Ace Attorney Live Action Film

Japanese film website Eiga.com confirmed that Takashi Miike (Yatterman, Crows Zero) is directing a live-action adaptation of CAPCOM's Ace Attorney (also known as Gyakuten Saiban) videogame franchise. The film will star Hiroki Narimiya (Gokusen's Noda, NANA's Nobu, Akihabara @ DEEP's Page) as the novice attorney Phoenix Wright (Ryuichi Naruhodo) in his first collaboration with Miike. Other cast members include Takumi Saito (RoboGeisha, Princess Princess D) as prosecutor Miles Edgeworth (Reiji Mitsurugi) and Mirei Kiritani (Arakawa under the Bridge's Nino) as Maya Fey (Mayoi Ayasato).

The film will take place in a parallel world in Japan, where a large increase in harsh crimes has led to a new court system. Under this new system, the defense attorney and public prosecutor have three days to battle cases out in open court to determine guilt or innocence of the accused, placing priority on speed instead of thorough investigation. The film studio Toei plans to use a lot of computer graphics and visual effects in the courtroom scenes in order to make them more interesting, but it will still retain the games' signature lines such as "Igi Ari!" ("Objection!") and "Kurae!" ("Take That!")

A photograph of the courtroom set for the film.

The official site for the Ace Attorney adaptation also announced that the rock band Porno Graffitti will contribute the film's theme song. Porno Graffitti had previously worked on the soundtracks for Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, and Great Teacher Onizuka.

Hiroki Narimiya as Phoenix Wright.

Filming was scheduled to finish in late June, with the film slated to open in theaters throughout Japan in early spring of 2012.

Sources: Eiga.com, andriasang and CAPCOM via Anime News Network

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REBELLIONS, Demo Trailer + The Making of

Last month, a demo trailer for an upcoming movie titled REBELLIONS リベリオンズ was featured in TOEI's official Youtube channel. Here's the clip:

Earlier today, a pre-production video was streamed. The 12-munite "Part 1" features an interview with director Koichi Sakamoto and a look at the visual effects process for the action movie demo. The movie stars Nao Nagasawa (Ninpu Sentai Hurricanger), Minami Tsukui (Geisha Assassin), and Saaya as they battle out an army of cybernetic foot soldiers in a post-apocalyptic world.

Here's the clip:

As of now, TOEI is still looking for partners and investors for the production of this movie. We may or may not see the movie in theaters and DVD's in the future.

REBELLIONS リベリオンズ on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/rebellionsmovie

REBELLIONS リベリオンズ on Twitter
http://twitter.com/RebellionsStaff

Source: JEFusion

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Davis Film obtains film rights to Golgo 13

It was announced at the Toronto International Film Festival that the production company Davis Film have acquired the film adaptation rights for Takao Saito's assassin manga: Golgo 13.

Golgo 13 follows the exploits of Duke Togo, an assassin for hire with superior combat skills, particularly with a sniper rifle. The manga was first published in November 1968 and is the longest running manga still being serialized.

Samuel Hadida of Davis Film hopes to turn the 40 year old manga series into a big-screen feature. Golgo 13 already inspired two earlier live-action films (one starring Ken Takakura in 1973 and another starring Sonny Chiba in 1977), an anime film, a video anime project, and a recent television anime series.

Davis Films is known for its successful adaptations of Japanese media, including Crying Freeman, Silent Hill, and the Resident Evil films.

Source: Hollywood Reporter via Anime News Network

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Space Battleship Yamato (Live Action) Review

Released on DVD and Blu-Ray last June 24, 2011, I was able to grab a copy of the 2010 live action adaptation movie of Leiji Matsumoto's science fiction anime series, Space Battleship Yamato.

The movie is based from the first season of the anime Space Battleship Yamato (also known as Star Blazers or Space Cruiser Yamato to English speaking audiences) which was originally aired in 1974 and contained 26 episodes, following the Yamato's voyage out of the Milky Way Galaxy and back again.

Among the cast of Space Battleship Yamato are SMAP's Takuya Kimura as Susumu Kodai, Meisa Kuroki as Yuki Mori, Reiko Takashima as Dr. Sado, and Isao Sasaki as the narrator.

Plot:

The story starts off in year 2199, the Earth has been under radioactive attacks from extraterrestrials, known as the Gamilas, for the past five years. The Earth's defense forces have been decimated and any surviving humans have had to move underground to escape the radioactive bombardment. The last interstellar battleship of the exhausted Earth Defense Forces, the Yamato, sets out on a mission to Iscandar, a planet located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. There the humans hope to acquire a device that can heal the radiation damaged Earth, before the contamination wipes out the last of humanity. Susumu Kodai joins in on this expedition after the death of his brother Mamoru.

As the story progresses, it also focused on the declining health of Yamato's Captain Okita, how Susumu Kodai handled the pressure of being Yamato's acting captain, as well as his romance with female crew member Yuki Mori.

Overall:

I was not able to see all the episodes of the original anime version nor it's OVA's so I won't be able to completely compare it with the original series.

Space Battleship Yamato features 2 hours of drama and breathtaking sci-fi action. The special effects, designs and the locations looked nice. Yamato itself, the Cosmo fighters, the alien fighters and bases are realistically rendered in CGI. The characters are well portrayed as well, including their appearances. The only thing that seems off is when the characters had their helmets on, their faces kind of looks bigger.

Space Battleship Yamato is indeed worth checking out. It's good. Even for those who are new to the series, it can an enjoyable movie. Especially if you want to check out and understand the first season within lesser time.

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L: Change The World

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I've had some free time today so I watched a DVD that has been lying on my shelf for a while now: L: Change The World (or as some fans call it, Death Note III)

As the title says, the movie is about L Lawliet from the Death Note series following the story of his last case taking place between the Death Note movie and the end of Death Note: The Last Name. The movie was alright, it's L but you'll get to see him do stuff that you won't see in the anime or the two previous movies...

What's wrong with these pictures?

Oh, yeah and I don't want to give spoilers but you might know who this kid is... yes, he is also in the movie.

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