March 1, 2004
Long time, no update. That's about to change.
From Tiffany Grant's
website, some new movie information was added.
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8: I'm afraid the new Live-action eva movie I keep hearing about will screw up the characters.
What can you tell me?
The movie is being produced jointly by Gainax (of course), ADV and WETA. If you are somehow NOT familiar with the WETA Workshop, this is the incredible studio founded by Peter Jackson in New Zealand that created the Lord of the Rings films. By watching the fantastic documentaries on the LOTR DVDs, you can get an excellent idea of the kind of attention to detail that is being given to everything in the Eva movies. Also, if you have read the LOTR, I think you will see that the characters in that iconic tome have been very faithfully brought to life and not, as you put it, "screwed up." In fact, in a film adaptation of the second most read book in the English language (the Bible is the first), it is pretty well unanimously agreed that WETA got it exactly right. Bearing that in mind, I have every reason to have confidence that the same folks who hand-glued every hair on each hobbit foot, will do a spectacular job with our NGE heroes. Keep in mind that WETA will not be doing this in a vacuum either, as they will be supervised by people at both Gainax and ADV (such as my husband, of course). I believe you can rest easy knowing that the films will be everything and more that we ever thought they could be.
As a bonus feature on the new Evangelion Director's Cut DVDs about to be released by ADV, there will be LOTS of cool never-before-seen production drawings for the live-action movies. I've seen them, and they are AWESOME!
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Confirmation:
"production drawings for the live-action movies." Multiple Live Action Evangelion movies. The next Lord of the Rings series?
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Someone from the
Evangelion forums for trivialbeing.net went to "A Weekend with Tomino." There, some speech from Matt Greenfield, President of ADV (I think (he's writing the draft script for the movie)) was recorded.
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Question: If there were auditions, who exactly are you looking for? (*This isn't the exact question, but this is close to what was asked.)
Matt Greenfield: I've seen a lot of cast lists with a lot of dead people. And it's like, you know, yeah, he would be really great, but he died three years ago. Or, you know, people who were appropriate to the age... yeah, it would be great if you could go back in time short-round and Indiana Jones: The Temple Of Doom, but he's now thirty. So, that's why I don't talk about the casting 'cause until that project goes it's going to depend upon... I mean, if any...
if it started today, there's people who'd be great who are not going to be good in a year. It's just a matter of character versus aging so... until we actually get to the point where we've got a completely greenlighted production, we're not even talking about... who. We're talking about types. But, and that's why, a lot of it's purely up in the air, it's like okay, you want to get someone to play the character and not necessarily someone who is a deadringer for the character in the anime or whatever; only to get the typewrite. And, it's an ensemble thing. Everybody has to be able to work with everyone else. You don't want, for example, [trying to think of something...] if for example, you know, you found a really great Asian teenager to play the male lead, it would be kinda weird if you cast Laurence Fishburne as his dad. So, it's one of those, you know, if you kinda... because, all the characters are related in various ways. You've kinda got a situation. AND YES, HE'S BEEN SUGGESTED BY A BUNCH OF PEOPLE OVER THE INTERNET.
ADV employee: And as far as your other bets concern, it's a matter of, we would have to kill you, and then they would kill us. (NOTE: This pertains to the reason why they can't explain what ADV stands for just so you all know since the girl asked.)
Matt Greenfield: We just find it a lot easier just not to say things that might be taken out of context. And someone says,"OH! BLAH BLAH BLAH!" And I could say," Yeah, someone who's like him." But, and the all of a sudden it's (Note: Matt Greenfield says the following in a higher-pitched voice and is very sarcastic. ) OH HARRY POTTER IS GOING TO BE SHINJI! AAAAWWW!!!
Matt Greenfield: Yeah, he would have been great four years ago. Have you seen him? He's like 6'6" or something like that. Pretty tall!
Question: What will the story of the Evangelion Live-Action movie be like since it is a 2 to 3 hour movie? (*This is also close to the original question asked.)
Matt Greenfield: So much that it's the basic storyline structure, but how closely it will tow the line to the... You can't exactly tow the line just as the manga does not tow the line. Even though the manga came after the anime. Different mediums require different ways of approaching it. If you're talking about a 2-hour feature film, there's things you can do in a 13 hour tv series, which Evangelion is, so,
it will tell the basic elements of the story, but not everything.
Tiffany Grant: So will Tom Bombadil be in the movie?
[Everyone laughs.]
ADV Employee: Hey, it's YOUR wife!
[Crowd saying "Ooooooh!" while Matt Greenfield shakes his head like he's tired by resting his forehead on his hand.]
[Questions about Eva continue, but are not about the Live-Action movie here.]
Audience member: Hey, are you going to let Asuka kill a bunch of angels in the movie?
Tiffany Grant: YAY!
Matt Greenfield: ...No.
[Everyone whines "aww..!!" Tiffany Grant also whines too and adds,"Come on!"]
Audience member: (same one as before) Asuka needs to kill something!
[Some people are still whining/groaning.]
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I smell a Trilogy.