Cool Stars in Dragonball Movie

LEGIONS of Dragonball fans had gone frantic when news came out that their well-loved Goku will soon be made into a full-length live action movie. As threads of exchanges in the world wide web got longer, one issue weighed most than the others… What will they do to Goku’s hair? Fans obviously wanted to see that unique signature-styled spiked coif that made Goku such a worldwide manga phenomenon.
Created for television by Akira Toriyama, Dragonball has spawned best selling graphic novels and videogames. The television series has exploded into a global phenomenon that has generated more than four billion dollars in merchandising sales. Considered as the gold standard of anime-based video games, it now has more than 25 different games and over ten million units sold since May 2002. The series is 500 episodes strong and has posted top ratings in Europe, Asia and in the U.S. As such, the challenges in adapting Dragonball for the big screen were formidable, starting with creating a story that would satisfy the hardcore fans and introduce the world to non-fans.
Turning a beloved global property into a motion picture is no easy task, and it took years after 20th Century Fox acquired the rights of the graphic novel series to make it happen. Its big-screen adaptation finally began to come together when filmmaker James Wong, whose works in the science fiction/fantasy genre is unmatched, took an interest in the property. Wong and screenwriter Ben Ramsey worked to hit the right combination of the fantastic and relatable. “I believe that the appeal of Dragonball, beyond its super-cool action, is the richly creative world that Toriyama invented,” says Ramsey.
Wong and Ramsey took note of the fact that Dragonball is set in a multi-cultural environment, where future and past become one. It is a world where “race place no significant role.” To that end, the casting process for the film is, as Wong puts it, “color blind.”
Justin Chatwin (Tom Cruise’s son in “War of the Worlds”) landed the role of Goku after an exhaustive worldwide search. Goku is a high school student whose innocence and guilelessness are left behind when he begins his hero’s journey. “The character has a great arc – from nerd to the planet’s savior,” says Wong.
Goku’s transformative journey is all well and good, as are his martial arts skills, but a subject of equal scrutiny was the character’s…hair. “That was my first question to James (Wong),” says Chatwin with a laugh. “What are you going to do with the hair? It’s so important that even the hair has an arc!” Indeed, Goku’s hairstyle evolves through the film into its signature, spiky “do.”
Joining Goku’s adventures are Emmy Rossum (“The Day After Tomorrow”) who plays Bulma, a beautiful woman intent on retrieving the mystical Dragonballs for her own reasons; Jamie Chung (“Samurai Girl”) is Chi Chi, a young martial artist who captures Goku’s eye; and screen legend Chow Yun-Fat (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) is Roshi, the Master who guides Goku on the young man’s epic quest to save the Earth from the forces of darkness.

Playing Goku’s nemesis are James Marsters (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) who takes on the role of Lord Piccolo, whose return could signal the Earth’s destruction; international performing sensation Joon Park is Yamcha, a charismatic “bad boy” whose schemes could thwart the heroes’ journey; popular Japanese actress Eriko (“Heroes”) is Mai, an assassin who works with Piccolo; Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”) is Sifu Norris, a Master and contemporary of Roshi’s; and Randall Duk Kim (“The Matrix Revolutions”) is Goku’s grandfather Gohan, whose lessons for Goku begins to prepare the young man for the monumental tasks that lie ahead.
Emmy Rossum appreciated the challenges of playing such a multi-faceted character whose hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners attitude begins to change after she joins Goku and Roshi on their search for the Dragonballs. “Bulma comes to realize that life is about much more than her personal quest,” says Rossum. “The character in the manga and now our film is so alive, funny and spunky. She’s anything but ordinary. In the manga, Bulma sports a blue bob, which became her signature look. Rossum recalls that the filmmakers tried different ways to capture that coloring and style, including dyes, hair extensions and wigs, but ultimately went in a more realistic direction. Nevertheless, there are traces of blue and purple laced throughout the character’s wardrobe.” A bonus for the actress was learning to ride Bulma’s speedster, which the production created from a Harley motorcycle.
One of today’s brightest and most appealing young stars, Chung brought much more to Chi Chi than martial abilities. She has the sparkling energy necessary to fully capture the two sides of the character. “Chi Chi is the ‘It Girl’ – the most popular girl in high school,” says Chung. “She comes from a wealthy family, and everyone expects certain things from her. But she has a second life – a secret life – marked by her passion to fight. She comes off like the girl next door, but when she turns it on, she kicks butt!”
Working with Piccolo is Mai, an exotic beauty tainted by malevolence. Her weapons of choice are throwing knives known as shiruken. Japanese-born actress Eriko, who came to “DRAGONBALL: EVOLUTION” after wrapping a recurring role on “Heroes,” says she enjoyed playing a “strong, tough woman on a mission.” James Wong adds that Eriko gives the role a “special quality and toughness.”
Inspired by the manga, the filmmakers had produced a movie mix of action, humor and character relationships for the new movie. “Huge action set pieces, state of the art visual effects, and elaborate martial arts sequences would be key elements of “Dragonball: Evolution,” as well as the exploration of the characters, their rich histories, and their evolving relationships,” says Wong.
Fantastic action adventure explodes when “Dragonball: Evolution” opens in cinemas across the nation from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

Cena Cinema!

