Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

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Arbiter GUNDAM
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

harotype wrote:
Now, Maggie Blair, that'd be an interesting relationship to expand on for Char... :lol:
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Margaret Ring Blair, Kycilia Zabi's secretary from the MSG novels...
Spoiler
Whom Char gets romantically involved with...
However, Mark mentioned in this thread that she is very briefly referenced in the Zeta Gundam novels, so she'd be another of the characters from the novels who has been brought into the main anime version of events, although I would suspect she isn't as important as she was there...
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

mcred23 wrote:Margaret Ring Blair, Kycilia Zabi's secretary from the MSG novels...
Spoiler
Whom Char gets romantically involved with...
A bit more than just
Spoiler
romantically involved,
I'd say... Char making something beside war.
Tomino here :shock: wrote:
Spoiler
But he certainly had nothing that specific on his mind now. He was proud but not arrogant enough to give priority to such personal philosophical questions, not when he was lying next to Kycilia Zabi’s secretary for the first time.

"My real name's Margaret Ring Blair, Commander," she said with a smile. "And it's my real name."

Char had a naturally suspicious mind, but with one sentence Margaret had managed to disarm it. She laughed, let her full-bodied hair fall over her face, and then looked up at him. "You look awfully scary," she said, not looking at all as if she meant it. She kept giggling as if she were somehow able to see through the serious facade of his life and even laugh at it.

There was something about her innocent mannerisms that he liked, something about the way she could see through people yet not offend them. He might even be able to fall in love with her, unfettered by the sort of savior complex he had had with Lalah Sune. Deep down he was an extraordinary idealist. And because of his idealism he was normally incapable of totally trusting or loving any individual. Incapable of even making his only sister happy. [[**okay, so maybe this is where "Char is pure" comes from...**]] Love, he believed, was an ideal. Love should be perfect and pure. Physical love, he believed, always condemned a man to remain at a physical level. In the case of Lalah Sune, only his desire to "save" her had helped elevate his love to a higher plane.

"Does the, er, scar on my forehead bother you?" he asked. He was bemused by his own tongue-tied manner. Shyness was an aspect of himself that he could scarcely imagine in his normal military persona. He couldn't recall ever asking Lalah Sune what he had just asked Margaret.

"Well, it is rather ugly," she replied bluntly. "Not a pleasant sight at all. But frankly I think it looks rather good on you, Commander. Forgive me for saying it," she hastened to add, "but I just wanted to be honest. It doesn't bother me. Really."

"Thanks," he replied. "You're being kind. You're everything I imagined when I first met you." He cursed himself for phrasing it that way. It seemed like that was the only sort of thing he was ever capable of saying. I want to love her and tell her so, he thought, but I don't really know her well enough yet. Perfectionism was a tragic shortcoming in his romantic character, one that always seemed to emerge at times like these.

He liked the way she interacted with him; he liked her sincerity and the way she didn't pressure him. She gave him such a sense of relief that all his senses— normally so taut—relaxed. As long as he felt her body next to his, it seemed there was nothing to worry about. Who cares about Newtypes? he thought, turning around as she moved slightly next to him. Her cheeks had a glow to them, and her full lips were formed into a smile. With his left hand he traced the lines of her full waist and suddenly, spontaneously wished she could bear his child. It was something he had never dreamed of with Lalah Sune. Perhaps, it occurred to him, humans often acted on impulses like that, and then spent the rest of their lives trying to reconcile them with reality. There was something interesting about that idea, something to savor.
...Followed by the part about how he can hardly remember Lalah. :shock: And then it's time to sleep.

:shock: This is surely not the animated Char Aznable. Or is it?
mcred23 wrote:However, Mark mentioned in this thread that she is very briefly referenced in the Zeta Gundam novels, so she'd be another of the characters from the novels who has been brought into the main anime version of events, although I would suspect she isn't as important as she was there...
Right. To the extent that she doesn't exist in the anime (even from her one sentence in the Zeta novelization). At all. (...Good grief, can you imagine how much she might have changed if she had??)




