Interview with James Marsters
As promised, my source has translated the interview with James Marsters (Piccolo) from the August issue of Jump Square magazine. Give it a read!
What is the difference between the original and the live-action movie ?
JM: Definitely the story of this movie is different from the original. But it’s a necessary change because we need to condense the long story of the original for a movie. For example, some characters in the original don’t appear in the movie. And we try to give it a more gritty and graphic (realistic) feeling.
Though there are differences between the two, I think it is all right if the core part of Dragonball remains. I let my son watch the anime’s Dragonball, DBZ and DBGT since he was eight years old. At first, I thought it was too violent, but I realized this is the best show for training to become a true man. True men need not to flaunt themselves. Their calm, gentle and modest but when it comes to the crunch they don’t hesitate to kill the enemy, and I think that’s what Goku is.
Goku is a real man. I know my son received such a message and applied it to his own life. My son doesn’t use violence to others, but he isn’t afraid of his own anger. I think it’s an important thing.
How many hours does it take to apply the make-up?
JM: It takes about four hours. Luckily, my make-up artist is very chatty, we have a lot of chat during the make up.
Please tell us the most remarkable scene in the movie, especially action scenes!
JM: It is the last battle after all! I like playing the battle scene. When I worked for a TV show for seven years, every Friday I fought till sun rise, I felt I would never have such a good time again until now. In addition, I have never gotten terribly hurt (laugh).
Do you talk with other co-stars as well?
JM: When I have a problem, I have a talk with Justin [Chatwin]. At first, we worried about the costumes. We thought it should reflect the spirit of the original, we persisted this thought to the producers. We didn’t want to make our characters beautiful and safe. I talked with Justin, and he agreed with me. So did the director.
What do you care about in acting for this movie?
JM: That’s a good question. Speaking of Piccolo, one word comes into my mind, it’s “loneliness”. Piccolo is always floating in the air in the beautiful landscape, but he never even admires the landscape, he is only thinking or musing and staring at his feet. I think that is a characteristic of piccolo more than anything else. Maybe it must be a characteristic for revenge. He hates himself and blames the people who has trapped him. His desire to kill not only them but their family, furthermore to destroy the city and the planet they live and protect. To get revenge is everything to him. Everything.
How was shooting in Durango?
JM: The desert of Durango is very cold at night (laugh). I was luckily wearing armor, but Goku was freezing at the beginning of shooting. The local people are very kind and get along with us. Besides they love to party very much! If I didn’t have work, I would be willing to join them. They are drinking and singing songs until 4:30 a.m. But I need to sleep for the shooting the next day, after all so I changed the hotel to get away from the partying people.
Finally, please give us a message to our readers in Japan.
JM: Japan is beautiful. Thank you for giving Dragonball to us! It’s an important show to us all and I want you to watch it, especially the young people. I thank the show for a lot of good times with my son. I’ll do my best to meet the high expectations the fans have.
Also, Dragonballfilm posted up a small interview with Texas Battle (Carey Fuller) about his role in the movie. Check it out here.
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if you’re a real fan, appreciate the effort of the movie makers because the people behind these work had a lot of thinking of what to put in the movie. so back off! dbz is a a really hard word to work into and a lot of background is hard to insert in script. all in all, we’ll just see. those who oppose, make your own movie!!
YO!!! THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO BE GARBAGE IF THATS THE WAY IT’S GOING TO BE PRODUCED, THEY’RE NOT STICKING TO THE ACTUAL SERIES , GOKU IS WEREING MODERN CLOTHING?!! SINCE WHEN DID MASTER ROSHI HAVE HAIR? YAMCHA LOOKS WACK AND WHY ARE YALL EVEN DOING THE DRAGONBALL SERIES, NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT PEOPLE WANT TO SEE THE CELL SAGA, THIS MOVIE WONT SELL AND WONT GET GOOD RATINGS
ITS GOING TO BE A 2008 STREET FIGHTER!!!
GOOD LUCK
Look at first i actually agreed that this movie would most likely suck. After a while though I changed my mind cause they are basing this movie on our world, in real life. You can’t expect everything thats in an anime carttom to make it into the real world, it just wouldnt look right and we couldnt relate to the characters as well. Piccolo though should look just from the anime though with the cape, hat and everything. I feel better about this movie.
i’ve seen picture and all but i would be terrible if the special effects sucked and all the dragonball, dragonballz, and dragonball gt fans were disappointed!
And why have justin Chatwin play goku! I mean look at him, he has hardly any muscle to show! He has short hair, put a wig on him! And for all that don’t like i say, “i’m a dragonball, dragonballz, and dragonball gt fan, not a fan to a movie with a nonmuscle goku!
who wants to see a pic of lord iccolo and i am not bluffing just let me send
it to ya e-mail addres belive me send it to every1 u no
I’m sorry but this movie is going to suck, The way you guys are portraying the characters is not even close! You guys are gonna ruin the best Anime series ever of all time with this movie…
@josh: DUDE that is totally true, plus bulma’s hair is Blue! and goku’s is black! & personally i think you guys should of casted Wee man as krillin. And for god sake get the costumes right! spend some time in google images or something!
Man the world tournament is complete BS looks nothing like the real deal and What the hell whats up with goku wearing regular clothes? He just looks like your average joe with crazy, and I saw all the new costumes for goku they all suck. Seriously you guys need to revert to the original the one justin was wearing in the 1st poster that came out were hes looking up and his hair is normal. Thats the one he should be wearing the entire film!
Seriously i wish i could become a director just to repair all the damage you guys have done with this film…
WHAT WERE YOU GUYS SMOKING WHEN YOU MADE THIS FILM!!!!!
