Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Movie

[Noir]

The Facts
Budget

The movie will have a budget of approximately one hundred million - this is a rough estimate but it gives us the info that this movie will be a blockbuster (hopefully of epic proportions).
"Recent Internet rumors suggest that the Evangelion movie shall have the budget equal to that of a blockbuster, being roughly of 100 million or more. To compare this with other top movies; The Matrix had a $63 million budget and LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring had a budget of $109 million. It is unknown where such cash is coming from as the income of Anime does not rival that of Hollywood blockbusters."

Storyline

The movie will focus on the first few episodes of the series. From the production images it can be gathered that the movie is set to feature "Ramiel" the cube with the wonderful drilling device - an episode that showed us the beauty of japanese power and big guns - something ripe for special effects.

Special Effects

The effects will be worked upon by the masters behind Lord of the Rings, Weta Workshop.
""We are very excited to be a part of this wonderful project," Weta boss Richard Taylor said. "The subject matter is providing a fantastic level of diversity for us, allowing us to work in the anime world – which is at the other end of the design spectrum from Middle-earth. Having had the privilege of working on such strong source material that The Lord of the Rings offered, it is a privilege to again be involved in subject matter that has a strong and loyal fan base."

Director

Hideaki Anno will NOT be directing and Peter Jackson looks tied up also. Much speculation has been spent as to who will direct and rumor has "three A list directors" inline, but nothing concrete and no name dropping as yet.

Release Date

Looking like 2010+

Executive Producer

Husband of voice actress for Asuka - Tiffany Grant, Matthew Greenfield
Name Changes and Consistency. This comes up again and again, and has been adressed partially in the rumors section but I will mention it here also. Concept art with the names "Ray" and "Kate Rose" appeared and there was outroar. In all liklihood these will NOT be the names of the characters in the films, WETA's site describes the concept art with the correct names and Richard Taylor announced in a podcast his dedication to preserving the integrity of and remaining faithful to the original anime. However it is doubtful that it will be exactly the same... what would be the point in creating a mere replica? Many aspects will be altered simply to present the story in another medium without making it look "out of place" or plain wrong.

Cast

At such an early stage no actors have as yet been cast. The age and ethnicity of the actors is thusly also unknown, though it is likely the cast will not be entirely Japanese or entirely American.





WETA has the production sketches and stuff:
http://www.wetaworkshop.co.nz/projects/filmography/galleries/neon_genesis

 

[MaskedManJRK]

Something tells me this will get moved to the EVA thread in the anime forum, but still, pretty interesting information, even know most who have been following this already knew most of this for at least a year.

 

[Noir]

Well considering this is the live action adaptation I hope it would not be merely moved.

 

[MaskedManJRK]

Well considering this is the live action adaptation I hope it would not be merely moved.

And considering that it's only rumor and half-information, I assume it will.

My guess is that they'll allow an actual thread when it gets more besides exec. producers and budget and maybe even gets it's own forum when it starts production.

 

[Noir]

well if Weta has the official site up for it I doubt its just rumor.

also, cool fan trailer:





here is the films wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_Evangelion_Project

 

[MaskedManJRK]

well if Weta has the official site up for it I doubt its just rumor.

also, cool fan trailer:





here is the films wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untitled_Evangelion_Project

Still, I'm just saying it's unlikely.

Cool fan trailer, though--besides the obvious paint job on Weaving and the spelling errors, that feels like it could be real.

 

[Sugarculted]

I saw Jared Leto for a few brief moment. Now, it's been a year since I've watched the whole series...but wouldn't he be a great choice for Misato's love interest?

Evangelion/Ghost in the Shell/Trigun are the only anime's I've truly adored. So I for one, can't wait for this movie.

 

[Timstuff]

I was a member of a message board dedicated to discussion of this project, and we kind of ran out of things to talk about there. Basically though, I'm really looking forward to this movie, and since Transformers was a big hit, I think it has a chance of getting made.

As for name changes and what not, I would personally prefer that the three pilots do not have their names changed at all. However, when you start moving outside of that circle, I think it'd be a lot more acceptable to start changing the names a bit. And also, they could at least try to make the names sound a bit like their Japanese counterparts. For example, "Misato Katsuragi" would become "Misato Cunningham" (because Misato is an exotic and sexy sounding name, regardless of the actress's nationality), "Ryoji Kaji" would become "Roger Kimball," "Makoto Huga" would become "Michael Hughes," etc.

