There's been rumblings for years of people trying to make a movie out of the Dragonball comics and cartoons but nothing ever came of it. Well, now they're finally going through with it.

IMDB has a synopsis of the movie and a list of the cast.

This Mexican site has photos from the filming of the movie (in Mexico) as well as a lot of shots of the cast. The outdoor pictures aren't that good of quality but don't blame the movie for it.

James Marsters (Spike from Angel/Brainiac from Smallville) talks about the project and playing the alien Piccolo here..

Emmy Rossum (Poseidon, The Phantom of the Opera, The Day After Tomorrow) posts blogs from the set on her Myspace page. You can read a sizable one here.

The movie is written and directed by James Wong (Final Destination, The One, Final Destination 3) and is set to open on August 15, 2008.



(I couldn't find one source that gave me a whole lot of information on the movie so I tried to give you guys a collection of sources to get a better idea of what the movie's about.)

So, this basically follows the story of the original Dragonball, with Goku slightly older. I dig Emmy Rossum, and her as Bulma could be funny. Marsters as my favorite Dragonball character is sweet as, and Chow Yun Fat as Muten Roshi is a great choice. I realize I may be the only one, but I am totally pumped for seeing this.

Yeah, maybe if it had Krillin in it I'd be more interested...

Cool, was wondering if this would ever happen. And I agree with Daveage about Krilin.

You know damn well Krillin has to be in there somewhere. Heck, IMDB listed Yamcha. If you've got him, you've gotta have the who cast.

Original story Yamcha is one of the first added, though I guess Picollo is after most of the rest.

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Will this movie be ten hours long?

No, it'll be the usual 150 minute length.


But it will only consist of one fight, which they'll tell us lasted 5 minutes.

I think five minuets is streatching it a bit, don't you?

Now I must duel you, Chaomancer!



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*GelfOgre replays this in slo mo from multiple angles.

James Marsters says a few words about Dragonball and his role as Piccolo:

Dragonball is the coolest television cartoon in the last 50,000 years. Its only failing is that the female characters aren't drawn well — we're going to fix that in the movie. It's got a Shakespearean sense of good and evil and there are incredible action scenes with characters of unbelievable power. It's going to be really visually exciting. I was told the budget is about $100 million.

Lord Piccolo. He's thousands of years old and a very long time ago he used to be a force of good but got into a bad argument and was put into prison for 2,000 years. It got him very angry, and he finds a way to escape and then tries to destroy the world. The cool thing is, anybody who has seen Dragonball knows that Lord Piccolo transforms into a character named Piccolo, and that is a whole other ball of wax. That is one of the most popular characters in the whole series. I've been told I'm working for people who will just flay me alive if I give too much information, but what I can tell you is the character is green, bald and has pointed ears. Heroic wouldn't be the wrong term by the end, but it's a long journey.

Wow, i think he is going to get yelled at anyway! he gave a lot of info.

Yeah, but most of it's backstory so it's not like he's spoiling any major plot details. I wouldn't have posted it if it was gonna ruin the enjoyment of the film. Also, I'm not an expert on the original Dragonball storyline (or any of them for that matter) but it sounds pretty close to what I've heard from the books. When something's being adapted from a story (like 300 or Sin City) most of the plot is kind of already common knowledge. It's only the twists and plot revelations specially pertaining to the movie that are meant to be kept secret.

yeah, I just like hearing that they get yelled at because they let something slip it make it more interesting.

First Dragonball movie pics are online.

Even more Dragonball movie pics have made their way online.

Plus, this may or may not be a shot of Piccolo from the Dragonball movie. Click at your own discretion:

Superhero Hype! has a couple new photos from the Dragonball movie.

Amazing. Absolutely incredible. I'd even go so far as to say astounding.

