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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."
Why when I saw this did I think "POWER RANGERS MOVIE" ....?
Some things just shouldn't be done
I can't see this movie doing anything but hurting the rest of the plot of the series. If they want to do a live action they should do cowboy bebop. You can fit another cowboy bebop film in about anywhere you want. But Neon Geneis is completed. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I do security
...perhaps because low-budget live-action anime adaptations do not have a reputation for quality?
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
What is needed is a live action Gundam film, and yes i know there already is one, i want one i can see in theatres. With the current crop of superhero/sci-fi action films doing so well (spider-man, x-men, the matrix) i thikn a movie about giant city smashing robots would do pretty well, its a fairly new concept to americans.
Everybody denies I am a genius--but nobody ever called me one!
Shin Seiki Evangelion took over my life for a good year-and-a-half...until the long-delayed release of The End of Evangelion in the US finally brought sweet release. NOW THIS? Please, Gainax...I want my life back.
PS - evaotaku.com
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!
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"
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"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away"
but things in LOTR that have the heaviest computer manipulation are things that are magic or take place in the ring's netherworld
That's just completely untrue. What about the thousands of warriors at the Battle of Helm's Deep? The majestic fortresses, the grotesque oliphaunts?
LOTR was filled with CG from head to toe, for subjects neither explicitly magical nor netherworldly. (I won't go into Golum- one could say he's magic too, instead of simply malnourished)
The CG needs for an Evangelion movie (an ill-starred project if there ever was one) will be similar to LOTR. They'll have to create realistic depictions of huge, improbable structures for the actors to be projected in front of. Then they'll have to build large creatures which look natural when stationary (like the Ents) and command them to move in ways that are smooth and life-like, but far from human-like.
Yeah, considering the number of anime fans it's driven into therapy, I'd consider Evangelion "influential".
So they are going to make a movie about some kid who pilots a huge robotic weapon to battle alien invaders.
How can you watch Shinseki Evangelion and not understand:
- They aren't alien invaders (in fact, they're 98% human), they're angels. You know, as in from Heaven? They've come to earth to bring about the 3rd Impact which will (pressumably) destroy humanity.
- The fight with the angels is secondary to the plot. The story of Evangelion is about Ikari Shinji who embodies the inante human fear of other humans (hence the existence of the Absolute Terror Field or AT Field). The goal of his father, Ikari Gendou, is to eliminate the AT Fields so that all humanity can be united and thus ascend to the level of God.
Evangelion is intensely deeper than that and I've shaved off most of the details, otherwise this post would be pages long. But those two things are obvious if you've only seen the episodes (in which Gendou is successful and a "positive" 3rd Impact is achieved). The movies turn that around and show what would happen if things went wrong (because of Shinji's own emotional strife).
I could go on and on, but Eva is not just about action. In fact, the action often carries meaningful undercurrents (especially when Shinji first fights Sachiel).
*sigh*
Nevermind.
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(warning, sarcasm threat level today is at RED)
How can you possibly say that? Look at all the great work that has been done bringing anime and the like to the silver screen. I mean, just look at Fist of the North Star.
And besides, the effects studio not only did LOTR, but also gave us the effects in such quality shows as Andromeda, and Mutant X!
How can this NOT be good?
OK, all sarcasm aside, I don't see how this can be anything but a bad thing. Even so, there is some potential, but it will still PO lots of fans. The only way that this could have some merit is if they did the same thing Sam Raimi did with SpiderMan, that is don't try to duplicate the story exactly, but try and capture the "feel" and the essence doing a stand-alone movie that doesn't really fit into the existing material. This has the greatest potential for success, but also, as with SpiderMan, the greatest potential to tick off the purists and the avid fans.
I don't have much hope for it though. Pity. I'll have to wait and see what happens.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
I mean, I tend to agree that really astonishing works - like Evangelion - do not really 'need' to be re-made in a new way, but at the same time, I don't think it hurts anything. The Gus van Sant remake of Psycho, for instance, was nothing special at all, and not as good as the original... but who cares? I could have ignored it. It's not like it *replaces* the old film.
Besides, WETA kicks heroic amounts of ass, and they get an automatic vote as far as I'm concerned for the top-notch work in LOTR. They deserve some credit.
My question is, how 'live-action' can it really be? Live actors surely, but I'm guessing the bulk of the action will be CG... and do I want to see a top-quality CG adaptation of an Evangelion battle sequence? Hell yeah.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
This just in.
Tux, the famed mascot on the Linux world, has been cast in the role of Penpen!
Also appearing, the BSD Devil will make a special guest shot as "the guy who sent the angels to destroy Earth!"
They're kidding, right? A live action NGE flick?
Things I'd like to see next:
Live action Dragon Ball Z. The movie would have to be about 19 hours long with frequent intermissions, and roughly 3 battles during that time in order to make it feel like the show.