And I also have a couple casting suggestions, too.

Misato - Rachel McAdams
Kaji - Jared Leto
Commander Ikari - Hugh Laurie
Commander Fuyutsuki - Liam Neeson (or Morgan Freeman, if they need a brotha in there)

As for the kids, it's kind of pointless to make casting suggestions since the actors for them should all be no older than 16, and we don't know when this movie is getting made. But basically, I want Rei to be Asian, Asuka to be white, and for Shinji to be half asian and half white. That way, you can have Hugh Laurie playing his father without changing his last name (side note: Commander Ikari actually took his last name from his wife, so he can actually be a white guy named "Ikari"), and then have [BLACKOUT]Rei be Asian since she was designed by Commander Ikari to look like Shinji's mother[/BLACKOUT]. As for Asuka, she was Evangelion's sole representative of the white man since the beginning, so it's pretty natural that she'd be played by a white actress.

Also, another issue that often came up at the forum was how they would address hair color in the movie. It'd be really easy to change Misato's hair color to black without any problems, but when it comes to Rei, it's really hard to substitute sky-blue with something else. Then, the idea started circulating that Rei could actually have white hair, and appear to have albinism. Not only would that give Rei a unique hair color and the pale-skinned appearance she had in the show, but also it'd give her red eyes, as well. The idea has gained a lot of acceptance from fans, and personally I hope that's the route they go.

And lastly, there's the question of how you condense 26 twenty-minute episodes plus a 90 minute movie into one film. Well, obviously they're not going to try and do it as one film, but three, since that's the industry and fan expectation these days. The first film could be roughly 2.5 hours long, while the third could be 3 hours long since it will have the most ground to cover. The second will probably fall somewhere in between in terms of length. Also, it's not like it's going to be directly ported from the Anime, either. They're probably going to carry over all the important plot points, and then write a script around that basic "spine" once it's arranged in a way that flows well.

I actually have been toying around with an outline for the first Evangelion movie, and I think it's coming out pretty nicely thus far. It's slightly different from the Anime, but it's also very similar in a lot of ways. Hopefully when it's done I'll have something that flows well, and stays true to the spirit of the show.

 

[Timstuff]

IT'S NOT DEAD YET!

Ohayocon attendee Chris Adkins has been in touch to inform us that the studio discussions and fight for final rights of the Evangelion adaptation properties are in the midst of taking place, with everything still going ahead given the success of that other big robot movie, Transformers. Joseph Cho is in charge of the the Gainax/Studio relations and Matt Greenfield is hoping for some official announcements sometime in the next 9 months.

It certainly is good to see some news, but we really want that announcement ASAP, we’re all still waiting with bated breath.

The News: In an Evangelion panel at the Ohayocon anime convention in Columbus Ohio on January 30th, ADV director Matt Greenfield announced that several U.S. studios are competing for final rights to the project, meaning that actual production should begin soon. The delay on the project is due largely to the Transformers movie: The studios wanted to make sure that a “giant robot” movie would appeal to an American audience. The negotiations between the U.S. studios and Gainax are being handled by Joseph Cho, who assisted in the production of “Appleseed: Ex Machina”, an animated film based on the Appleseed series, so Mr. Cho has previous experience in dealing with studio types.

Matt Greenfield estimates that an official announcement, including naming the studio, the director, and perhaps casting information, would be made within the next 9 months.​

Thanks Chris!

http://neon-genesis-evangelion.movi...elion-movie-discussions-still-moving-forward/

I thought that the live action Evangelion blog was dead, because their forum recently closed (much to my sadness, but it was kind of inevitable since it'd become a ghost town). Obviously we won't be seeing this flick any time soon, but it's nice to know that it's not because the industry has forgotten about it or ADV has given up.

I'll worry about wether or not they botch this one up AFTER it actually gets greenlight. For now, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that somehow, it gets off the ground! I'll whine about how they're not doing it right after I know that the movie can actually get made. I'm just jazzed that they're still trying to make it happen, because Evangelion is one of the shows that convinced me to get into animation as my career, especially when I found out about the movie effort. And I really hope that Richard Taylor and Weta are still going to be involved!

 

[RKO]

I hope it happens at some point.

