Sources from SuperHeroFlix notes that FOX scrapping Dragonball is 100% untrue and FOX’s reaction to the movie was more along the lines of loving it.

Film Junk is reporting today that Twentieth Century Fox is looking to shut down production on their big screen version of Dragonball. In the report, higher-ups at Fox are said to be unpleased with the recent footage that they’ve seen. And that they are seriously considering shutting the whole thing down. Well, this is entirely not true.

The film was completed a while ago, and the reasons for moving the film’s release date from this summer to next spring was to insure that all of the needed special effects were completed. We have a source that is very close to the film. And he/she says that the first edit is done, and that it has been shown to those “higher ups” at Fox. And that they love the finished film. Our studio contact, who we aren’t allowed to name at the moment, worked on the production, and has seen the completed movie. Everyone involved seems to think they have a hit on their hands, and he even went on to say that it was “pretty darn awesome. There is certainly talk about a sequel. I have no doubt that it will happen. I’m sure that it will be a trilogy.”

If you are anxiously awaiting Dragonball, don’t be scared by these sudden rumors that the film is being scrapped or sent directly to home video. That is certainly not the case. Dragonball is still set for a April 3rd, 2009 release date.

Credit goes to dbthemovie.com for the heads up.

DB The Movie Blog was able to translate the October issue of Roadshow. There are a few new interviews including one with Justin Chatwin and another with the stunt team. We even get a description of the teaser trailer.

Justin Chatwin interview
First of all, it’s an honor to play Goku, because he is a very important and epic character. He is always seeing the positive side of things, does good things, and always trys to help and take care of the weak, not only pursuing his power. He is a dependable and loving man as well as a boy. So I like Goku.

In preparation for the role, of course I read the original manga (all of it), in addition, I read Monkey King a little, because Dragonball is based on Monkey King. And during the break time of shooting, I got into Goku’s character, telling jokes with other cast in search of the real communication which can be used in acting.

This is the most interesting movie for me. Because I have never fought with anyone though, I trained martial arts and acrobat, and then we shot it. That’s fun as well as challenging. Fighting with Eriko (Tamura), she punched me in the face, actually she intended to hit lightly, but…it was a clean hit (laugh) She said “I’m sorry!” and apologized to me, but thanks to her, we could shoot very powerful action scene. Through this work, I think I could learn a lot of things.

I like Durango very much. Because a lot of my favorite movie like “The Wild Bunch” was shot here. And there are locations like sand dunes, cave, lava field and rocky hill like the Grand Canion, so I think the background of this movie are very epic.

Highlights of this movie are the action scenes, and amazing visual effects will be made at post production, so I’m looking forward to see it. About Kamehameha I only can imagine it now. I’m so excited. And this movie is the coming-of-age story about a boy, though this is set in a sci-fi world, in my opinion, my best scene is the moment when the characters who got together for the same purpose relate to each other.

Action coordinator 87eleven staff interview
Each characters has a different fighting style. For example, Goku’s fighting style is a hybrid of capoeira, karate and so on. Chi-Chi’s fighting style is based on kick boxing (Muay Thai) style, Master Roshi and Gohan are based on traditional Chinese martial arts (southern style). Justin has good muscle strength of the lower body so to harness this strength, we let him do action. His capoeira motion is very good. He has no experience of martial arts at all, we had to teach him from scratch. But he is doing very well for two months training period.

Highlight of this movie is fighting with Goku and Piccolo, I think it has a tremendous impact. Goku and Gohan’s fight is comical, and Chi-Chi does Jackie Chan-like battle. Each character has a unique twist on martial arts.

The teaser trailer in Japan, I didn’t see it but a lot of people said they saw it. They describe it that characters don’t appear at first, but the solar eclipse appears in space (like the image Danny Boyle director’s Sunshine) and the eclipse changes to a dragon ball and seven balls fly in space and DRAGONBALL logo appears. Narration is Ichirou Nagai, Japanese famous voice actor in dragonball anime, voice of karin-sama (Goku’s master cat) and Tsuru sennin. If I see teaser trailer I report it.

Amazon has listed a new addition to the Dragonball movie merchandise collection, a Dragonball the Movie Sticker Book. View below for the full description…

Product Description
The sticker book introduces the characters from the Dragonball movie and all of their cool gadgets, offering an extremely simplified version of the Dragonball adventure. 8 pages of color stickers and 8 pages of color backgrounds!
Collect all seven Dragon Balls and you can wish for whatever you want!

Goku thought he was a normal high school student until he found out he’s actually a martial-arts whiz with all kinds of powers. Now he and his fellow teen warriors are on a quest to find all the Dragon Balls before they fall into the wrong hands. But they may already have! Goku must battle the evil Piccolo with all he’s got to save the planet Earth!

