[LAEM] It's all up in the air

[GAP]

This guy fits Shinji well, too bad he is getting old.

[schismatics]

[url]http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MovieTheaterLad/news/?a=14145[/url]

I would watch this movie. DONALD SUTHERLAND & JOSH BROLIN?! YOU CAN'T GO WRONG! lmfao

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

And Robin Williams playing Kiel.

[Sammaeloo]

And Robin Williams playing Kiel.

Robin Williams needs to be Gendo for the lulz.

[Grimmjow]

Dakota Fanning as Rei is gay.

Sutherland would be teh epics for Kozo though.

There actually was a LA anime film recently released called Blood the Last Vampire. I've heard it's about as good as its original material. I'm not sure how well it did.

I can see a few ways this film can turn out.
No 1:Utter and complete crap(a la Dragon ball evolution)
No 2:Utter manliness but completely westernized
No 3: A mediocre action flick.
No 4: They actually pull it off and make a reasonably good film.

Hugo Weaving for Gendo FTW

We are all hoping for option 4.

[Joseph the PRPD]

[url]http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MovieTheaterLad/news/?a=14145[/url]

What a sucky cast and "ew" at some of these Americanized names.

[Guyver Spawn]

Hugo Weaving for Gendo FTW

This. I hope Fox has nothing to do with this movie, and they would screw up everything if they had the rights to it. I think a studio like Universal or Liongate might be good choices. I hope the movie takes place in Japan since having in LA or New York City won't feel the same in my opinon. I would not mind if Shinji in the movie was born in Japan then live in the USA most of his life then came to Tokyo 3 as the movie starts.

I think Asuka Shibuya (Devilman, The Great Horror Family) would be a good Rei in my opinon.

[Timstuff]

I can see it. She's a cutey.



As for Hugh Laurie as Gendo, hellz yes.



As for the anglizations of characters' names, I agree that that one person's list was pretty horrendous. I'd prefer that the characters at the center of the story have pretty much the same names as in the Anime, and the further away from that circle you move the easier it is to get away with changing their names. In my treatment, I renamed Kaji as Roger Kimball, and with Misato I included the option of her last name being changed to Cunningham, depending on who was cast as her (but her first name was always unchanged). Kensuke Aida became Kenneth Adams (or "Kenny"), but Toji Suzihara remained the same since I wanted him to remain Asian. The character who I couldn't really figure out an alternate name for who I felt needed one was Ritsuko, but I figured that her first name might work well as "Rachel."

The funny thing about Asuka is that I'm pretty sure that in the movie, the bit about her being 1/4 Japanese will be dropped (and it was probably only in the original so she'd fit the "not too foreign" trope), but then that begs the question of what to do with her name. Well, rather than give her a crappy sounding Anglican name like Alice (or *shudders* Kate Rose), I just put it into my treatment that Shinji asked how she ended up with a name like Asuka, to which she said "My parents were hippies." Simple as that! ;)

[Lucretius]

It just occurred to me that a live action Eva would be like a live-action South Park; I just can't picture any of the characters as real people. They're entertaining caricatures who would seem ridiculous in a live action format. So all casting possibilities are probably fail.

[Timstuff]

I wouldn't quite go so far as to say it'd be as ridiculous as a live action South Park, (at least in Evangelion the characters look somewhat humanoid, in comparison to South Park), but it's one of those things that I'd just kind of accept going in. The actors will hopefully look somewhat like the characters, but I'm not expecting any miracles. At best they'd look somewhat like some of the more photorealistic fan art depictions or really good cosplayers, but certainly not dopplegangers.

Also, I expect that some of their more extreme personality traits will be toned down to make them believable in live action. Like, Shinji may be slightly less of a pussy, Asuka and Misato might be slightly less bipolar, Rei might not be quite as vacant, etc. In Shinji's case, I expect change more due to bettering the odds that the audience will accept him as a protagonist than because a self-centered whiner wouldn't be believable on film, but with Misato's drunkeness and Asuka's constant bitching, it's a lot easier to get away with as much as we saw in the TV show when it's animated than in live action.