Automobiles, streetcars and ferryboats are transformed into potential weapons of mass destruction in “12 Rounds” starring wrestling idol John Cena. In the movie, Cena plays everyday cop Danny Fisher in New Orleans struggling to save his kidnapped girlfriend from a revenge-seeking criminal. The revenge embroiled Fisher in a cat-and-mouse chase of “12 Rounds” in the city of New Orleans. As each round nears to a conclusion, the tasks keeps Danny guessing at every treacherous turn, hurtling the determined cop through the city at a breakneck pace.
Q: Initial reaction to the title was that it was 12 rounds of boxing, but that’s not the case.
A: Everyone gets that idea and they are pleasantly surprised when they find out it’s 12 challenges and not 12 rounds of boxing. I think people will be pleasantly surprised with the movie as well. I don’t know what people are expecting but I think this movie will exceed their expectations.
Q: Can you describe your character in the movie?
A: Danny fisher is just a regular cop, who makes a bit of a lucky bust and knows it. . The whole everyman thing is easy, I’m just trying to be me, I like the fact that Danny struggles. He doesn’t come out of a phone booth and stop bullets.
Q: How is this character different from the Marine?
A: The Marine was more like a terminator character, there is even a line in the movie, “this guys like the terminator.” He’s very impervious to bullets, indestructible, a guy who can’t be defeated. Danny Fisher really is a normal dude. There are moments in the movie were he experiences defeat, doubt, he doesn’t have faith in what he can do. It’s a very normal scenario for someone to go through as opposed to the Marine, who is very super human.
Q: How does this movie help in your career as an actor?
A: It’s more than another role for me; this is my initiation into the rarified air of action movie star. Moreover, the film’s Danny Fisher is the type of action hero that I enjoyed watching, as a fan of the genre. The ‘80s was the era of the ‘everyman’ hero. nd there hasn’t been that style of hero since then. Guys like Bruce Willis in ‘Die Hard’ proved that an everyday person can be an action hero. If I’m even considered in that club, I’m definitely off to a great start.”
Q: How was it working with Ashley Scott who plays your girlfriend in the movie?
A: Ashley Scott was great, not only is she a beautiful young woman but she’s very fun to be around. The dynamic of the couple is a couple that’s been around for a while, but really, the guy is very gun shy and the girl is very, very independent and fun to be with and she’s just that.
Q: How was it working with the director of Die Hard 2?
A: Renny Harlin is a great guy, both personality and professionally. He was so very well prepared that he had the entire movie shot before I got there for pre-production. He had it in his head what he wanted to do with the movie before having even met me. I was fascinated by that, every day, he would come to the set with unbelievable shot lists and people would think that he wouldn’t be able to get it done and he got it done. On a personal level, very, very good guy to know and a very great guy to hang with.
“12 Rounds” opens March 25 in theaters nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

V is for...

TOM Cruise receives most important award in Germany despite controversies...

“Valkyrie,” Tom Cruise’s most controversial film to-date and one of world history’s most stunning story has finally opened in Philippine cinemas last February 11.

Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in the suspense film “Valkyrie,” based on a true story that chronicles the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known.

The movie had been the focus of controversy even before the first frame was even shot. The film’s rough ride to the big screen started when the German government forbade the film’s production on Bendler Block, Berlin, the site of Stauffenberg’s execution stating that the ‘dignity of the place’ will be violated.

It was only when producer/writer Christopher McQuarrie McQuarrie met with German officials and assured them of the production’s intentions to tell the remarkable story of Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators with the dignity it deserved, they were allowed to film at locations all over Berlin, including the Bendlerblock. When filming had begun in 2007, Berthold Stauffenberg, Claus Stauffenberg’s son declared in a German newspaper interview that the film is ‘bound to be rubbish.’

More controversies arise as the film progressed wherein Cruise’s Scientology began to receive negative attention in Germany. For the Germans, Scientology is regarded as ‘an organization pursuing commercial interests’ rather than religion. “There was a small minority who made comments about my religion but for me it was like ‘well, okay...’ Of course people want to talk about that and there were a couple of people who felt that way about it but most of the things that were said just weren’t true,” Cruise explains.

The film also suffered accidents wherein ten extras are injured after falling off the back of a truck during filming in Berlin. As more photos and footages of the film are released, more criticism came up in Germany including that of the altered photos of the real Stauffenberg to look more like Tom Cruise and rumors have it that Cruise had to re-record some of his lines to correct the German accent.

But just who is Stauffenberg and why had there been so much resistance on the film? At the center of Valkyrie is Claus von Stauffenberg, the charismatic aristocrat who would ultimately risk everything to carry a bomb into Hitler’s private conference room.

Descended from 700 years of German nobility, Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria as part of an elite family. Artistically inclined, he loved architecture, music, and poetry, but in the 1920s became a military officer. He was said to have been singled out by his superiors for possessing a genius for military organization and logistics, and he rapidly rose in the ranks. Stauffenberg became Chief of the General Staff of the Reserve Army – a job that would take him into direct personal meetings with Hitler. He suddenly found himself in the perfect position to make an assassination attempt on the Führer.

The historian Annedore Leber wrote of Stauffenberg: “[He was] the prototype of those young higher officers who, though their own future careers were never in doubt, nevertheless had the will to take action. They acted from the officer’s sense of responsibility to his troops, the citizen’s sense of responsibility to his people.”

In the end, with all the hard work that went into the film and the incredible experience of making it, Cruise is very pleased with the end result. “The film is a ticking clock,” he says. “This is a dynamic suspense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through. I’m proud that we got the film made, and I’m very proud of what everyone accomplished.”

In the midst of the controversies that surrounded the film, early reviews reveal that there are no comedy German accents and one of Tom Cruise’s digitally erased hand ‘looks pretty great.’ And in November 2007, just right after filming “Valkyrie,” Tom Cruise received a Bambi award, the most important media award in Germany for “Courage” – not only for displaying courage in making Valkyrie, but also his courageous choices of film roles.