Even the still photos look ridiculous.

how is anyone taking this movie seriously?


i mean really, it's slightly more timely than, say, speed racer... but i was almost absolutely sure that dragonball stopped being cool like 8 year ago... it hasn't been long enough for nostalgia to make us remember this program as better than an animated series of one-upsman ship events interrupted by awkwardly bad voice acting, meh-deocre animation and whole episodes of nothing but 2 guys posing and bellowing/saying this "ah....ah........ah.......ah-ah-ah.......ah.......ah......ha..ah......nn.....ah.........ahh......ah.....ohh.....
h......ah......ah...ah..ah....ah...a.h........it.....ah.... wa......uh....ah...... ah.... it's so.... POWERFUL..... ah.... I've never felt anything LIKE IT..... ah..."

that's a direct quote by the way.


OH and let's not forget the obvious racism and sexism... that's always good too...







anyway, if this movie is patterned after dragonball or the more familure dragon ball Z especially, it'll have a pacing which should feel about as natural as Return of the King's 3rd act....




and yes, i hate everything.

Wasn't Piccolo an alien? I mean I only started watching Dragonball when it went into the Z series as I missed all the others. But I'm pretty sure that Piccolo is a Nemec and possibly the only evil one of their race unless you count the movies that seem to be removed from their own continuity anyway.
I hope they don't completely destroy the whole thing by making Goku human and don't even reference his Saiyan heritage. Sure he's not supposed to know he's an alien and until the Z Series started he didn't I don't think [don't quote me I've seen very little Dragonball], but a slight hint might be nice.

Having said that as a Dragonball Z fan, Dragonball a little, GT not at all I mean did you watch it was rubbish. Anyhoo the long and short of it is I've hear rumours of a movie for years and I don't want it to happen at all. I just think they're going to completely fail to capture the soap opera style fight sequences that lasted 10-12 episodes, the rest of the series being taken up with the main hero being removed so that he can train. Long and short of it I think it's going to be poor and probably won't even see it.

In Dragonball, no one actually knows about anyone being an alien. You don't discover any of that 'til Z.

Because, of course, normal humans often have tails or green skin with pointed ears.

Average Dragonball IQ: 63.

Well, about half the populace was anthropomorphic.

Yeah, that was one of the things that threw me off. Almost all of the police and the general population were cats or dogs. And they never really explain it. It was just how the world was.


Oddly enough, I'm kinda disappointed that this Dragonball movie probably won't have any of that. I know it was silly in the cartoon and never really explained but I still think it would help to ground the movie in the cartoon (and comics) if they included the weird cat/dog people in with the live actors. Call me crazy.

You're crazy!!! I understand it probably would appeal to the fans but for a show about an extremely powerful kid with superhuman abilities, a green skinned evil egg firing lizard man there's only so much they do without it becoming silly.

That ship's already sailed, Ridge.

Anyone wanna see my DragonballZ?

Only if you have all seven...

Oooo do I get a wish granted? I just wish I knew what to wish for....

Nerdorama.com has a bunch of screenshots from the first Dragonball trailer (set to be shown with Max Payne on October 17th). Click the link to see the first look of James Marsters as "movie Piccolo" and a new movie poster with a really smoking Emmy Rossum as Bulma.

We have a trailer.


And I guess the movie's been renamed Dragonball: Evolution.

Goku looks like a total putz.


which is fairly true to character.

also Bulma is a smokin' betty with firearms... i think i'm supposed to make an extending staff joke here.

heh... chi chi.... lil' boooobs....heh

That looks horribly awesome.

I'm thinking this may actually turn out to be a decent action movie but it'll almost certainly be a terrible Dragonball movie. However, for the big fans of the DB stories, there are some nice surprises included like Grandpa Gohan and his power pole. Bulma's capsule corps pod thingy was nifty. And I thought it was cool hearing the Kamehameha being used.

That looks awful.

Can't wait to see it.

Superhero Hype! has 5 character promos for Dragonball: Evolution. Scheduled for release on April 8, Dragonball: Evolution is rated PG.

I have been seeing the same Dragonball: Evolution preview on tv now for about a week and going by that preview I’m not impressed at all. It was after I looked at those 5 character promos above as well as the full theatrical preview that changed my mind. This film looks pretty good now. I don’t know what they are thinking showing a preview like they are that is likely to cause a loss of interest especially by the fans of Dragonball.