According to iF Magazine, Hollywood producer Erwin Stoff is working with 20th Century Fox to develop a live-action film adapted from popular Japanese anime “Cowboy Bebop”. [via Shrine]
Seems like Hollywood are really into making live action movies adapted from Japanese anime recently… first there was “Speed Racer”, then the “Dragon Ball” and now “Cowboy Bebop”. I wonder if the Hollywood film makers are really short of ideas or whatever… hmmm, writers’ strike perhaps.
I don’t really like the idea of adapting Japanese anime to live action movies… but if it’s becoming a trend, Cowboy Bebop is probably one of those few anime that should look great in live because of the real-to-life characters.
There are rumours that Keanu Reeves will be involved, but the speculations are probably based on the fact that Stoff is Reeves’ agent. Not many details are available yet… the production is still in early stage obviously.
The 6th annual World Cosplay Summit was held in Nagoya, Japan last weekend.
WSC is getting bigger every year with thousands of cosplayers from around the world joining the party; it’s becoming so popular that the Japanese government is officially endorsing it.
A cosplay contest was held in conjunction with the event since 2004. 14 teams from 13 countries participated in the 2008 contest; two teams from Japan and one each from Brazil, China, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and USA.
The Brazilians won the contest this year.
A group of researchers at Osaka Bioscience Institute (OBI) has identified a protein that is necessary to efficiently transmit visual information and named it the protein Pikachurin after Pikachu, a popular anime character in Pokémon. [via Yomiuri]
As bizarre as it sounds, this is not the first time that a scientific term is named after an anime character…
There is a protein called Sonic Hedgehog Homolog (SHH) which plays a key role in the growth of digits on limbs and organisation of the brain.
There is another gene named as Pokemon (which happens to be an acronym for POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor), a gene that may act as a master switch for cancer. The name was later changed to Zbtb7 after some strong protest from the Pokémon company because they don’t want to share their name with a cancer-causing gene.
Was checking some info on Dragonball (the movie)… as it was originally scheduled to release this summer; didn’t realise that it was postponed to April 2009.
Scanned image of Shōnen Jump, the Japanese magazine that published the original manga… featuring some introduction about the cast and characters (via Dbthemovie)
Dragonball movie is starring Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Chow Yun Fat, Joon Park and Eriko Tamura etc.
The movie created some hype when it was announced last year that Hong Kong star Stephen Chow, a renowned DB fan, would be working with Twentieth Century Fox to produce a live movie adapted from the popular Japanese anime and manga.
The initial buzz was not all positive though, as lots of the Dragon Ball fans are worried that the movie would spoil the original work. Judging from some recent developments, it seems that their worry are not entirely baseless.
I won’t say that I am a huge fan of Dragon Ball, but it was one of the first Japanese manga that I read… and I do like it. Hope that the movie will at least be watchable.
Korean pop group Girls’ Generation (SNSD) is appointed the product ambassador for Nexon, the Korean company which operates MapleStory, a popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Some Maple-Style promotional photos released by Nexon, pretty cute…
Yuko Ogura has won the 1st Japan Gravure Idol Award organised by gravure idol site ZAKZAK. The result was based on the sales of DVDs and photobooks, as well as exposure to media and appearances at public events. [via Tokyograph]
Gravure idols are Japanese models who posed primarily in bikinis and other provocative clothings for photo spreads in magazines, photobooks and DVDs. Some gravure idols would cross over into acting and singing… a few of the famous gravure idols could actually match the popularity of some A-list stars.
Below is the music video of “Onna no Ko ♥ Otoko no Ko” (オンナのコ ♥ オトコのコ; Girls ♥ Boys), a song from Yuko Ogura which was used as the ending theme for Japanese anime “School Rumble”…
A Beijing Olympics commercial film from Astro, a subscription-based TV station which operates primarily in Malaysia. Pretty cool animation…