PS and backing up a bit: It's called "Operation British" because Zeon was hoping it would have a similar (successful) effect to the American Revolution colonies (get it?) being able to separate from the British Empire. I think.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

harotype wrote:Right. To the extent that she doesn't exist in the anime (even from her one sentence in the Zeta novelization). At all. (...Good grief, can you imagine how much she might have changed if she had??)
Actually, that's what they're trying to say, that she does exist outside of the (highly) alternate MSG novels, as Mark pointed out in that thread...
Marky Mark wrote:It's literally one sentence, mentioning that after the Battle of A Baoa Qu, Char fled to Axis along with his "friend" Margaret Ring Blair. Well, at least this indicates she still exists in the mainstream UC continuity.
Regardless, whether she would exsist or not in the anime universe has little to do with a live action adaptation of the basic Mobile Suit Gundam story, so let's just leave that subject for another thread.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

harotype wrote: Maryam D'Abo in The Living Daylights has yet to be surpassed as my 'real-life Sayla'.
In the mgs series Sayla was always seen as this super beatiful women, so if that is the case then you have to get one of the most beatiful women around. Which is why Jesica Alba is perfect'.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

The inclusion or exclusion of Margaret Ring Blair would depend on whether or not the writers had read the novels and whether or not they wanted to give Char a happier, more redemptive ending of "Love conquers all."

Do they want to leave us with Char, the bitter crusader, or Char, the guy who got over the worst of his problems to become a more heroic figure?
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:
NastyNate wrote: As for Mirai: either Maggie Q, Jamie Chung or Grace Park. Possibly Crystal Liu although I'm not sure if Crystal can actually speak English.
For Mirai I would either go with Olivia Munn or Linda Park.
personally i would cast Dominic Keating as bright due to his performance in enterprise. for Sayla i would go with Alison Haislipor Candace Bailey For the design of the Gundam i would use the Gundam Evolve version due to it's more modern look. I would also consider the origin designs.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Kratos wrote: Certainly not Alba, and remember: Sayla's fairly young. She's 15-16 too. I know it doesn't seem like it, but she is. You'd have to get a girl who can pull off that...chilly feel really well.
Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:Char... oh dear Char. He'd have to be a white guy. Have to be. I'm sorry, I just can't see a blonde asian guy playing THE Char Aznable. Matt Damon maybe. Or wait! Even better: Chris Pine! Char would have to lose the bucket though. As has been said before, Char's bucket is nowhere near as cool and/or intimidating as Darth Vader's. He'd have to where the mask Full Frontal style, but without the red eyepieces.
Aye Carumba, I don't want to sit here and cast the movie all night. Obviously I'd ave to go with who I felt was best for the job. Hire Chris Pine? Sure, as long as I felt he was right. Go with unknown actors? If I had to, I would, even though it would be a gamble. Can you imagine what Star Wars would be like today if Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammil had been crappy actors?
Char would be a character that would need a HELL of an audition. In fact, I would argue that he would be the single character that would hinge most on how the actor "feels". He would need to portray this calm sureness, with a sort of affable insanity. And he would need plenty of "presence". I agree with the bucket, and the use of a mask; I was going to suggest sunglasses, but I realized those would look ridiculous with the garish Zeon military uniform. Whoever you hired for Char would need reasonably good chemistry with Sayla, too.

How would you deal with interior cockpit shots? Among G-Saviour's numerous derp moments, the in-battle cockpit shots always looked the worst, and were one of the cheesiest things about the movie. You can't avoid those shots altogether, because they're important to continue getting the human element across while in battle, but I don't see how they could be made to look even remotely good.
Imperial wrote:The inclusion or exclusion of Margaret Ring Blair would depend on whether or not the writers had read the novels and whether or not they wanted to give Char a happier, more redemptive ending of "Love conquers all."

