You're in charge of casting for a Soul Calibur movie...

[lesterlong]

..who do you pick? You can have any actors/actresses you want. Go ahead!

Kilik-
Cervantes-
Hwang-
Sophitia-
Cassandra-
Astaroth-
Mitsurugi-
Ivy-
Nightmare-
Lizardman-
Xianghua-
Sueg Mina-
Raphael-
Rock-
Yunsung-
Talim-
Voldo-

[immortal_zeus]

I don't know all of the characters since I played Soul Calibur (or was it Soul Blade?) on PS1 many years ago...but here goes:

Cervantes - Johnny Depp
Hwang - Simon Rhee
Mitsurugi - Yuji Okumoto
Mina - Zhang Ziyi (or, if that "Xianghua" character is female, use her there...I like to keep Asians in the proper category)
Rock - Ving Rhames

[Drexl]

Sophitia: Jewel

[RocShemp]

I discussed this for a little while at IMDB. Here's what I said (the first comment referers to another poster's choice for Maxi):

"Marc Dacascos IS a good choice and he can definitely be arrogant. Besides, he was the best part of "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

Taki need not be busty. Besides, a large bust size would be inconvenient for a ninja. I'd prefer a believable Taki than "Ninja Barbie with Karate chop action."

Though Takeshiro Kaneshi is the basis for Samonosuke Akechi he doesn't have the look to play Mitsurugi. Mitsurugi looks like a young Toshiro Mifune. Also, if you complained about Arkitekt suggesting Kelly Hu because her nationality is all wrong then Takeshiro Kaneshi is a poor choice as Mitsurugi since Takeshiro Kaneshi is Taiwanese.

Kilik, though having that could-be-Anglo-could-be-Asian look typical of many (though certainly not all) anime/manga characters should preferably be played my an actor who atleast looks passably Chinese even if he may not necessarily be Chinese. Though not a martial artist, my pick would have to be Aaron Kwok. He just has that comic book hero look. He's also a good actor (not saying he'sgreat buthe is good). You'd just have to put him through months or rigorous training so he can have the choreography down by the time they film.

Zhang Zi Yi does not have skills. That's just rigorous choregraphy on the part of Yuen Wo Ping and good rythm and pace on her part (I'm of course thinking about the much over-rated "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Though I think she's a bit over exposed (and her name is mentioned way to quickly for whatever possible character) I do agree she would be good as Xianghua though she does not really look like her character. (But who said she has to be a 100% perfect clone of her videogame counterpart. Besides, look at the transformation achieved with Sonny Chiba in "Wind & Cloud: The Stormriders.")

Rock should be played by a Native American. the Rock isn't that bad a choice really. He'd just need a good acting coach.

Wouldn't it be cool if Vincent Cassel portrayed Voldo. True, Vincent Cassel is French and Voldo is Italian but the scope he could achieve with this character would be mesmerizing. Besides, it would be a good excuse to expand the character from just another creepy looking guy to THE creepy guy in Soul Calibur.

Hwang is my favourite character but I'm not sure who should portray him. Maybe Hyun-joon Shin (from "Bichunmoo")?

Wes Studi. Never thought of him as Cervantes but he is a very good (and highly underated) actor. I'm sure he could pull it off with style. Too bad Raul Julia is dead. If they beefed him up he'd have been a great Cervantes. A good runner up (and my personal choice) would be Joaquim de Almeida. Though he'd certainly need to beef up (just enough to be more athletic) and he's a little short (the same two problems that would have be resolved if Wes Studi were in the role).

Sophitia should not be an American "it" girl. I'd want the whole cast to be chosen with taste in mind. I don't mind if the actress be Anerican but I would like her to bring dignity to the role and to speak with a believable Greek accent. But who? Perhaps an unknown (as could be done with any number of the other characters)?

Seung Mina is very important as she was trained by Kong (the father of Xianghua and her now deceased sister Xiangfei) and that character set certain events in motion that lead towards Hwang make a lapse in judgement when dealing with a pirate ship (that decimated the a fleet Korean troops under his command when they wereled into an ambush by the pirates) and he stole the sword that Xianghua now posseses (I forget that particular blade's name but it is linked to the mirror and staff that Kilik wields).

I'm also drawing a blank for Ivy.

Siegfried should be portrayed as young, eager and naive. While Nightmare (portrayed by the same actor) should be quite the opposite. Menacing, fierce, deadly, bloodthirsty and patient. I believe Christian Bale could pull off both sides of this character in a manner both believable and jaw dropping.

