I know I’m a little late on this one, but registration is now open for AmeCon 2008. Entry to the convention costs £45 per person. Information about accommodation is not currently available, but with over 850 people already registered for the 1300-capacity convention it’s probably not advisable to wait around.
This is also the first year the convention is accepting credit and debit card payments, through the Google Checkout system.
I’m not just stealing all Empire’s news these days, I swear.
Twentieth Century Fox have confirmed that their life-action Dragonball Z movie is due to begin shooting next month with a 2008 release date, with the lead role of Goku being filled by Justin Chatwin. The film’s main villain will apparently be Piccolo, played by Buffy’s Spike, James Marsters.
The film is being helmed by Final Destination director James Wong, and has Kung Fu Hustle star Stephen Chow producing.
FirstShowing.net have an exclusive interview with Colin Brady, the director of the upcoming AstroBoy CGI movie, as well as some new concept art from the film.
According to Brady, the film will tell the origin story for Tezuka’s robot hero similar to the first Spiderman or Superman movies, and is aiming for a “dark Pinocchio” vibe, and the director cites a number of Japanese influences including Oscar-winning anime director Hayao Miyazaki.
Here’s an interesting one: Empire is passing along the rumour that Irish director Ruairi Robinson has been signed up by Warner Bros. to direct a live-action version of Akira. Robinson hasn’t got any previous experience directing features, but you can see his rather violent and visually impressive short film The Silent City on YouTube, and download his Oscar-nominated CGI short Fifty Percent Grey from his official website.
Last week, the Japanese government issued an official request for the United States to help stop unauthorised distribution of Japanese animation via the internet, as part of an overall statement on market competition policy.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claim that the trading of anime online is increasingly damaging to the creative industries in Japan, and say that the costs and difficult procedures for pursuing infringement cases against peer-to-peer networks are roadblocks to controlling copyrighted materials.
This whole issue makes me feel very conflicted. On one hand, the disgusting attitude of fansubbers who see anime piracy as a right they’ve somehow been granted makes me want to see a harsh legal crackdown on the entire subculture, but on the other hand modern copyright law is a horrific mess that does little to help consumers or the actual artists, in favour of supporting the money men.
Still, disagreement with the law is no reason to go around breaking it and claiming there’s a fictional grey area that makes it okay.
Anime UK News have a nice round-up of the news from the London MCM Expo this past weekend, and for those of you too lazy to click on a hyperlink here’s the short version:
A few new licenses were announced, with the majority from MVM - Black Lagoon, Love Hina Again, Shakugan no Shana and Witchblade will be making their way to the UK in short order, although no release dates are available yet. Manga confirmed that they’ll be releasing more of Naruto as well as an OVA called Strait Jacket. ADV Films have announced that they’ve got the UK license for the Devil May Cry anime based on the Capcom game of the same name, and Revelation will be bringing out School Rumble.
On the TV front, both Anime Network and Anime Central have said that viweing figures are “much better than expected”, and there’s a strong chance of both appearing on Virgin Media’s service - although as ususal, no confirmed dates or even estimated timelines.
Anime Central also mentioned that a new subtitle-only block is planned, scheduled to run at the ungodly hours of 3am-6am once the new set of anime titles - including .hack//SIGN and Wolf’s Rain - begins airing.
Head over to Anime UK News to read their full report.
The American [adult swim] website is streaming the entire first episode of Death Note, with the English dub for anybody who’s interested in hearing it. Again, there’s no apparent region lock on the episode, which means that even UK fans can listen to, and inevitably complain about, the localization.
The preliminary results of Ru Igurashi’s survey of anime fandom, which I previously posted about here, have been posted online, with industry-specific results available separately from the complete breakdown.
If you head over to FUNimation’s official Suzuka site, you can watch the first four episodes of the series in their entirety - regardless of your location, it seems.
The Times Online has an article by Paul Gravett looking at manga’s ever-increasing popularity in the UK, as well as the growing number of manga originating from the UK itself.
The complete first episode of ADV Films’ Pumpkin Scissors is available for viewing (dubbed only) over on IGN at the moment, and right now it doesn’t seem to be limited to American viewers only.
The first image from the live-action adaptation of Production I.G.’s Blood The Last Vampire has been posted, and I’ve duplicated it it here for your convenience (click for a bigger version). The photo was originally posted by the French movie site FilmsActu.com.
The film, which was being directed by Ronny Yu last I’d heard, has apparently changed hands with French director Chris Nahon now in charge according to Anime News Network, with Yu taking the role of producer. The part of Saya is being played by Korean actress Jun Ji-Hyun, who very much looks the part to me in that photo.
Jakob Jensen, the Danish director of the upcoming CGI Astro Boy film from Imagi Studios, has been interviewed about the film by The Hollywood Reporter.
The article, essentially a profile of Jensen’s career so far, previously had a small still from the film accompanying it, but that seems to have been pulled since I first read the piece last night.
Edit: Empire have posted the same image now on their site, which I’ve added to the start of this article.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “scanlation” is basically the manga version of fansubbing - fans scan in the Japanese release of a manga, page by page, blank out the original text and replace it with another language. Like fansubbing, it relies heavily on the “grey area” of unlicensed material as its primary defence against any accusations of illegalisty.
However, Toshiba have teamed up with online manga publisher MangaNovel to provide the means for fansubbers to not only work without fear of legal repercussions, but potentially make money from their enterprise.
After buying a manga “comic” (it’s unspecified whether that would be a single chapter or complete volume) for $4-5, amateur translators can produce their own text and send that back to Manganovel, who will pass that on to other fans either for free or, if the translator specifies, for 2% of the original $4 or $5 charge. If the manga is to be sold, the translator receives 50% of the sale price.
Hit the jump for the full press release.
The Cinemagic 2007 film festival, which is primarily aimed at young people, has included Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away in this year’s programming. The listing in the festival brochure (.pdf) doesn’t mention specifically if the screening will be subtitled or not, but since the American voice director is credited it’s a fair bet that they’ll be showing the dubbed version.
The film will screen in the Movie House on Belfast’s Dublin Road on November 23rd at 7pm - tickets are available online from the Belfast Welcome Centre’s website at £3 under-18s/concession, £3.50 full-price, plus a £1 booking fee.
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