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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Neon Genesis Evangelion Goes Live

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14:51 / 21.02.04

If the Wachowskis come anyway near my precious Evangelion then I'll kill my family with a cheese grater before drinking my dog's diarrhoea.

Super Boiling Hero RamenKing

02:13 / 21.04.04

They've changed so much already, just the basic designs show near unforgivable change. Asuka is no longer Asuka, her name has been changed to Kate something-rather. No more Misato, she has a European replacement. Rei is Ray.

On the plus side (because the concept sketches for the characters are horrible), the EVA units are looking quite good - so is Ramiel.

23:16 / 21.04.04

No biggie. Why would an international cast movie give its characters Japanese names? It was always going to be Westernised because it wouldn't make any money as a foreign language movie. No-one's gonna waste that precious £100m budget on something that won't recoup.

14:02 / 22.04.04

How about Takashi Miike?

Well, it'd certainly be mad enough with him at the helm.

01:07 / 17.08.04

Damnit! I was seriously hoping that they'd hold off on this for another 15 or 20 years so I could become famous and direct it myself.

I just found out about this today and it has me angry (at what will likely happen), but hopeful (that somehow, despite all likelyhood, it will live up to my pie-in-the-sky expectations... or at the very least, not be sheer crap).

I think there's a possibility that they do a good job (especially with series producer Matt Greenfield at the helm) but from what I've seen so far (de-asification [I just made that word up, but it describes it perfectly], etc.) it looks like it may just turn into another stupid hollywood blockbuster. Of course, it probably all hinges on the director. (I really wish Ano would direct, that would make me forgot all my worries).

All we can do is sit and wait.

P.S. What's up with all of the eva-heads begging the production staff to have Haley Joel Osment play Shinji? WTF? But hey, I guess it's better than the second most popular suggestion - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter).

farseer /pokes out an i

13:16 / 17.08.04

I think that "Kate Rose" is a production artists/ designer. Or, at least she has those types of credits on previous movies. I doubt she was tapped to play Asuka. And production art is probably mostly for the costume, not the actress...

My thoughts:

1) They've already tried to compress the entire series into a movie- twice. It was interesting on seeing what clips/events they included on each pass, but it wasn't anything like watching the series. It was like a HUGE 'previously on Buffy' segment on steroids.

2) Not wanting to spoil anything for the folks who haven't seen the series, but it is one pretty royal mindfuck. It took me re-watching 22+ and the two movies to finally click on what was really going on. If this is a trilogy of movies (LotR style), then I could totally see this being just plan ole' awesome. But one 2 hour block? That would require a re-imagining of the series, which I'm not totally against. I'd be up for seeing it, even if it's 'very different'- Evangelion as a style, as a theme, as a story, could be retold in a movie format. Evangelion the series- not so much.

3) I really hope they don't 'grow up' the characters. The hilarity that ensues because of their age was great. I guess it could be done with slightly older subjects, but then we'd have to re-imagine the Marduke project, etc...

4) Speaking of Marduke! I hope that it won't require mulitple rewatchings from the beginning to catch all the obscure references to projects/people/events that get planeted from the very first episode... or maybe that's one of the things that drew me in. Too early in the AM to think straight.

5) Perhaps big-screen shinji will scream like the japanese voice, and not the dub. *shiver* I recently re-watched the english dub of the first episode and it almost made me cry... in pain.

6) I wonder how accessable they are going to make the esoteric side of the series... the evas all had their models, the spear, and well.. you know. that stuff I don't want to spoil others by talking about...

farseer /pokes out an i

13:48 / 17.08.04

Doh! I'm probably wrong about Kate Rose. From:

EVA Q&A from Tiffany Grant

As for the "slug" names used in the preliminary script
(NOT the final version!!!) which appear on the production
drawings, they are only used so as not to refer to them as
"Pilot A" and "Captain B" etc. As has been widely discussed,
the cast will be international, and mostly of European descent.
Meaning, for example, if Daniel Radcliffe (Anime Insider's
suggestion - NOT mine!) were to play the lead male role, it
would be pretty stupid to call an ENGLISH boy "Shinji."
Therefore, "Kate Rose" for example is the name they are
using for the designs is in place of "Pilot of 02" or whatever

If you look closely at the Rei costume, on her left arm is the NERV logo and "Rei Ayanami"...