From the latest VJ scan, new information concerning the upcoming Dragonball anime short (entitled Yo! Son Goku and his friends return!) has been revealed. We also get this new image.

And thanks to Daizenshuu EX, we got a translation.

Table and Avo & Cado, opposing enemies!
You can tell that Table is a Saiyan from his tail. He’s similar to a certain person in facial features, but who…!? Also, Abo and Kado, in pursuit of Table, arrive on Earth!!

So, Table (vegeTABLE…VEGETAble) is the new Saiyan. And Avo and Cado are the new henchman. Atleast Akira Toriyama stayed true to his naming of characters.

UPDATE - FOX has reported that the statement was false and the movie is still scheduled to release in April 2009.

The following is a report from Film Junk

When it was first announced that a Dragonball movie was actually happening, a lot of people couldn’t comprehend how such an over-the-top, stylized animated series would possibly work in a live action setting. Then Stephen Chow came on board as a producer and suddenly it seemed like there might be hope. Of course, the movie was originally supposed to be ready for this summer, but Fox ended up pushing it back to April 2009. No official explanation was given, but some wondered if it might be the first sign of trouble. The fact that the movie also had no presence at the San Diego Comic Con only deepened suspicions.

This week we received word from an anonymous source that there may be some truth to this speculation after all. According to our tipster, the higher-ups at Fox are not too impressed the footage that has been shot thus far, and are seriously debating shutting the whole thing down. Now I have no idea if this is a real possibility or if the studio is just putting pressure on director James Wong to deliver, but the movie supposedly has a budget of over $100 million and I can understand them wanting to cut some losses while they still can. The thing is, if this is all true, it only makes me that much more interested to see the movie. If it it’s strange enough to scare the suits, it’s gotta be good, right? Are you looking forward to Dragonball?

I won’t be too worried about this truthfully. News has been slow as of late, a scare like this might either produce some more ‘real’ news or this story it might end up being true. So, what do you guys think about this? A publicity stunt? An actual threat? Comment.

The following videos have been added to the online Dragonball Media Player.

• The Ending of Dragonball GT - Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku
• Dragonball GT Ending 1 - Hitori Ja Nai
• Dragonball Z Ending 2 - We Were Angels
• Dragonball Z Intro 2 - We Gotta Power
• Dragonball Z Intro 1 - Cha La Head Cha La
• Dragonball Intro - Makafushigi (Mystical) Adventure

More to come!

View the new Dragonball Z/GT Videos in the DB Online Media Player!

Dragon Con 2008 starts 14 days from today. Sadly, there will be no Dragonball panel this year. However, James Marsters (role of Piccolo) will in fact be there. There is also a high possibility that he will doing an interview or two as well. So hopefully this event won’t be totally worthless. Here’s a quote from James Marsters’ Website.

Dragon*Con Private Party / Concert
Be one of the lucky few to join James at an intimate concert and dinner reception

James Marsters will be the guest of honor at a limited sit down buffet style dinner and concert Saturday, August 30, 2008. Limited to only 60 guests, the evening will consist of an acoustic guitar performance and a round robin meet and greet and mingle. Also joining James will be Torchwood’s own Gareth David Lloyd!

The complete schedule for the event will be online August 19th.

Plus, we got these anime conventions to look forward to.

- Anime Festival (August 15-17)
- Anime Evolution (August 22-24)
- MatsuriCon (August 22-24)
- AnimeFest (August 29 - September 1)
- New York Anime Festival (September 26-28)

Click here for the complete list…

On a side note, the Dragonball movie was originally set to release today before the delay.

Barnes and Noble has stated that a Dragonball junior novel is currently being written by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon. The book will be based on the upcoming Dragonball film written by Ben Ramsey and James Wong. It will be entitled “Dragon Ball : The Junior Novel” and will consist of 152 pages. It will be published by VIZ Media and has a set release date of February 2009.

Click picture to enlarge

It seems promotion has started to officialy begin. First IGN posts their high quality version of promo pics and now a report that a book based on the Dragonball movie is being written. So keep a look out for official teaser trailers and probably some kind of preview for a movie based video game. Not to mention more high quality Dragonball movie promo pictures! Stay tuned.

UPDATE : Borders is showing that there are three more DB movie books aside from Dragon Ball The Novel. They are called…

- The Battle
- The Search
- The Discovery

Update 2 : Amazon has posted the basic description for the novel.

Collect all seven Dragon Balls and you can wish for whatever you want!

Goku thought he was a normal high school student until he found out he’s actually a martial-arts whiz with all kinds of powers. Now he and his fellow teen warriors are on a quest to find all the Dragon Balls before they fall into the wrong hands. But they may already have! Goku must battle the evil Piccolo with all he’s got to save the planet Earth!

All four books are available for pre-order!