Dragonball Legends

Sci Fi UK was looking for specific questions to ask James Marsters (Lord Piccolo in Dragonball Evolution) at last weekends SFX Weekender. I sent in a question regarding the planned sequel to Dragonball, but it seems they might have stayed away from any Dragonball talk at this event. Here is a portion of a Q&A session during SFX Weekender. Now I am not sure if this was the same Q&A Sci Fi UK planned or not. According to their Twitter page, their interview with James Marsters may be exclusive. I will report any other details when available.

Also, James will be appearing at the following events in the next couple months : Supanova Expo 2010, FedCon XIX 2010, Phoenix Comicon and Philadelphia Comic Con. I may attend the Phoenix Comic Con, but that event is a little over three months away. Special guests for that event include : James Marsters, Ray Park and Mike Mcfarland (Master Roshi from FUNimation DBZ).

UPDATE : The interview from Sci Fi UK has been released and as expected James was not asked anything Dragonball related. If you wish to read the full interview then click here.

Read the rest of this entry →

Movie Player reports that James Marsters is currently involved with the sequel to Dragonball Evolution entitled, Dragonball 2 : Reborn. Here is a translated quote from that website.

James recently participated in the series “Lie To Me and The Super Hero Squad and is involved in the sequel Dragonball 2: Reborn, where he plays the role of Piccolo.

Note that it is only a rumor that should be taken with a grain of salt. They might just be re-reporting exactly what IMDB has already informed us (and as stated in the last post, IMDB is not very reliable). 20th Century FOX is keeping the whole sequel talk hush hush at the moment.

DBTheMovie.com posted a scan from SFX magazine which features a new interview with James Marsters (Piccolo). He reveals a few new details from the Dragonball movie.

Have you met any Dragonball fans?
Iam one. I watched every episode of Dragonball, and Dragonball Z, and Dragonball GT.

How true to the anime will the Dragonball film be?
The thing to remember about the first film is that it’s not Dragonball Z, it’s Dragonball. There was an entire season of the anime Dragonball which no one really watches, because the lead character, Goku, is just a little kid. It doesn’t quite have the power of Dragonball Z. But it is the beginning and you just can’t skip past that. In the film, they didn’t make Goku a little kid – we meet Goku on his 18th birthday. So it exists in a world kind of between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in tone.

If you’re familiar with Dragonball, you know that my character – Lord Piccolo – starts out as a very old man. Which might be kind of a shock for people expecting the Piccolo from Dragonball Z. He’s the villain. He’s been in prison for 2,000 years, he’s old, he’s angry. His youth has been taken from him. He’s been searching for the Dragonballs so that he can turn himself back into his younger self. This is right out of the cartoon.

I fought to make him as old and ugly as possible. I wanted there to be a truly memorable transformation on with audiences going, “Oh my God, that young guy played that old guy?”

The first time we did the make up it took 17 hours. I think that was really down to me pressing for more age and more decrepitude.

Is there flying in the movie?
Oh my God, yeah. Lots of flying.

James Marsters spoke in an interview at Dragon Con ‘08 and mentioned a bit about his role in the Dragonball movie.

The character he most liked was Piccolo. He said that with “Dragonball” he was more involved (he said he didn’t really offer a lot of ideas, etc. to the directors of “P.S. I Love You” and just wanted to do a good job unlike all the other stars of the show) and that he was constantly hashing things out with the director. He also mentioned that his stunt double did only one stunt for him and that the rest of the time he was the one making those leaps, etc. He mentioned that he was showing off for his girlfriend and the room kinda deflated. *grin* Then, after all that, he was like, “I liked Spike too.” (So do we, James. So do we.)

Not sure what question was asked, but he mentioned that he had a fear of being smothered. Apparently the helmets he wore while being an astronaut got him panicked. That he’d go back to his room and have the shakes and a good cry. (Poor guy. But, I can sooo relate to that feeling.)

He was asked about his height being a problem. (This was asked at the Q & A prior to his concert in London.) He gave the same answer, for the most part. Saying that he’d commented to his son that if he was six feet tall, his son would be going to Harvard. He added that A’s were going to be needed for him to get in now.

He mentioned that he was more comfortable on stage, and that it was a lot more fun. That with film, you didn’t perform/act, but were just yourself.

He was asked how he prepared for Piccolo. He mentioned that he’d seen all the episodes with his son, sometimes more than once, that he liked the “message” of the show. That peaceful, humble men =/= weak. Said it was a good message for young men growing up in today’s world, especially in the US.

Source

Geeks of Doom and Live Journal reports from the second day of Dragon Con with another Marsters Q&A.

He said that the most enjoyable show to shoot of all was DragonBall because he didn’t really have a stunt man and did 99% of the stunts himself and he was scared to death the entire time (he said he has a weird sense of fun ).

“I didn’t have to do very much research,” he said of the film. “I have a son, so I’ve probably watched every single episode of Dragon Ball.”

 

The story was something Marsters really identified with, he said, adding that Goku’s nature to choose violence only as a last resort was a trait all young boys should be exposed to.

“Having said that, the hyper-violence of Dragon Ball has to be there, but in the right context,” he said. “I’ve had debates with my son about it.”

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.