Saiyan Island

Eriko Tamura (Mai) updated her blog today. The post was dated March 23rd, but she states she was unable to post it until today.

The filming [has] wrapped! Finally..finally !!! The last shoot was the scene [with] James [Marsters] and I, it took till night, and the moment we finished, Paul shouted ”Eriko’s wrapped!” [and] I was filled with emotion. Jim* said happily, ”We did it!!” staring at my eyes, we hugged one another and shared our joy. Rod stood by us, at the moment, I felt we could relate to one another without words. After talking [a few words with Tim], there [was] a photo session. Crew and Mexican workers took a lot of photos with us. [When it] ended, I came back to the trailer with my friends coming from LA. I signed my autograph to various [people], and we got into a bought car, [and] we left the set.

After we came back to the hotel, my friends and I went to Jim’s home, and there happened to be Rob, who is the cinematographer, and Paul and Jim. They partied with the [men], [and] we joined them and drank a little, and we talked genuinely about the past days [in] Durango and we had a very [good] time.

[When we] came back to the hotel again, I packed up in a hurry. Baggage for two months [is so] much but I didn’t [have] time to rest, soon I got into a bought car and we went to the Durango airport and came back with Jim and Rod [in] the same airplane.

Read more…

James Marsters (Piccolo) recently confirmed at The Rift that ki (energy blasts) would be used in the movie.

“PS I Love You – thinks he was boring. He went along planning to be a good boy, and it ended up boring. Has decided now he’s actually hired to be an arsehole. To make his character interesting. So with this new attitude on, he got hired to do Dragonball Z.

They started off with this total age makeup for his character, really old and decrepit and stuff. Then they decided that wouldn’t be pretty enough to sell. But JM thought it was essential to his character. It was his character’s whole motivation. He got locked up for ages, he got old, when he got out and saw himself for the first time he decided to get even. So he went to the makeup artist with a picture of the original old guy test makeup and told him to make it like that. Makeup artist said the producers were pretty sure, but JM said if the producers cared they’d be there. They weren’t even in the same country. So.

He has a lot of stunt work in the new film. When asked what the difference was between TV and film he said for TV he had a stuntman. So for the film he’s getting thrown off things and blown up and kicked in the face. One time his character is getting shot at by another character, power blasts, and he ducks and it blows up the rock behind him. So they got set up to blow it up and JM asked, said the quicker he stands up the cooler it will be. So he ducks, they blow it up, he stands up right away when there’s still chunks flying. The camera people, taken somewhat by surprise, leap to do their jobs. One person gets hit by something, and JM still feels guilty about that. (Be asks who was running stunts and how is it possible an actor can mess up the timing/safety issues?) (… what country were they filming in?) But JM’s logic is his character isn’t bothered by some rock blowing up. He only has to dodge his enemies’ blasts. Rock isn’t a problem for the supervillain.”

Thanks to Craig for the source.

Slashfilm found the first American teaser poster for DragonBall! It’s almost exactly like the Japanese teaser poster we posted earlier today, only the text is written in English.

- Removed by request of studio -

Dragonball Le Film found the first Japanese teaser poster for Dragonball on a Japanese blog. Please note the March release date printed on the poster is for Japan only, as previously reported.

According to a IMDB member, Sour Mikan, here is what is written:

“Legend becomes reality
March 2009
Dragonball
www.dragonball-movie.jp

El Siglo de Durango posted a small article on the money Durango gained from Dragonball. They also stated the production team was interested in two other movies to be filmed in Durango.

Spills

The last film that was made on an entity left a spilled over 15 million for the hotel industry, and the last three months has been the best period in history in the entity on hotel occupancy, he said.

For three months was maintained between 80 to 90 percent and nearly 30 days was a record of 100 percent in six hotels of between four and five stars, ie were 24 thousand quarts-night.

This was only in occupation, not counting the casting which was conducted for the recruitment of thousand people who participated as extras.

Expected

He said it must seize this kind of footage because Durango is a place in film history, at this point would be the best hook for the promotion coupled with the same directors who contemplate the possibility of returning to the entity.

He noted that they were very interested in continuing a second and third stages of filming.

Nothing too new, but interesting nonetheless.

Chow Yun-Fat’s dialect coach Gregory Charles talked about his work with Chow on set on his blog.

My work involved working with Chow Yun-Fat to help him get his pronunciation as clear and intelligible as possible. We did most of the ground work in Hong Kong and in Durango before filming began which was fortunate, because during filming, there was little time or energy left to do any extra work revision. During filming, my work required me to listen very carefully with my headphones to everything he said, making sure he did not drop any words and helping him to improve his pronunciation when necessary.

Mr. Chow is no slacker. By the time we began filming, his pronunciation was excellent dialog, not perfect but excellent none-the-less. Even so, work on my location was not easy. It required intense concentration to listen to every syllable of his dialog, note the areas that needed improvement, analyse areas which were within his immediate grasp or absolutely needed improvement and use the most efficient method possible to communicate the needed changes to him, all within seconds of completion of each shot. It was challenging and tiring but we did a pretty good job.

Mr. Chow’s work ethics are admirable. His dedication to his work is truly remarkable.

Within hours of confirmation of his role in the movie, he began examining and developing his character, and he spent considerable time working on his dialog. From confirmation of his role until weeks into filming, he barely slept as he considered all of the options for his character, an experience I shared last year when preparing for “They’re Playing Our Song.” He worked so hard and slept so little that he became ill just a couple of weeks into filming. But even sickness barely slowed him down. He rested for two days and went straight back to work, getting daily antibiotic injections until he was fully recovered, and regular vitamin supplement injections until filming was complete.

[Read more]

Dragonball Movie Blog reader Spikesgurl posted part of the Q&A with James Marsters at Grand Slam. He talks about Piccolo, and some trouble with the producers. Needless to say, he’s still pumped for the role.

Ariel Shaw (300, Final Destination) is the visual effects supervisor.

Jamie Chung (Chi-Chi) posted 3 new set photos on her myspace page. We won’t post all of them because we’ve gotten into trouble for posting unofficial pictures before, but you can certainly check them out on her myspace if you have an account.