Narrator: His latest project has entered a whole new realm of difficult creativity, It involves the diversion of the reality of the dragonball series. His ambition was to give the characters a “new look” than in the manga, while still keeping the spirit of it in tact.

Jonay: This is one of those projects where the artist already has a reference to look off of; my job was not as big as that of say, the producer, because I already had a reference to expand from. To tell you the truth, It was really complicated, we had so much work to do to redesign every character to get them to where they’re at now.

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A prescreening of Dragonball live action movie open to the public will hit JUMP FESTA 2009 (Makuhari, Chiba, Japan) on Dec 20, 2008, the very first day of the 2-day famous Japanese ACG exhibition. With running time of 30 minutes, from 13:20 to 13:50, it’ll be an excerpt with especially selected scenes from the movie which is to be released on March 13, 2009 in Japan.

Another significance of this activity isn’t the said presence of anonymous famous star(s), but the preselling of Be@rbrick of Dragonball, in live action Goku’s orange gi, as a special edition produced by Medicom Toy Corporation. As announced, the person who later wins the reserved seat of this prescreening can have one such Bearbrick as a gift. Anyone who later loses the reserved seats can still buy the entrance ticket at the booth on the festa to have the Be@rbrick attached to the ticket.

Update :  This is from Licensing Asia 2008 in Tokyo that is promoting merchandise that can be won through the contests.

Clear the seven missions and get the great prizes during the campaign period !!

Lower right, the poster with Goku wearing a blue gi, is written “Tenkaichi Budokai” and below “special event.”

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Are you ready to see the legend come to life? Based on Akira Toriyama’s Japanese manga, and the wildly popular anime series spawned by it, 20th Century Fox is bringing Dragonball to the big screen this April for the first time in live-action.

The long-awaited movie version centers around Goku, of course, and will trace his life’s journey and the quest to find the legendary Dragonballs before they can be used by the villainous Lord Piccolo. Actor Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds, Taken) is Goku and James Marsters (Spike from Buffy/Angel) plays Piccolo.

Fans of the franchise have been waiting a long time for this movie. Fox first picked up the rights to the series back in 2002. Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 10,000 B.C.) was rumored to be directing early on, but the film fell off the studio’s priority list and it lay dormant for some time. It was 2004 when Fox began to pay the property some attention again, hiring a screenwriter. But even then the movie wasn’t put on the fast track. The “ball” didn’t really get rolling until director James Wong (Final Destination) was signed in late ‘07.

Dragonball devotees in the U.S. will still have to wait until April 8 to see the flick — or if you really want to see it badly, you can travel to Japan where it opens a whole month earlier — but we hope to tide you over with this preview.

Here’s what to expect when you walk into the theater…

THE STORY:

20th Century Fox has yet to release a detailed plot synopsis, but we’ve been able to piece together some important bits and pieces of the story.

We know that the film centers on Goku, a high school-aged misfit who is trained in the martial arts by his grandfather, Gohan. But when Gohan is mortally injured by fighters who serve the evil Lord Piccolo, his dying wish is that Goku collect all seven dragonballs, mystical orbs of great power, before they can be used to destroy the Earth.

Goku sets out to find the esteemed Master Roshi, who can help him in his quest, and is befriended by a beautiful young woman named Bulma who, it just so happens, possesses a device that can locate the dragonballs.

The rest of the story is still somewhat fuzzy, but we know that Goku encounters Piccolo twice. And we’ve learned that the film’s final act may be set around a global martial arts competition.

 

CAST & CHARACTERS:

Justin Chatwin as Goku: Chatwin is best known to audiences for his roles as Tom Cruise’s son in War of the Worlds and as the lead in David Goyer’s The Invisible. Chatwin, who may not be as bulky as Goku in some parts of the series, has the right basic look. And, yes, his hair is not nearly as big as his cartoon counterpart, but wouldn’t it look ridiculous if it were done any other way? Chatwin  has reportedly trained with stunt performance company 87Eleven (The Matrix, The Bourne Supremacy) to prepare for his fight scenes in Dragonball.

Goku is immensely strong, pure of heart, extremely competitive, not inordinately bright, but dedicated wholeheartedly to the cause of beating the living hell out of evil. In the established lore, Goku grew up on Earth and appears more or less human, but is a specimen of the alien warrior race of Saiyans, who originally sent him to the planet to prepare it for conquest. A coincidental knock on the head cleared his mind of his natural inclination towards global domination, though – instead, he eventually chose to become the planet’s greatest champion.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT IGN

After shifting the release date of their upcoming live-action Dragonball movie by eight months, 20th Century Fox has moved the flick again. But this time it’s only been bumped forward a couple of days.

Dragonball, originally set to open last August, was delayed to April to allow for more time to tweak the film — effects work is still being done and reshoots are currently in progress. Now, Fox has moved the movie up from it’s April 10, 2009 release to an April 8 debut.

That’ll put the movie in theaters on a Wednesday, giving diehard Dragonballers a chance to check it out before the weekend rush, and allowing the movie some time to rake in the dough before facing fresh competition at the box office.