Live action Tokyo Pig. What would be more exciting than a pig that can do magic, FILMED IN REAL LIFE! And that reporter chic is HOT!
Live action Dirty Pair. Okay, this isnt a joke. Remember Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft? Multiply that by two, add in tons of explosions and skimpy clothes, and BAM you got a winner!
I could go on all day, but I think I'll stop now!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
I love how ADV pats themselves on the back as often as possible in this "press release." My favorite line: "The Japanese anime and game studio Gainax Network Systems was one of the original production studios responsible for "Neon Genesis Evangelion.""
Not like they conceived, wrote, designed, and directed the series and movies as well...
--Stephen
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
A Search for "Evangelion DVD" on eBay yields some good hits. Otherwise, Amazon and other major DVD retailers carry the whole show in individual disc or boxed-set form. But I wouldn't buy it in bulk without seeing a handful of episodes, though. The first couple have aired on the Cartoon Network and the rest might show up eventually, so if you don't want to pay for discs (and can't find someone to borrow them from) it might be advantageous to take a wait & see approach.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Evangelion a bog-standard plot?? Hahaha...haha...hahaha... boy, are you in for a shock.
Oh, by the way, don't pirate stuff.
Does this mean that it won't go all wacky and weird in the end, like every anime?
Akira was great until the weird-ass things started happening... like giant blobs of flesh and stuff.
Spriggan was good until the exact same thing happened.
Serial Experiments: Lain was absolutely FANTASTIC until all that supernatural stuff started to take over the plot.
What's with the freaking out? Do Japanese anime creators resort to drugs to finish off their masterpieces? It's as if they were on to something good and then they just decided to rush the ending... "umm... err... oh screw it, I'll throw in some freaky psychosomatic flesh monsters... that'll do it!"
But with all honesty, I hope it turns out good. With the advent of a live action Battle Angel Alita, it'll be nice to see some non-anime mech footage hitting the screens.
My vote is for Dominique Swain to play Osuka! She's a hottie
Evangelion is mostly about a teenage kid named Shinji getting forced into piloting a Giant Battle Robot and protecting the world from invaders.
No. No, it's not. I guess some people can miss the entire point of a series if they try hard enough.
A couple of points...
- The uniting of humanity is not Gendo's aim, but rather his dead wife's (Shinji's mother). Gendo's aim is to be reunited with her; everything else is secondary for him. The reason for her attempt was to ensure that humanity survived effectively forever (at least until the heat-death of the universe).
- The Third Impact was not really "positive" in the series; some people think that the series ending was just Shinji tripping out. Anno dropped several hints as to what actually happened (in the series, there's a couple of very short cuts showing a certain death scene (don't want to spoil it for others). A more cynical view is that Anno's lack of funding at the end simply lead him to give a giant 'fuck-you' to the production company by producing the most unsuitable closure possible.
Space Odyssey 2001 is mostly about these guys in space heading to some planet or something. The direction is artsy, but the Computer talks a lot and there's no shortage of slow moments. Some people really dig the movie, but others can't stand it.
Laugh at stupidity: mod idiots +1 Funny.
They'll have a hard time looking for someone as autist as Shiji is...
Someone that can't recognize ceilings!!!
Maybe Leo Di Caprio can do it *evil grin*
May the source be with you!
Is anybody going to watch a live action movie so filled with angst and self-loathing as Evangelion? I mean, leaving aside the attention span of the average movie goer, the plot of Evangelion is so damn convoluted it's scary. I'm firmly convinced that anybody claiming they really knew what Evangelion was about is A LIAR. Sure, the action is good, and some of the plot elements are well done, but it's going to have to be heavily edited and altered before this becomes anything but painful feature to watch.
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I interprested things as episodes 25-26 being Shinji coming to terms with himself. And that EoE is happening at the same time. Either that the beginning of EoE is taking place during episodes 25-26 (hence Shinji being more catatonic than usual) or that episodes taking place after the 3rd impact and humanity merging into one.
BTW I interpreted the end of EoE as Shinji recreating humanity as we are but Shinji and his Evangelion drifting away into space.
In any case this is what makes series like NGE worth watching. There are no real answers, only more questions. And the extreme amount of christian references in NGE would problably go by most people, I know I didn't notice half of them before I had watched the series and check out some fansites.
i guess you guys didnt think about all the possibilitys, thats what fan fiction is all about! who said the plot was going to be placed in about the same time as the serries? it could be past, present (some lost episode or whatever), or future. both present and future could also be in some other alternate story line type thing. i guess we will never know until someone leaks that info or they start showing it to us bit by bit via trailers. i personoly would like to see it on some lost episode.. or a difrent ending (as i understand it the ending presented in the two movies was made the way it was because of lack of money). i sencerly hope they do this right and make shinji, asuka, rei they way theye were in the serries.. i felt like i have somthing in common with all 3 of them.
one Disc to rule them all one Disc to bind them
THat's actually the most sensible comment I've heard on this all day....
