From wikipedia about the original show: the WB version was going to be CGI wikipedia said. Synopsis: Japan release august 24, no USA release date. Probably a Blu-ray release in North America but unknown of English dialogue dub. It may just be subtitles... Teaser trailer of 23 seconds here at the link. [only closeups of 3 actors with suits on and graphics -very unrevealing] http://www.jefusion.com/2013/04/live-action-gatchaman-film-s-first-promo.html?m=1 Also http://m.quietearth.us/index.php?id=7649 http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2451110/ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_planets I like the costume design and would like to see some actual action in a teaser trailer. After seeing the BotP intro again on youtube i did watch this series in the early 1980s while growing up. I always loved that phoenix firebird.
I am glad they are doing it live-action Gatchaman/Battle Of The Planets as they did Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato 2010 live-action film.
I don't know, I find the idea of these things great but I usually don't care for the actual execution of Japanese live action stuff. Maybe it's just cultural differences but it always seems kind of simplistic, shiny and slick but empty, and the acting and directing often seem kind of amateurish and/or melodramatic.
^^ It aired in the UK as Battle of the Planets, and as G-Force. Loved it at the time, only to be horrified in later years to discover how much of a hatchet job on the original Gatchaman it was.
Not sure how it was in the Japanese original but the English dub of Gatchaman - well I could find less corn in a farmer's field. There was also another version call Eagle Riders and there was also a Gatchman OVA.
IIRC, Zark was an American invention when it was re-edited as Battle of the Planets, to be a "kid friendly" narrator to the story and to fill in space from editing. Like Yamato, there were some occasional not-so-kid-friendly aspects to Gatchamen that had to be clipped. When episodes came in short, they put in the robot (a very R2-D2/IQ-9 kind of character that kids could easily relate to). You'll notice that his blinky lights are generally in synch with the English-speaking voice, as opposed to the dubbed Japanese footage. I doubt he'll show up in the Japanese version, but I could be wrong - a cameo, maybe. Kind of interesting, anyway. Looking forward to seeing the Phoenix in all her glory. Loved that thing! This is more likely to happen.
See Pre-Vis and Polished Animation for Unfinished ‘Gatchaman’ Film for the unfinished film. I believe the new live-action film will not be using this footage.
That's true, but there was more to it than that. Gatchaman was an entirely Earthbound show, but this was just after Star Wars happened and everyone wanted to imitate it, so they added the R2D2-esque robot and shot bridging material to show the characters' ship flying through space, so that they could pretend that the Earth-based action sequences from the original were happening on various alien planets.
They also did it because the original Gatchaman was considered way too violent for U.S. TV (as they were going for a kids audience); thus they needed ways to fill time for the cut footage that they considered too violent, and in some cases where they cut so much they had to use footage from two original Japanese episodes to come up with a single U.S. version; had to explain WHY the scene situation changed so drastically - so it was easy to just say, "they now traveled to planet X..."
^Sure, yes, that's my point -- that the two things they wanted to do (cut out the violence and imitate Star Wars) dovetailed with each other. Doing one enabled them to do the other.