[GAP]

Well, even if Shinji's whines in the anime, you make a make point about toning down a little but still I just hope that they keep the core traits that made his character so endearing in the first place. He is the reluctant hero, he doesn't want to pilot Eva but does so anyway to earn the respect of father who abandoned him years ago, he tries and fails to live up to the standarads of other super robot heroes, he is an antisocial young man who keeps his emotions bottled in instead talkin about them wih somehe trusts and he is the viewer surrogate, he is a realistic depiction of what would happen if a normal person was told to pilot a robot he knows nothing about against an enemy he doesn't understand.

Everyone hate George Lucas for woobifying Darth Vader into a wimp especially when you have Christen Henderson being a bit overdramatic in the role. Shinji forces the viewer to recognize their own faults while viewing his weaknesses and failures, I don't want Shinji to be a jerkass or a badass for that matter, I want a realistic depiction of a young boy running away from his problems instead of confronting them.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I wouldn't quite go so far as to say it'd be as ridiculous as a live action South Park, (at least in Evangelion the characters look somewhat humanoid, in comparison to South Park), but it's one of those things that I'd just kind of accept going in. The actors will hopefully look somewhat like the characters, but I'm not expecting any miracles. At best they'd look somewhat like some of the more photorealistic fan art depictions or really good cosplayers, but certainly not dopplegangers.

I would take good actors over look-alikes any day. But if they can somehow manage both, even better.

[Gendo'sPapa]

So it's less Eva and more just some big cash in name only ripoff of Eva?

Yeah....which is why I still support an Expensive ORIGINAL Science Fiction franchise inspired by Eva which could have giant attacking Aliens, Massive Biomechanical Creatures used to fight them, flawed broken characters, and an apocalyptic climax. THAT I would support. An ORIGINAL production. Do that and I'm in theaters no worries. Do Eva Live Action and it's just another in a series of uncreative brand name marketing. And just opens up a thousand disputes on why one version works and the other doesn't (a discussion we've already seen a million times over in regards to NGE vs. Rebuild).

Give me Eva INSPIRED Science Fiction Films. Don't just give me Eva with a Prettier Face.
I don't want to see a BLADE RUNNER remake. But I do want to worlds LIKE Blade Runner.

Of course the more I read on this thread the more I can tell who actually LIKES what Eva is and who just likes it for just the pretty explosions and cause its popular.

[Electric Sachiel]

Of course the more I read on this thread the more I can tell who actually LIKES what Eva is and who just likes it for just the pretty explosions and cause its popular.

If your referring to Eva's psychological development within its characters and the journeys each character makes in his/her self-discovery in their own emotional worlds, clearly thats only one part of Eva. Theres nothing wrong to be an Eva fan that also looks up to and admires the avant-garde choreography, camera angles (telephone pole, random objects in frame), the Eva (mecha designs) and the brilliant action oriented choreography seen during the battles.

I would say personally that I'm more of the latter. I enjoyed the original Eva for what it was. But i always wished for more action and outlandish well done battle scenes with the Evas. I got my wish in Rebuild. Eva 2.0 was awesome for all that it was. For the LAEM I hope that the same care is put towards the technical aspects of the movie. Those mecha designs, choreography, special effects.

Psychological and deep emotional character development is certainly needed and a big part of what Eva is. But i hope that some of you dont disregard the Eva fans who like the OTHER half of what Eva IS. To say that your not an Eva fan because you like this OTHER half (mechas, action, choreography, technical animation/special effects) and not the pyschological/emo aspects as much is just wrong....

[Uriel Septim VII]

Of course the more I read on this thread the more I can tell who actually LIKES what Eva is and who just likes it for just the pretty explosions and cause its popular.

If your referring to Eva's psychological development within its characters and the journeys each character makes in his/her self-discovery in their own emotional worlds, clearly thats only one part of Eva. Theres nothing wrong to be an Eva fan that also looks up to and admires the avant-garde choreography, camera angles (telephone pole, random objects in frame), the Eva (mecha designs) and the brilliant action oriented choreography seen during the battles.

Then there's the expectation that a live-action movie won't be done right in reference to the underlying characteristics. We can just be assured that they'll get the milieu and mis-en-scene right. I also don't know if Anno's cinematic trademarks will be emulated.

[Timstuff]

Of course the more I read on this thread the more I can tell who actually LIKES what Eva is and who just likes it for just the pretty explosions and cause its popular.

If your referring to Eva's psychological development within its characters and the journeys each character makes in his/her self-discovery in their own emotional worlds, clearly thats only one part of Eva. Theres nothing wrong to be an Eva fan that also looks up to and admires the avant-garde choreography, camera angles (telephone pole, random objects in frame), the Eva (mecha designs) and the brilliant action oriented choreography seen during the battles.

