Its set to be released on August 15, 2008, with James Wong directing and Stephen Chow producing. “Lupin the 3rd” was picked up in 2003 by WhiteLight Entertainment, though not much information has been released beyond a 2009 projected release date. “Gatchaman” has managed to make some quick progress since its 2006 announcement. It, too, will be a CGI film produced by Imagi Studios to be released by Warner Bros. in 2008. The same can be said for “Blood: The Last Vampire”, also announced in 2006 with Ronny Yu (“Freddy vs Jason”) as producer, Chris Nahon as director and Korean actress Ji-Hyun Jun as main character Saya. Filming is said to begin this month in locales such as Argentina and China.
But for all the projects that are on the way, there are still the ones that remain on the shelf, still in the design stages or just plain stalled. Much hype was put towards James Cameron's version of “Battle Angel”, with plans to use stop-motion CGI for main character Alita (much in the same vein as Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”). But Cameron has put the film on hold while he works on another project, “Avatar”, leaving many to wonder if production will even start by the announced 2009 release date. The “Evangelion” film has been stalled after similar hype, as ADV Films is still trying to raise funds for the project.
“Akira” had been making steam at one point, with a script in the works and Stephen Norrington having signed on to director. Norrington dropped out of the project in 2003, and things now seem to be permanently on hold. A live action version of “Afro Samurai”, with Samuel L. Jackson as the title character, was announced before the anime was even released, but production hasn't even been started on it thanks to focus being placed more on an upcoming video game for the Xbox 360.
So with all this hype and speculation and switching back and forth on production, one has to wonder if any of these films will be worth it. If Hollywood knows what it's doing and sinks good money into some quality films, then yes. But fans may not see it that way and may even be turned off by the long delays, providing they aren't the die-hard types who won't accept anything other than what meets their standards. As with any movie, it'll fall down to final products and ticket sales, and whether they'll match what fans want to see.