IT DOES NOT EVEN DISERVE THE TITTLE OF DRAGONBALL!!!!!!!!!!
ITS ALMOST AS BAD AS THE LAST DRAGONBALL MOVIE THAT COME OUT!!
I’m agreeing with SSJ5 goku on all this cause when i saw pictures they did not look that great! When that film comes out people are going to walk in thinking its good but when they walk out most of them will probly be pissed!
Awesome. I have been waiting for Db as live action for, well, years. Like some I had my negative thoughts but resolved to go into theaters in 09 with an open mind. Aside from Darkstalkers and Akira, Dragonball was the first real anime I had ever seen. I am glad to see that people are far more open minded about it now that Marsters has had his word on it. He seems really enthusiastic and loyal to the core of DB, and from what he says, so does Chatwin.
I heard some bashing in other forums in the form of the complaint that Goku was not being portrayed by a Japanese actor. Well firstly, the original legend Dragonball was based on was Chinese. The Legend of the Monkey King. And then Toriyama goes to include some western influence in his own manga. Besides, Goku isn’t even human, he’s a Saiyan/saiya-jin. I think it can be done for that matter, as long as, if they make further movies that include other saiyans, they follow their own established look.
I also had worries on Marsters. Mind you, I am a big Buffy and Angel fan, and Spike is actually my favorite character. He can pull off the character most definitely and his martial arts isn’t too shabby……but there is a little problem. And I emphasize little. James Marsters isn’t that tall or beefed. But then I took into mind that in this installment it is the old “demon” piccolo we will be seeing, so it seems they can make it work there.
Of course, in making any movie adaptation you have to cut and rearrange the story a little as he mentioned had to be done. You just can completely condense volumes and volumes of manga into a 2-3 hour long movie and remain completely loyal.
What matters is remaining true to the core and feelings of the series, which Marsters and Chatwin seem to grasp. So I am optimistic.
Now, if they do further movies, perhaps leading up to the defeat of Frieza…….I would love to see Jet Li as Vegeta. Once again that would have one Saiyan looking western and one Asian, but it would almost be worth it. Just check out the ending scene in “The One” where Ulaw is walking up the steps of that pyramid like structure, listen to the rough town of his voice, the look on his face, and you’ll see what I mean.
Ok you little bitches im tired of hearing all the bullshit about anime, live action hair translation and what colors goku should be wearing just give it a chance go watch the mother trucker and then voice your opinion to the internet (not like the world gives a crap what you think anyway) its not like your gonna change anthing anyway so chut up and crawl bak up into your mamas ass until the movie comes out…..(totally agreeing with douche mongrel here!) Zieghiel bitches and hoes!!:twisted:
I still dont freakin get why Kuririn isnt there!!!!!!!!….he appears in the second arc of dragon ball, the best friend of goku, and pays an important role in Goku’s transformation as a Super Sayajin….he also played an important role in fighting vegeta, remember when he shot gokus spirit bomb?…..WHY ISNT HE THERE!!!!!!!!!!…..this is balls
I dare you to flame my ass for posting this, I DARE YOU…you’re not makin the movie longer by putting an important character in the series..
im still steamed about this crap
honestly have u guys seen the pictures of justin chatwin!!
hes a disgrace so goku his hair is totally gay and he looks like a rat
WHERES THE ORANGE TRAINING OUTFIT tht goku barely ever took of
grity and realistic? that is not what dragon ball z is
and picolo is a fuking buff dude james masters is a skinny mouther fuker
tbh all the pics so far look like they have ruined a good idea
it kill me to say this but it shud be CGI
PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG
look at the pictures and tell me im wrong
and the biggest point of all is THERE NOT TELLING THE TRUE STORY OF DBZ
ill eat my hat if im wrong dont get rid of my comment just coz of my opinion
I’ve been waiting on this film for years, I just pry it’s not cheezy like Mortal Kombt
Well hopefully the DBZ movie doesn’t end up a big let down like when street fighter and mortal kombat were made some of the actors seem to fit the characters in the game but wasn’t as exciting as it should have been u know each one of those movies that came out i was expecting more. But deep inside knew the movies wouldn’t have fit the game like it should have. So for me it was a big let down. But if the DBZ movie ain’t what it should be when it comes out in theatres i think that screw up the reputation that Dragon Ball in general all around has got from fans since the 80’s all the way up till now. So i hope tori the creater of “DBZ” is keeping his eyes on how the production of the movie is going. Because if the movie isn’t a smash hit like all us fans want it to be i think it would mess his reputation as well big time, ecause he’s the creator. If i were him would be watching over every lil detail from cast and wardrobe. I mean cast in the movie should have the exact wardrobe as they do in the cartoon. If were the directer i would make sure everything in the movie fit every lil detail in the cartoon as much as possible. Well that’s it for my say on the movie good luck in production people.
yours truly,
The Worlds Savior
ooooh, i really wannna see that hopefully the special fx will be good other wise the whole thing will be pointless, i have to see it, though maybe they’re just milking it for all it’s worth i mean there’s thousands of episodes like twenty movies in cartoon already plus the manga, thoughi am curious. and dude if you play piccolo badly i will slice you into little peices using a spatula
So as I understand the logic behind this “American†version, Goku is not from this planet. The extraterrestrial/dimensional Parents decide to drop Goku off on planet earth. And naturally all off world aliens are white skinned so this all makes sense, and it is logical to change the story for our egotistic needs. After all we do share a diverse nation and we should gain whatever strength we can through the power of storytelling so we can forever stay in mental conflict with our American / not American (wink wink) brothers. I see.
hello
im new on this forum….