Live Action Gantz Movies Announced
Numerous Japanese sources including an official website from Young Jump Magazine reveal that Princess Blade director Shinsuke Sato will direct Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Kamui Gaiden) in two live action feature films based on Hiroya Oku’s sci-fi action manga Gantz. Ninomiya will star as protagonist Kei Kurono. Matsuyama will co-star as supporting character Masaru Kato. Yusuke Watanabe (20th Century Boys trilogy, Kami no Shizuku) is composing the screenplays. Takahiro Sato (Death Note, 20th Century Boys) will produce. Ninomiya & Matsuyama have already begun physical training for the film’s action sequences. Principal photography will begin next month for 2011 theatrical release.
The Sponichi Annex reports that the Gantz films will be targeted at mainstream audiences, suggesting that some of the graphic violence of the original manga may be toned down for the movies. Furthermore, the movies will tell a complete story with an original ending.
Oku’s popular sci-fi/horror manga premiered in July 2000 and has since sold over 10 million volumes. The ongoing series has amassed 26 collected volumes so far, although the series is touted as being in its “final phase” now. Dark Horse Comics distributes the manga in English.
I’m surprised to see dismay & disbelief over this proposition. Gantz is a charater-centric story set in modern day Tokyo with a relatively minimal amount of outlandish visual effects. This should be quite easy to adapt into live action – certainly easier than VFX heavy live action films like Goemon, Casshern, Dororo, and the Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro movies. If Death Note and 20th Century Boys can be successful enough to support 3 live action features each, Gantz is certainly viable for two pictures.
Source: Anime News Network & Tokyograph
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Gantz is also very violent and sexually explicit, and thus may not have an audience to support a movie the way it did the manga, unless they toned down the adaptation. Look at what happened when they made an MW movie-totally sanitized from the manga.
Live action Gantz may be able to succeed because the sex doesn’t surface until the second or third story – so it may not appear in the live action films at all. I still do think that it’s very possible to produce a pair of live action Gantz movies – or one story spread over two stories – and still have a lot of action without the need for splattered intestines. Just about all of the visual effects necessary are the onion aliens. The gantz ball could be made with practical effects. The physical action can be done with greenscreen and wirework. And a mainstream live action flick can still have some blood without going overboard.
I’m really not a Gantz fan, but I can see how the story lends itself easily to live action adaptation.
If I recall correctly, when they begin the -first- mission the female Kei “spawns” in the room naked, receives genital licking from a dog, and is then nearly raped by yakuza.
That said, I’d be more concerned about a movie or series of movies because the plot doesn’t actually have any kind of conclusion. Even the anime gave up on following the manga in favor of building their own final arc (which didn’t answer anything either).