Got like a zillion emails about this last week... a lot of it expressing a great deal of anger. Who knew there were so many Dragonball fans out there? For those of you who don't know, Dragonball is an insanely popular manga/anime/video game series, one of the most successful Japanese cultural exports of all time.
Twentieth Century Fox has plans to produce a live-action movie version of the series for next summer, and recently announced the Hollywood players that will bring the series to life: 'Dragonball' movie set to roll.
The movie will be directed by James Wong, who directed that bad Jet Li movie The One, and produced by none other than Stephen Chow of Kung Fu Hustle fame. But much to many fans dismay, Justin Chatwin will play the hero Goku, and James Marsters will play the villain Piccolo. Who? What?
This announcement of a very white Hollywood cast pissed off a lot of fans who always kind of presumed the Dragonball characters were Asian, being a Japanese creation and all. Even the green dude. I can understand the outrage, though not being much of a fan, I'm not quite that invested. And frankly, I'm not surprised. Sorry friends. The animated heroes of your childhood are going to be played by white actors. It's the Hollywood way, after all. The release date is set fo August 15, 2008.