Johnny Depp must play Misato's squeeze - I don't remember his name.
Refer to my earlier reply to one of your posts as to the meaning of the last two episodes. I'd just like to comment further on your portrayal of the significance of EoE.
Shinji doesn't freeze at the moment of truth; he's eventually ready to unite with all humanity, but Asuka's rejection of this causes him to choose to return to individuality. The movie doesn't show a "failed" Third Impact, just a scenario in which the uniting of humanity does not take place as Yui planned. She ends up as the only human to live for eternity (that's why you see Shinji's Eva floating off; it's carrying Yui). Rewatch it and listen carefully to Yui's "conversation" with Shinji.
**********MAJOR SPOILER for people who haven't watched EoE***********
The final scene of EoE is very ambiguous; Shinji and Asuka (and possibly all other humans except for Yui) have been reincarnated as individuals as a result of Asuka's rejection of unification with Shinji. Many people see this as an indication of Asuka's feelings for Shinji, in that she doesn't wish him to know how deep her emotions are for him. Even the last line (which, in all the subbed versions I've seen, seems to be mistranslated) is ambiguous; it was actually an adlib by the voice actress, which Anno considered to be better than the script. What Asuka says could either be taken as a further rejection of Shinji as an extension of her earlier rejection, or as an indication of a genuine dislike of him. It's a bit hard to justify the latter considering what has occurred previous to that, though. I think the ending of EoE is actually rather positive - "humans should make the effort to do get along with each other as individuals".
According to this article, the project will be on an "aggressive timetable." Does that mean the last 20 minutes will end up being taken from footage filmed with an old camcorder on a shaky tripod? It would at least be consistent with the last 2 Eva episodes...
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Thanks for the thoughtful response - much appreciated.
Could you give a spoiler for this? I didn't catch that. I've seen 25 & 26 many times and as far as I'd gathered, Gendou's plan went about as intended. Certainly Shinji was tripping out (as any human mind would after experiencing that), but I basically saw it was a relearning/reeducation in a "perfect" world.
If you watch closely (can't remember if it's 25 or 26), there's a very quick flash that shows Misato's death scene, as well as another that shows Ritsuko floating in the liquid around Lilith. It all seems to indicate that what was happening in the 'real world' matched EoE, but Shinji was just rejecting it all (again, a more pragmatic explanation exists - Anno had already done some of the scenes for 25/26, following the plot of EoE (which wasn't planned at the time), so he put them in the mix).
Anno had already used up almost all of his funding by the time he reached episode 23 or 24 - that's why there's so many silhouette scenes, not to mention the roughs (pencil drawings) used in place of completed scenes. He wasn't able to get more funding until the fan outcry about 25/26 convinced the production company to cough up some more money.
Alan Rickman as Gendo Ikari.
The important thing is that there's no sign of any hollywood studio being involved. I suspect that means that most of the creative work will be done by Gainax, with ADV providing the $$$$ and Weta obviously doing the special effects. If Gainax and Anno are left to do their thing, then the project might turn out alright. The special effects might look a big cheap due to a (relatively) small budget, but I can't imagine Gainax and Anno sanitizing Eva like everyone says.
But then again, this is Gainax we're talking about
Shinji: Whine whine whine whine whine.
Asuka: Ego driven retort with subtle sexual undertones.
Shinji: Whine whine whine piss moan.
Rei: Creepy silence followed by one-word retort.
Shinji: Whine whine bitch piss whine bitch moan.
Gendo: Evil overlord smile.
--Chag
My knee-jerk reaction to this was utter disgust. How dare they take my favourite anime and make it to a crappy big budget live action movie. But I thought about it more, and now I don't mind as much.
This can sorta be a good thing. People not into anime could watch the movie, be amazed and want to see where it all started. So they get the anime. Find they like the anime. Watch different anime shows. Become anime fans. More anime fans means cheaper anime...right? Right?!?!!
Can the 26 episode series be condensed into a movie?
Probabaly. Cut out all the fluff episodes near the begining(the octahedron angel, the dance episode, The Day Tokyo 3 Stood Still) and it could fit. As long as it's at least 2 hours, then a good portion of the story could fit, probably missing a few key important scenes. It should be better than Death.
I am really curious as to how this will turn out. Maybe they can get Anno to help work on the script. Maybe it will suck. Maybe it will be alright. I'll go see just to see how it turns out.
But please dear god don't change the names!! I couldn't stand that in The Ring. Samara?!?! It's Sadako!!
