6 episodes. Except of course for the occassional Ayanami Rei narratives. I for one would not mind seeing a live action movie that was densely packed, had a rapid time line, and showed how grotesque a lot of Evangelion was. For example, a lot of the emotional development of the characters was due to the horrors they witnessed fighting the angels. Cartoon blood does not effectively convey this to the audience. Also, whle EoE was intense -- gives me the chills just thinking about it -- an anime cannot properly portray the deaths of 7 billion human beings. I think a live action film will show quite nicely why so many of the characters lost their marbles.

Re:What a bad idea

[johny_qst]

I am just as concerned that an actor attempting to portray the depth of shinji's internal struggle will just make a cheesy patina atop some cool CG action sequences. This movie won't help by adding to the evangelion storyline... but it might get some people who would never have come into contact with the anime to actually find the quality that spawned this waste of film. I know I will see it but I also know that it won't stand up to its anime roots.

Re:laws of nature

[Bonker]

I agree on so many lives. Live action EVA is bad, wrong, and stupid. Are they going to have a tall, busty Japanese woman playing Misato? Are they going to have fourteen-year-olds in skin-tight vinyl? Are they going to have a penguin? Are they going to have lots of Rei clones? Are they going to invoke the wrath of the Christian right with the decidedly mangled Christian imagery in Evangelion? Is Misato going to die in the second reel? How about Touji? Is Gendou going to cheat on his cute pregnant wife (who will almost have to be played by the same actress as the various Reis) with Ritsuko and her mom? Will Shinji be allowed to oedipally fantasize about all the-- again, fourteen year old-- girls on the cast?

Unless the scriptwriter, director, and producer are willing to portray this story in all its gory beauty, they shouldn't even bother. I can't see them doing *HALF* of the things I listed above, and you really need *ALL* of them to get the story right.