 

[Octoberist]

I'm just afraid that the studios will only see this as a 'big robot' movie, or totally change the awesome designs.

 

[Timstuff]

It doesn't matter if the studio's see Evangelion as a chance to do a "big robot movie," as long as they're wise enough to hire people who are passionate about the source material to make it, and stay out of their way to the best of their ability. Matt Greenfield and Richard Taylor (who are probably going to be producers or executive producers on the film) seem to "get" Evangelion, and hopefully they won't allow it to get botched up. I don't mind the idea of the story being westernized to a degree or the cast going international, but if they go casting a bunch of 24 year old underwear models as the main characters then I would be pretty pissed off.

 

[Timstuff]

Today, I got into a conversation with a friend about Evangelion, and how I wish the movie would make it out of pre-production hell and get made. It was the first Eva conversation I'd had in several months. Oddly enough, we went to the Salvation Army store about an hour later, and by sheer coincidence, I found a shrink-wrapped copy of Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 1 on VHS cassette for a dollar. I own the platinum collection of the entire series, but I saw it as an omen, so I bought it. Because of this, I've decided I need to bump this thread up for karma.

I hope this movie gets made...

*EDIT*

I also just now saw the announcement of Warner Bros. getting the Death Note movie rights. Either this is all a coincidence, or there's something interesting happening in the universe that's Evangelion related.

 

[oakzap425]

Most overrated anime in the history of life. And will never translate well to live action.

 

[Timstuff]

Most overrated anime in the history of life. And will never translate well to live action.

Even though everyone is entitled to their opinion, in this case I'd have to say that Richard Taylor's > yours.

Evangelion is one of the primary reasons why I decided to become an animation major. Unlike most entertainment, it actually created very engaging psychological profiles of its characters in addition to having lots of cool sci-fi stuff. If anyone can make the visuals work in live action, it's Richard Taylor and Weta. The only question is whether or not they can get a good movie script out of it and find a director who can make it happen.

 

[SonikDeath]

Evangelion is awesome, but this movie has been in development hell for years now and i dont think its gonna get out anytime soon.

 

[JackIvyGB]

Hopefully the new Rebuild of Evangelion movies being released in Japan puts the spark back under this thing's butt. Those are supposedly going to be distributed here as well, so who knows. I saw the first one and it was AWESOME. The way the newer version handles some of the classic scenes blows the old version out of the water. The new movies could definitely be looked at as an example of how to pace the films to fit all the episodes in, despite the changes made, though I do like the revisions to the angels, the Evas, and the other asthetic touches.

I can't wait to see the new ending though. With Kwarou introduced much earlier and a new girl pilot and new Evas, it should be pretty interesting.

I will say that one thing that bugged me a little about the WETA designs was how the Evas were so blatantly organic looking. Specifically how you could see their toes. What I liked about the anime designs is that sure, they looked a little leaner than your average robot, but it was no biggie...
UNTIL IT GOT STABBED IN THE HEAD AND BLOOD CAME OUT AND IT'S FACE FELL OFF AND IT BLINKED!!!

Seriously though, if they toned down the organic designs, it'd be perfect. Everything else is perfect. I hope it gets made soon. I can't wait to walk into a theatre one day and see a poster for it and a trailer.
Just imagine:

A poster of a red-head girl in a yellow sundress with her hands on her hips and an arrogant look on her face. No title, only a tagline: "ABSOLUTE TERROR"
and a release date.


Ok, that'd probably be good for the sequel, but still. If you guys haven't seen Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 "You Are (Not) Alone", check it out. It's a pretty good example of how I'd imagine the first live action film would be paced out.

 

[Addendum]

I'm skeptical of a live-action film, but I don't wish them ill will. I'm content with the anime.

 

[Timstuff]

Evangelion is awesome, but this movie has been in development hell for years now and i dont think its gonna get out anytime soon.

The latest news (from February) about the project is that there are some legal issues currently being sorted regarding the film rights, but the studios are finally showing interest due to the recent success of Transformers, and anticipated success for Terminator Salvation. It may be a while, but it wouldn't be the first movie that had to claw its way out of development hell to happen. Also, Richard Taylor and Weta are still on board, and he's said on numerous occasions that he's still enthusiastic about the project.