Do they want to leave us with Char, the bitter crusader, or Char, the guy who got over the worst of his problems to become a more heroic figure?
JEFFPIATT wrote:
Arbiter GUNDAM wrote: As for Mirai: either Maggie Q, Jamie Chung or Grace Park. Possibly Crystal Liu although I'm not sure if Crystal can actually speak English.
For Mirai I would either go with Olivia Munn or Linda Park.
personally i would cast Dominic Keating as bright due to his performance in enterprise. for Sayla i would go with Alison Haislipor Candace Bailey For the design of the Gundam i would use the Gundam Evolve version due to it's more modern look. I would also consider the origin designs.
Kratos: First of all, remember that G Saviour was made all the way back in 1999. Even if work started on the MSG movie trilogy right now, and depending on budgets, whatever happened would end up looking at least 10x better than whatever they had in G Saviour. As for Char, the people you'd really have to please would likely be the Sunrise execs. Messing up Char would likely be the Unforgivable Sin in their eyes. Also, you'd pretty much have to cast older actors as I can gaurantee you that the ages of the characters would have to be bumped up. The average un-initiated American isn't going to get a fifteen-year old pilot of a giant war robot, even if the character looks older. And you'd likely get those annoying parent's groups swooping in to say that you can't have a character that young, it'll be a bad influence on children. 8)

Imperial: I don't think it'll matter either way. Those in the know have the knowledge of what's eventually going to happen to Char anyway and the un-initiated will hopefully be happy with whatever ends up happening as long as it's done well.

JEFF: Sorry, but I really think that Keating looks too old to be MSG Bright. Even if Bright's age gets bumped up a little from 19, he's still supposed to be a fresh-faced academy graduate who's only been out in the field for six months. Maybe Keating can be CCA Bright. 8) Also, I don't think using the Evolve version of the RX-78 would fly. I'm not an expert but I'd bet that the Sunrise guys would want something slightly more traditional looking.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

I don't know who would play them but I know the Black Tri Stars have to be in there somewhere.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

After his performance in X-Men: First Class I'd be quite keen to see James McAvoy playing Bright, he's shown he can play that kind of "young leader" figure rather well. From the same film, I'd be quite keen to see a bottle-blonde Michael Fassbender playing Char, thinking about it... again, he's shown the ability to play a young, charismatic and intense leader. Failing that, Jack Davenport for Bright, though for reasons of age he'd only really be suitable if the adaptation was set around the Zeta or CCA era - or if they just ignored the animation's character ages :roll:

General Revil, if they could afford either of them, would have to be Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellan - let's face it, if you want a "wise old master you'd take a bullet or nine for" character it has to be one of those two.

Oh, and David Tennant to play Sleggar; from his performance in the TV series Blackpool I think he could pull off that kind of role. Hugh Laurie as Gihren Zabi, perhaps. Sheridan Smith as Sayla too, for being a gorgeous blonde whose beauty is natural.

Yes, I am casting a more-or-less all-British adaptation, due to being heavily biased, and heavily British. We produce excellent performers, is all I can say :wink:
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

General Revil i would have thought that Sam Waterston would have been a good fit.
Felicia Day might make a good Matilda Ajan or Christina Mackenzie.
for the Black Tri-Stars at least one of the could be larry the cable guy.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Dendrobium Stamen wrote:After his performance in X-Men: First Class I'd be quite keen to see James McAvoy playing Bright, he's shown he can play that kind of "young leader" figure rather well.
Totally concur; McAvoy I think has the potential to make an absolutely BRILLIANT Bright.
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Does anyone think that Elijah Wood could make a good amuro?
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

ShadowCell wrote:why would that appeal to Western audiences?

why would any of this appeal to Western audiences?