I would say personally that I'm more of the latter. I enjoyed the original Eva for what it was. But i always wished for more action and outlandish well done battle scenes with the Evas. I got my wish in Rebuild. Eva 2.0 was awesome for all that it was. For the LAEM I hope that the same care is put towards the technical aspects of the movie. Those mecha designs, choreography, special effects.

Psychological and deep emotional character development is certainly needed and a big part of what Eva is. But i hope that some of you dont disregard the Eva fans who like the OTHER half of what Eva IS. To say that your not an Eva fan because you like this OTHER half (mechas, action, choreography, technical animation/special effects) and not the pyschological/emo aspects as much is just wrong....

Well said. To say that Evangelion isn't about awesome robot / kaiju battles with amazing animation is as much of a disservice to the franchise as it is to say it's not about character development and psychological introspection. If the people who would argue otherwise truly understood just how friggin' hard it is to make something like an Evangelion move with ink and paint on acetate, I think they'd appreciate that aspect of the show quite a bit more!

For me, what sold me on Evangelion was not that it was a ho-hum robot show with a good hook of three dimensional characters and lots of symbolism-- it was that it had that hook and it was really well animated and having great action. A lot of people forget that a major reason why Evangelion is considered one of the best mecha series ever made, is because the mecha part is good!

What initially got me into Eva was that the action reminded me of the Godzilla movies (which I was crazy about as a kid), and it had characters who were worth caring about. If we're going to claim that Evangelion is only a character study with mecha as a backdrop, then I see no reason for it to be a mecha series and not just one of the countless "slice of life" anime series that are available, or just a supernaturally themed show with no action scenes.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

So it's less Eva and more just some big cash in name only ripoff of Eva?

Yeah....which is why I still support an Expensive ORIGINAL Science Fiction franchise inspired by Eva which could have giant attacking Aliens, Massive Biomechanical Creatures used to fight them, flawed broken characters, and an apocalyptic climax.

Hey, there's an idea. Why not Hollywood do that? Oh, wait. Then someone there would have do something creative, and nobody there wants to do that.

I do miss the authentic creativity that would ever-so-sparingly pop up in movies every so often. I can even see why my film instructor enjoyed Mutant Chronicles now. Nowadays, it's very hard to pitch an original idea. If it doesn't get an automatic reaction from the coveted
Transformers,
G.I. Joe,
Speed Racer,
Batman,
Spider-Man,
Superman,
Hulk,
Evangelion (?),
Twilight,
Halloween,
Freddie Krueger,
or _________ (other)
fans, then it's not a walk-in-the-park to a guaranteed success. You don't need to stay true to anything, or even be any good at directing, writing, or acting. You got a movie and characters named after a TV series. Sometimes even named after another movie that was original at some point! That's enough to bring anyone to the theaters and pay to watch it (even if they might not like it).

Whereas if you wanted another experience like Star Wars or Blade Runner, where it was fresh, new, and exciting with a entertaining display of the talents involved then too bad. I guess we all should have seen this coming when even George Lucas started basing all of his new movies on Star Wars.

Not that I'm saying all of the above listed remakes/adaptions were bad (and God knows I'll get it for putting Evangelion in the mix with Twilight), but adaptations and remakes are becoming so much of a system that nobody even realizes that their film is worth crap. It's a paycheck to Hollywood. And most likely, that's all our LAEM will ever be seen as.

[Zephyrus]

I'd simply like to add my 2 cents by offering a few of my own opinions on the matter.

There have been some very intelligent observations made concerning the ELAM project, some of which I hadn't truly considered before.

I would like to begin by saying that I am not an avid movie-goer. I feel that Hollywood, while it used to be a fount of inspiration and originality back in the day, has fallen into the comfortable trap of making movies merely to make money, not to reach their audience. The only movies I go to see in theaters are ones that appeal to my geek persona and movies that I think will appeal to my emotions and intellect. Let me say that there have been precious few of those kinds of movies during my 21 years. I actually watch more of the "classic" movies on TCM and AMC, as well as independent films on IFC rather than subject myself to the stuff that Hollywood has been churning out the last couple of decades.