Hopefully the new Rebuild of Evangelion movies being released in Japan puts the spark back under this thing's butt. Those are supposedly going to be distributed here as well, so who knows. I saw the first one and it was AWESOME. The way the newer version handles some of the classic scenes blows the old version out of the water. The new movies could definitely be looked at as an example of how to pace the films to fit all the episodes in, despite the changes made, though I do like the revisions to the angels, the Evas, and the other asthetic touches.

I can't wait to see the new ending though. With Kwarou introduced much earlier and a new girl pilot and new Evas, it should be pretty interesting.

I am very excited about Rebuild, even though I haven't gotten to see it yet (I'm starting to think maybe i should hunt down a fansub instead of holding out for an official release). However, I'd kind of prefer that the makers of this movie take their own approach towards condensing Eva's story into a trilogy, rather than simply copying what Rebuild is doing. Rebuild is going to be four films, and as you pointed out there are some notable differences with the original series like Kowaru appearing early, and the presence of additional Eva units / pilots. Also, the plan for Rebuild is to do 4 movies, whereas the standard format in most Western film series is 3.

One issue I do have with Rebuild is that Asuka won't be introduced until film 2, and while that may work out well for a 4-movie series, I think that she's too important of a character to not introduce in the first movie of a live-action trilogy. Of course, to fit her in there you'd have to mix up the chonology of the show / comic a bit, but honestly I'd be surprised if that was the biggest change that gets made from the cartoon.

While I hope they remain faithful to the original series, at the same time I hope that the filmmakers aren't afraid of making the movies their own. If the movies are just live action versions of the rebuilds, it would kind of be a bore to me. Since the TV seires and Rebuild films already exist, part of why I look forward to the live action films is seeing what kind of tweaks they make to the story while adapting it. Just the fact that it's going to be Evangelion as seen through the eyes of Western culture will probably have some interesting influence on it.

I will say that one thing that bugged me a little about the WETA designs was how the Evas were so blatantly organic looking. Specifically how you could see their toes. What I liked about the anime designs is that sure, they looked a little leaner than your average robot, but it was no biggie...
UNTIL IT GOT STABBED IN THE HEAD AND BLOOD CAME OUT AND IT'S FACE FELL OFF AND IT BLINKED!!!

Seriously though, if they toned down the organic designs, it'd be perfect. Everything else is perfect.

Agreed. I overall liked the designs Weta came up with, but I do feel like the toes were too much. They are pretty old designs though, so don't be surprised if they look different if and when this movie finally gets made. The big thing for me is that they maintain the silhouette of the original Evas, and that's something that they seem to be very intent on doing.

 

[Timstuff]

I found some images that would serve well as teaser posters on google.

 

[JackIvyGB]

That second one is PERFECT! It shows enough to get you interested(big "robot",destruction,etc.) but is still ambiguous enough that you're not sure what's up.

On a side note, I know that most movie goers wouldn't know what it meant, but for people who know Evangelion, wouldn't the perfect teaser poster just be a shot lookingup at an electrical pole with wires and some birds sitting on them with a blue sky and clouds in the background? 2012 at the bottom? If I walked into a theatre and saw that, I'd crap my pants. Of course no one else would know why, but I would.

Or maybe just a shot of some kids at school, and in the middle of all of the kids are a meek brown haired boy,an albino looking girl, and an arrogant looking redhead.....


wait...getting idea for a good teaser trailer...


Fade in on Tokyo 3. It's quiet. Throughout the entire trailer,from before you see the first scene fade in to until the date cuts out all you hear is birds chirpping and bugs and so forth, the sounds of an empty city. Perhaps for added eerieness, a warning siren that is going as the trailer starts, but shuts off a few seconds in. Not like it just dies, but like it's cut off with a loud "BOOP" in mid whine. Like whoever was working it was like "Yeah, we don't need that anymore." We'll find out why soon.
We see various views of the city at street level, different angles, like the first episode. In one of the cuts, you swear you can see a pale girl standing at the end of a street, but the scene changes before you can be sure. The city views continue. Finally we come to a shot looking up at an electric pole with transformers and wires. Birds sit on top of it. We remain on this shot as we began to hear/feel large thuds, at least 4-5 seconds apart, getting closer...and closer...and we can tell it's BIG. It gets close enough to scare the birds from their spots on the wires and pole. After another few thuds, the wires are shaking. Suddenly, there is a pause. Then, we hear rustling and behind/over the wires lumbers a HUGE, TOWERING figure, it's normal step so big that we only see it move past our view between footfalls (the camera will be focused on the electric pole so the Eva is a bit out of focus, but still visible enough to see that it is a large purple-ish, black, and green thin figure, it's long arms hang at it's sides(perhaps slightly blood stained/blood smeared hands)) it takes about 2 seconds to cross and be off screen, a thick black hose following down it's back. As soon as we hear the loudest thud of all as it's foot comes down just off screen,quick cut to black. Fade in title, white letters VERTICALLY down the middle of the screen,very slow and minimal zoom in, "EVANGELION". We hear the footfalls continue into the distance. Title disappears and is replaced by the tagline, regular horizontal,
"You Are (Not) Alone." Tag disappears, followed by the date.