what the hell is a "Western audience" anyway?
Because Transformers, that had not nearly the plot of Gundam, did it?
ShadowCell wrote:why would anyone want to watch a whiny nerd have to get slapped around to fly his goofy giant robot out of the goofy spaceship in a goofy war against another bunch of goofy enemies with funny names in a goofy story that plays with goofy giant robots but thinks it's a serious war drama?
Because it looks cool AND entertaining?
ShadowCell wrote:how would you propose somebody gets the rights to release a live-action simulacrum of Sunrise and Bandai's flagship property in a market that they think ultimately rejected it? including using all the trademarks, like the Gundam name and the character names and the setting and the mecha/ship/whatever else designs?
Well, they have a strange way to react to the rejecting thing, given Unicorn is mainly aimed to western market... plus, the poor reception of MSG in US doesn't match with the good reception it had in Europe since 1980... Yes, Gundam was first broadcasted in Europe in february 1980 (its run was barely over in Japan)... 30 years of fans building in number....
ShadowCell wrote:how would you write a movie that covers the Side 7 attack, the establishment of Amuro's rivalry with Char, the battles with Garma and Char's betrayal thereof, Amuro meeting his mom, Lieutenant Matilda, and the first bout with Ramba Ral, and packs in a superfluous love story between Amuro and Sayla, and is shorter than the animated one? what would you cut? how would you do that while still retaining the characterization and plot development of the original? how much stuff can you take out before you don't get to call it Gundam anymore?
How they could make movies from The Lord Of The Rings? BTW, I'd cut away the three kids and split the movie in two 2 hrs long films, like Kill Bill.

ShadowCell wrote:how do you keep people from laughing at Char? (people will laugh at Char. nonnegotiable. the man wears a bucket on his head, and unlike Darth Vader, he doesn't really have a reason for it and his bucket isn't nearly as scary/awesome as Darth Vader's is anyway.)
I'D PUT A SCAR ON HIS FACE! ;) A scar the helmet can't cover in all its width and is still visible beneath the mask. A scar I'd say Char self-inflicted to have a reason to cover his face and avoid people recognize Zeon Daikon's likeness. No big deal.
ShadowCell wrote:how would you propose a movie as giant-robot-action-intensive as Gundam be handled without requiring a budget that would put some modern industrialized nations to shame? (case in point: eventually you'll have to show hangar shots of the entire Gundam and people interacting with it. which means you'll have to build at least one full-scale model of the Gundam and a set to house it. probably several. i wonder how much the full-scale Gundam statue in Japan cost? and that was only one and it didn't do anything.)
There are things called "GREEN SCREENS". The actors just pretend of doing things in front of these screens and then the F/X are kicked into the frame in the proper position during post-production. They didn't build a life size Optimus Prime for Transformers, nor a life size T-Rex for Jurassic Park. And Jurassic Park was showing believeable FAKE LIVING CREATURES (much more difficult to portray than robots) in 1993! The film costed 100 million $. Blockbusters nowdays usually cost three times that amount.
ShadowCell wrote:how would you convince people that your movie with brightly-colored giant robots piloted by nerdy psychic teenagers is actually a serious war drama with compelling characters and important themes, and not just kid's schlock?
Finding a good and serious screenwriter such as David Koepp, David Hayter, Chris McQuarrie... there are a few. After all, they made X-Men being about racism, didn't they?
Bright colored robots? Just say it is the testing paint scheme, then change it as soon as story-wise reasonable (thus Bandai will have DOUBLE the modelkits to sell!). The psycho teeneger? He wouldn't be the first nor the last, in western cinema. You just need good actors, maybe not famous, so they'll commit in the film to gain visibility. You can have some big stars for small key roles such as Amuro's mom or Degwin Zabi...

ShadowCell wrote:and to bring us back full circle, if you're going and taking so many "liberties" with the original trilogy, why would even Gundam fans want to watch this?
For the same reason they're going to watch "The Amazing Spider-Man" after the Raimi trilogy, or the same reason for which they'll watch the animated "Gundam Origin".

If there's someone else here who thinks that a Gundam Movie is NOT such a crazy idea, here's a group on the facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/207617765928623/
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Re: Mobile Suit Gundam Live action

Wolverine, don't try to evade a closed thread by bringing this nonsense up in another one. I'm closing this thread, and don't go and create another thread or dig up something else, otherwise you'll get a warning.
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