That being said, I can agree, in some respects, with those who have said that the ELAM project should never see the light of day. The cold, hard facts is that money is the primary objective for nearly every working person in Hollywood. There are precious few actors, directors, producers, and writers in the studios that could give a flying fuck about creating a movie that is true to the original source and works with integrity to keep the movie recognizable to fans while still attempting to make it more accessible to the average movie-goer. The worst case scenario is that we have another Transformers movie on our hands. I am absolutely terrified of some punk ass director and/or writer getting his/her grubby paws on the source material and chuck out all the "unusable" parts (those being all of the little tidbits that we as fans have come to cherish as being part of the series) and having the sheer gall to "improve" upon it. Realistically speaking, I recognize the fact that there will be some concessions made to make this movie even remotely marketable to Americans. This doesn't make the fan in me dislike it any less.

But, if anything, I am an optimist. I feel, as many others seem to do, that Project ELAM can be a smashing success if put in the right hands. I am not a purist in that I believe that every detail in the movie must be as it was in the series. Again, as others have used as an example, for all of its faults, LOTR was a relatively awesome success because it managed to keep to the central theme of the books and retain the stuff that was pertinent to both further the plot and entertain viewers. I feel that ELAM would benefit from such an approach. As a bonus, there is not near the generous amount of fluff that scriptwriters from LOTR had to wade through in order to extract a coherent plot/script. In short, if anyone who works on this movie is passionate about doing this project right instead of focusing on profits, it will benefit them in the long run. ELAM could very well be what opens up the anime market to Hollywood (which, in retrospect, I'm not sure is a good idea).

Either way, it will be interesting to see which direction the movie goes. I am with-holding judgment on the movie itself until I see a cast list and a director is named.

[cat42]

The main reason I think this movie has a shot at being done well is how many different adaptations Eva has had. Since they have such a wealth of material to draw from, they have the ability to take the best of each and put it in the movie, so I expect to see, for example, Mari in a live action version, but have Asuka have the family name of Sohryu. I think we'll get Japanese names, but not all Japanese actors. Allegedly, Robin Williams wants to play Gendo, and I can see him being good in the role. The only issue being, of course, that he's white. The nice thing about him being in it would be also, given he's a fan, he'd probably be insistent on various aspects being true. I hope it's a trilogy, but I see it as having an open ending, making it so there could be a sequel, but doesn't need to be.

I can see Bryan Singer being a possible good choice for a director, because of Superman Returns.

I would especially trust J.J. Abrams, primarily because of the new Star Trek movie. He was not a fan of the show, so he made sure to have people on staff who were, consulted them often, as well as used himself as a judge of what non-fans would like, and managed to make an incredibly respectful adaptation, that appealed to non-fans, and fans (who weren't whiny douche-bags unhappy that their franchise was now accessible to non-fans) alike.

I'm just going to hope it's not too bad.

[Grimmjow]

Love the avatar cat42.

Actually a lot of Star Trek fans disliked the Star Trek movie but that's another thing entirely.

The main thing that worries about this movie is that the plot will be changed to such an extent that it will have extremely little to do with the movie. Also I'm concerned that this movie may suffer from the Transformer syndrome. But with a few people on board who actually understand Eva, we can hope for a good adaption.

[cat42]

Love the avatar cat42.

Thanks. I've had it a while, I think.

Actually a lot of Star Trek fans disliked the Star Trek movie but that's another thing entirely.

Hence the "fans (who weren't whiny douche-bags unhappy that their franchise was now accessible to non-fans)". I saw the movie 4 times before it was released as I'm a member of Starfleet. Lot's of them loved it, and lot's bitched about it, but loved it, and lot's bitched because it was too accessible to mainstream viewers.

The main thing that worries about this movie is that the plot will be changed to such an extent that it will have extremely little to do with the movie. Also I'm concerned that this movie may suffer from the Transformer syndrome. But with a few people on board who actually understand Eva, we can hope for a good adaption.

If Section23 Films is involved, I refuse to believe it would suffer from Transformers Syndrome. Though possibly, it'd end up more like Rebuild through Matt Greenfield's eyes.

Keep in mind too, that the first movie has to be accessible to mainstream audiences, which to a degree, Rebuild 1.11 is in Japan. I think though that mainstream American audiences can deal with being screwed with somewhat. Look at the popularity of Lost. (The show being another reason why I think J.J. Abrams is the man for the job.)