Some promising live-action movie adaptations
The last few rounds of anime to Hollywood live-action movie adaptations have left me with low expectations. These days I’ve come to accept new adaptation announcements with a small sigh (especially the Hollywood ones). But I’m not completely beyond hope. At least two recent announcements have left me with some hope for decent anime to live-action movies.
On Friday Sony announced its acquisition of the North American rights to the live-action adaptation of Blood: The Last Vampire. It will release in Japan on May 29th, the United Kingdom on June 12th and in France on June 17th. Currently there is no release date for North America beyond the vague “Summer 2009” message on the official website. In a literal sense the release date could be any where between mid-June to mid-September, although I doubt Sony would release this movie beyond July or August.
I have some hope Blood: The Last Vampire could turn out to be a decent movie. As an adaptation from a short animated movie this concept makes more sense than Dragonball Evolution, Full Metal Panic! and even Cowboy Bebop. Films about human/vampire hybrids seeking to destroy demons is a tried and tested genre– in other words it works. At best this film could be a glimpse of what the animated Blood: The Last Vampire could have been, as supposed to the loosely related Blood+. At worst it could be reminiscent of Blade, although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Watching the trailer certainly does remind me of Blade, but fortunately that was an enjoyable movie. I may personally take a wait-and-see approach with this movie, but if international reviews are positive I may consider seeing this one in theaters.
Next up we have the news of Warner Brothers’ acquisition of the rights to the live-action adaptation of Death Note. The fact that this adaptation comes in the face of not one, but three Japanese live-action films (all of which were shown in North America) raises my eyebrow a little. At the same time I’m not that surprised given Hollywood’s anime adaptation spree. Like Blood, I’m optimistic about Death Note. It could translate well on the big screen. Still, with three live-action films out already it’ll be hard not to make comparisons.
In short, I’m actually somewhat pleased with these announcements. Blood already looks to be interesting, and Warner Brothers would have to be made of a special kind of suck to ruin a series like Death Note.
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Angela
Executive Editor | Angela has had an addiction to video games and cartoons since she was young and impressionable. She enjoys writing long articles about these subjects and whatever else catches her eye. Mastodon
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I could see a Blood adaptation being pretty great, given the material they have to work with. But will they exploit it, though? Even if they don’t, it will still probably turn out better than a slapdash effort like DB Evolution.
“Warner Brothers would have to be made of a special kind of suck to ruin a series like Death Note.”
I don’t know, I think the last 1/3 of the series already did that. It veered into the unintentionally hilarious realm a few times! I had begun to watch it weekly for the humor.
I agree. As I said a movie like Blood makes more sense than a bunch of other anime adaptations. And expanding on the gaps left by the animated movie would be an awesome case scenario, but I’m not holding my breath.
I didn’t watch the anime to completion and I still need to buy the last six books. But that probably explains why this movie is based on the first three books of the manga instead of the entire anime series. Given that it could work. As for me, I still need to finish the anime as well, and see the three live-action movies.