13:50 / 17.08.04

If this is a trilogy of movies (LotR style), then I could totally see this being just plan ole' awesome. But one 2 hour block?

Check upthread - word is that the film is only concerned with the events of the first half of the series. I don't really see any problem with squeezing that down, as there's a lot of fluff and repetition in those initial episodes. The first wave of Angel attacks will probably feel more threatening if they come in quick succession, too. Then, if we get a couple of sequels, the action sequences can be spread out a bit more, giving more time to explore the twisty-turny stuff while still maintaining the feel of a world under threat.

And if we don't get any sequels, we'll at least be able to spend a couple of hours or so watching big robots beat the shit out of each other.

farseer /pokes out an i

20:38 / 17.08.04

word is that the film is only concerned with the events of the first half of the series.

D'oh! I had seen that, but I guess I wasn't clear..er...est... lol. I hope that it's made LotR style, as in, all at once. The whole shebang filmed at the same time, so that the kid-actors don't end up looking a few years older in the next installment. With some of that WETA magic sprinkeled liberally into the mix. Too bad Peter Jackson isn't at the helm, or Ano himself.

I agree there is a lot of repetition in the first 13 episodes, and that more Angels attacking in a wave or quick succession would be nifty by me. A lot of the series 'meat' went on in the dead times between Angel attacks, so it'll be interesting in how they treat the character development. I'd LOVE to see a WETA EVA skipping across aircraft carriers!

And if we don't get any sequels, we'll at least be able to spend a couple of hours or so watching big robots beat the shit out of each other.

LOL, Testify. I've paid for worse movies- and I'm sure that the WETA folks will have plenty of opportunities to get the EVAs right.

I wonder how much of the esoteric information they're planning on releasing into the first flick- I think it would be a mistake to save all of it up for the 2nd and/or 3rd installment... that might lead up to a Matrix-like 'wow, that was great, but WTF with all this other occult mumbo jumbo?' reaction. I'd rather them sprinkle the esoteric goodness evenly into the 1st movie, perhaps introducing some terms / symbols, and then digging deeper in the 2nd/3rd flick. I had forgotten the discussion about the Marduke report and the Human Instrumentality Project all started in the 1st/2nd TV series episode.

01:20 / 19.08.04

"Perhaps big-screen shinji will scream like the japanese voice, and not the dub."

Oh God, dubbed always sucks.

The original Japanese scream though - God, it's fucking incredible! The scene in episode 3 where Shinji lets his classmates into the entry plug and is told to retreat. He starts muttering to himself (like in episode 1) "don't run away. don't run away. don't run away." and then "AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" I almost shit my pants.

17:35 / 25.08.04

God yeah. The Japanese voice actor who plays Shinji is awe-inspiring. Some of his delivery is just fucking terrifying.

Foust is SO authentic

19:21 / 25.08.04

I'm disappointed but not surprised they're going with European characters. If only because Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari are just about the coolest character names ever.

06:11 / 31.08.04

Oh God, dubbed always sucks.

Nooo it doesn't. Often, yes, but certainly not always. Subjectiveness is nifty.

21:56 / 05.12.07

Movement, of an unconfirmed sort. It seems the film(s) are in production, and the implication is that a director is attached.

I'm much more for the idea of a live action Westernised Evangelion now than I was when I first posted in this thread. It's doable. It will be toned down and a lot will be changed, with a lot of those changes being absolutely necessary for the adaptation. But a lot of the pure horror of the original was buried in the subtext without any kind of reveal in the story, leaving you to work out for yourself what was really going on. Those elements are the elements that I'd really want them to keep firmly in place, and leaving them out of exposition is arguably the way to do it.

I'm still meeting Eva fans who haven't figured out some major, major elements of the show. Keep it subtle, keep it subtext, and there's a huge amount you can get away with.

Foust is SO authentic

22:04 / 05.12.07

Link isn't working.

22:10 / 05.12.07

Just put in a fix. If you're impatient to read it type "Live Action Evanglion" into Google and click on the first link.

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