Wow, what a change a couple of days can make... News out of Hollywood has been slow for the last few days due to Thanksgiving, but it appears that there may be the initial blinks at the end of the Writers Strike tunnel!
For some of you, Labor's win in the election was the biggest news of the weekend. My ears were tuned to a different station, as I heard whispers of a backroom meeting.. Word on the street is that the heads of the Writers Guild of America met with studio executives overnight to discuss coming to a conclusion on the pay dispute! People, this is fantastic news - while a lot of TV shows may have been hurt beyond the point of redemption for this season, some will return, a few unharmed, but more importantly, several of the upcoming films that were placed in jeopardy may now live on!
Sure, there isn't anything official yet, but I'm prepared to call it now - Victory!
Dragon Ball Z news round-up
As
I mentioned earlier, things are starting to move into high gear on the
Dragon Ball Z live action big screen adaptation, known as Dragonball. Stephen Chow was recently announced to be producing while Andrew Wong (Final Destination)
plonks himself down into the director's chair. While this one-two
combination of chaps accustomed to handling comedicly-tinged action was
enough to get me excited, the cast list is slowly coming to light and
is sure to please.
Stepping into Goku's shoes is Justin Chatwin.
Chatwin is relatively new to the industry, having popped up in a few
places, but he is probably best remembered for his roles in War of the Worlds, The Chumscrubber and on Lost
as an undercover agent who tricked Locke. As the hero of the series,
stepping into Goku's shoes means a huge career boost for the young
up-and-comer.
Facing off against him as the evil Piccolo is James Marsters, remembered fondly by nerds everywhere as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and as Dr. Milton Fine on Smallville,
the man who will become Brainiac. It would appear that Marsters has a
love of the men from mars, going from one green skinned alien role to
another!
Finally, Camila Sodi,
a household name in her native Mexico, will be joining the cast as
Bulma, a brilliant inventor and scientist on the side of good. Sodi got
her start as a model before starring in the 130 episode telenovela Inocente de Ti and hosting a music video program.Look for Dragonball to hit the big screen in August 2008.
Stephen Chow - The man is busy
Stephen Chow, the man with the cartoon brain behind the massively successful Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, has launched the trailer for his next sure-to-be-classic, CJ7. CJ7
reportedly has the highest budget in Chinese cinema's history and,
while this is the first time Chow has dipped his toe into the
science-fiction world but, he hasn't lost an iota of his wacky comedic
leanings known as mo lei tau ("nonsense"). The title is a play
on the Shenzhou 5 and 6 missions, the People's Republic of China's
first forays into manned space flights, and while not much is known
about the plot, it would appear alien belongings have fallen into the
wrong hands...Watch the trailer for CJ7 now.
The Stephen Chow News Edition doesn't end there! Not only has he confirmed to the press his intention to complete Kung Fu Hustle 2 as soon as possible, presumably after Dragonball wraps, but Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad) has announced that Chow is his ideal pick to portray Kato alongside his Green Hornet in the long-awaited big screen adaptation! I don't care where you stand on Rogen, that's a killer combination of unassuming megastars, badass action and hilarious hijinx. In fact, it would probably show the Rush Hour team just where they went wrong... three times.
So there you have it folks, tons of news, and none of it bad! Man, I love movies...
Always two there are. A master, and an apprentice. Never more, never less.
~T