Did you suffer through the entirety Eva and for some reason weren't granted the same level of transcendence that most Eva-faithful appear to have gone through? Sure, parts were fun, parts were exciting, parts were a bit emotional, but you simply can't find it in yourself to declare that Eva somehow ties everything together into a logical conclusion filled with actual meaning? Are you certain that the random Judeo-Christian imagery, surreal character development, and insane ending are actually a high school level attempt to fake depth of plot, philosophy, and maturity?
Take your suffering and at least get a good laugh out of it with Toastyfrog Jump's Neon Genesis Evangelion Thumbnail Theatre.
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While it's true that the original BattleTech mech designs were stolen lock, stock, and barrel from Macross, the two actually represent opposite ends of the giant robot thought spectrum.
In Macross, giant robots move at the speed of a fighter jet and the grace of a ballet dancer, all the while spewing death in all directions. In BattleTech, mechs are clanky, lurching, usually unreliable, mobile gun platforms. Gundam is somewhere in the middle (the Gundams themselves usually being closer to Macross while the hapless rank-and-file mechs are closer to BattleTech).
All that aside, this is a completely horrible idea. The worst bit, to me, is that ADV is producing it. These are the people who so totally respected the original work that they plastered English-language overlays on top of signage in the DVD edition of Eva. They are the single most mercenary distributor outside of the porn merchants, always willing to pander to the lowest common denominator for a few dollars more, and it certainly shows in this decision.
So, do you think they'll use their usual crew of no-talent melodramatic hack voice "actors" onscreen, or will they just dub them over the unfortunates who do end up on screen?
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Considering that EVA creator Hideaki Anno has done live action before (the feature film Love and Pop), I think he should be the one to direct a live-action Evangelion (as much as the idea itself disgusts me). Also, how much control will GAINAX have over the script and casting?
1) I understand 0.005% of the story
2) I understand 0.05% of the story
3) I understand 0.5% of the story
4) My name is CowboyNeal Ikari,
you insensitive clod
I think it was called Robot Jocks :)
I also distinctly remember that it was horrible.
It's amazing how spiritual an elaborated beer commercial can be. -- Philip K. Dick
The real question, of course, is whether or not the filmmakers will realize this....
one interesting interpretation of the final beach scene with shinji & asuka is as follows:
notice that asuka has brown eyes here, and that in the rest of the series they have been blue. mistao has brown eyes.
also, asuka is wearing an eyepatch and sling, much like rei in the first episode.
i tend to think that maybe it's not asuka who is there at the end. her eva was destroyed, but possibly not the entry plug. so, possibly the three women that shinji fantasized about "melded" together into combination of the three. asuka's body, rei's persona, and misato's motherly love for shinji.
probably one of the better speculations on that...however, what it means for "what happens next" - i have no idea.
You know, it has been imagined before that a live-action Evangelion movie could be done, but it ended with the conclusion : let's hope it doesn't happens.
There are a few reasons about this.
1. FUNDS. How can an adaptation of a series that's full of heavy steel, gunfire, apocalyptic explosions, mind-boggling psychotrips be correctly done, out of the "cellulo-space" ?
One of the reasons of why Anime earned such a success in Japan is that filmmakers there didn't have enough money to crank out movies without said movies seriously lacking... funds. Celluloid really IS cheaper for impossible scenes like some that are in Eva... And porting this to the silver screen should require some huge amounts of money. Where are they going to find the budget usually used for an announced blockbuster ? I hopa Gainax's not going to spend too much on that, I'd really get angry if they had to close before of the bankrupt following the release of that movie.
2. CHARACTERS. Ikari Shinji. Soryû Langley Asuka. Ayanami Rei. These surely sound European, heh ? What are they going do ? Rename all those people, thus moving the entire story in the US and getting American actors ? (yeah, "Washington-3", sure.)
Or will they stick with Japanese actors ? How can you even reproduce de-japanized japanese people drawn on celluloid well enough ? I'll be curious to see who gets the role for Ayanami Rei. If it destroys my dream vision of an almost-perfect (barring an introverted-beyond-autism personality) human being...
3. STORYLINE. How will you ever be able to summarize that twisted series that is Evangelion into something that can be seen in 2-3 hours ? Or if you take the problem the other way, how will you take a part of the series without screwing the entire context/continuity/complexity ?
And what about the complexity itself ? Will the scenario scaled-down for the non-depressed to understand ? I surely don't want to see an action film made out of THIS. Do you ?
4. WAY OF THINKING. There are things Japanese can stand that Americans can't, and the other way. What would be done about those things ? I mean, there are some in the storyline that are understood (and appreciated ?) by us nerds, but for the others... Remember the beginning of EoE, you'll get an idea of what I mean.
I spent too much weeks staring at the ceiling after having seen Eva to let it become a botched adaptation. Really.
- Hadriven
> Gendou had exceedingly good intentions, despite his cruel actions
:-/
Hey, thanks for understanding! Most people just think I'm an asshole.