Subtle, intriguing to the general audience, but no doubt as to what's up for the fans. Definately a buzz generator. And I know that the movies should be their own thing seperate from the anime or manga or Rebuild, but I just think that the Rebuild titles would make such great tag lines if nothing else is taken from them. Especially the first one. It fits so well.

 

[Timstuff]

There was another image that I've seen, but unfortunately haven't been able to track it down, which was scanned from the book "The last year of Ryoji Kaji," where it was a giant Eva handgun sticking out out the ground in a grassy field, and I believe there were some humans and / or vehicles in the shot to give it scale. That would also have made for an awesome teaser trailer, because the audience would just be like "Whoa, that is a big freakin' gun, but what on earth would be using it?" Heheheh...

 

[Gabe99]

From AICN Friday, January 16, 2004:27 Live Action Weta Workshop Produced Designs For EVANGELION -- Commence Drooling!

From Movie Chronicles February 6th, 2009: Evangelion movie discussions still moving forward

From AICN Friday, May 15, 2009: AICN Anime - Impression of Imagi's Astro Boy, Evangelion Live Action Tease, Trigun Anime Movie, and It's Time to Read Guin Saga!

Neb's Blog reported from the Anime Central convention

During the opening ceremonies when ADV head Matt Greenfield was introduced, someone in the crowd shouted a question about if we'll ever see the long-promised live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie. "Soon, & I'm not kidding" was Mr. Greenfield's response. He clarified a bit later that evening during an Evangelion panel, saying the closer he gets to sealing the deal the less he can say anything about it. & the fact that he can't say anything at all anymore should be a clear sign to us how close the deal really is. He seemed pretty confident.]Neb's Blog reported from the Anime Central convention[/url]

During the opening ceremonies when ADV head Matt Greenfield was introduced, someone in the crowd shouted a question about if we'll ever see the long-promised live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie. "Soon, & I'm not kidding" was Mr. Greenfield's response. He clarified a bit later that evening during an Evangelion panel, saying the closer he gets to sealing the deal the less he can say anything about it. & the fact that he can't say anything at all anymore should be a clear sign to us how close the deal really is. He seemed pretty confident.

From IMDB: Untitled Evangelion Project (2012)

From AICN February 5, 2010:
AICN Anime - Live Action Evangelion Still a Possibility, Ghibli's Borrowers Dated, Sailor Moon Revival and More...

Anime News Network's ANNCast featured a talk with producer Joseph Chou (Halo Legends, Appleseed: Ex Machina), during which Chou stated that efforts to adapt Neon Genesis Evangelion into live action is still "very active." Chou is listed as a producer on the project. Chou mentioned that there is a lot of paperwork to clear, but "once that's resolved, I think it would be on the fast track, so we're hoping that it'll start moving even next year."

Chou discussed the difficulties of selling the concept of the film to studios in Hollywood, due to the complexity of the story. However, Chou said that "right now we're with a producer and a studio that really understands beyond the whole mecha impact." Chou added, "They're really looking beyond that, and really looking at drama, human elements, even to those elements that appeal to otaku."

 

[Silvermoth]

I'ld watch it. I can see Rei and Shinji as Japanese actors (Chairman Kaga as Gendo Ikari FTW) but Asuka was German wasn't she?

It would make a terrific film if done right.

 

[Timstuff]

I was happy to hear that the project isn't dead yet. Hopefully Richard Taylor and Weta are still attached if it ever gets made.

BTW, whenever I think of who should play Gendo, one man always comes to mind!

If we could've had a 5-years younger Joseph Gordon Levitt as Shinji, they'd have to work pretty hard to screw things up. :P