Astaroth could simply be a body builder (anyone here see "Subway"?) since he barely speaks anyway. Though when he does he doesn't really seem like an idiot so maybe just picking any ol' body builder might not be such a good idea.

There should be a plot. Just have it be high fantasy and adventure. The moment you go for the "who cares about a plot route" you're well on your way towards making your own "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation." And definitely keep it subtitled. In fact, it'd be cool if all the characters spoke their own languages the whole time except when characters different nationalities attempt tocomunicate. Then they should try different approaches (each using varying degrees of mastery of Latin and/or Greek and attempting speak broken forms of each others languages and/or using interpreters). Maybe add and English character to tag along with one of the other characters so as to make it accessible to Americans who don't want to always be reading subtitles (though after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" being such a success is there really an excuse anymore?) and still retain that old world feel.

It would be cool if this was done in like manner of "Excalibur" (but with better fight choreography) with it's old world feel and love of high fantasy."

The rest of the conversation can be found here: http://imdb.com/title/tt0282997/boar...417018#1417018

[Jackskeleton]

This thing still being talked about? wow it feels like forever since this was last mentioned.

My suggestion.. make it an anime.

/thread

[zero]

Originally posted by Jackskeleton
This thing still being talked about? wow it feels like forever since this was last mentioned.

My suggestion.. make it an anime.

/thread

I agree, and not because I think it CANT be done, but I dont think it SHOULD be done. Anime style would better suit this type of material.

[Jackskeleton]

If you jumped on board from SCII then you must have missed the great drawings and art that came along with Soul Calibur. the cards themselves had an extensive anime look to them. this wouldn't work in live action and the characters of SCII do not need to be in there. the talks about a Soul Calibur film have been around since Soul Calibur hit the Dream Cast. I'm surprised they came up again.. but again, for the love of god do not go with live action. it just can't work.

There should be a plot. Just have it be high fantasy and adventure

and if you follow the Soul Calibur stories you will see that there is plot behind it. a lot of the characters are joined together as a group in a sense.

[zero]

There should be a plot. Just have it be high fantasy and adventure

Yeah because you know....this works for ALL movies. Having a PLOT and all.

[lesterlong]

I brought it up again because I've been playing the new game a lot. I doubt the movie has been gaining any progress. I still think it could be done as a good live action film. It would just be hard.

[RocShemp]

Originally posted by Jackskeleton
and if you follow the Soul Calibur stories you will see that there is plot behind it. a lot of the characters are joined together as a group in a sense.

I think you and zero missed my point. In the thread I was quoting the other posters felt the plot could be an afterthought and I disagreed. Also, yes the game has a high fantasy plot but it doesn't mean the filmmakers will follow suit. Look at Mario Bros. The movie was lite sci-fi rather than lite fantasy.

And I would rather the filmmakers begin with Soul Edge before tackling Soul Calibur. Otherwise there'd be too much ground to cover in one movie.

Anime would be sweet but I'm sure a studio would just cut the budget and make it into a 90 minute or less crapfest rather than a 2+ hour anime. But then, the same could easily happen to a live action movie.

Either way, I'd love to see those costumes and sets recreated for a live action feature.

[Jackskeleton]

I'll look for and scan some of the card artwork that was released when SC was released. the art and action in those pictures look like they already had some idea of an anime series. Also, since this is a japanese company, if there was an anime series Namco Japan, I would assume, would handle it. the budget for anime is not the same as the budget for animation here.

[RocShemp]

Jack,

I vaguely remember the old SC artwork but would be grateful if you manage to show me some. It would be great if Namco is directly involved in an anime (or live action film if that aproach is taken with the property).

I was thinking of anime not US animation, BTW (so I understand the budget differences). And I have seen some horrendously animated anime in my day. I've also seen great. What I would love, if anime is the way a Soul movie (or, preferably, series of movies) were to be made, is for it to have the type of lip movements Akira had (unlike the crappy always-out-of-sync-even-in-their-original-language mouth flaps that plague most anime - even of the high budget variety) with the attention to detail you'd typically find in a Miyasaki film or other anime of equal caliber. So regardless who the production company is (US based or Japan based) an animated film could be equaly crappy on both sides of the ocean.

[Jackskeleton]

I'm trying to put the puzzle piece together right now and finding more cards at the moment. in some of them they show a very much nice anime style fight sequence that you could swear looked like it came off a OAV film about soul calibur.

also, the namco site is liquidating these cards off their site:

http://www.namcoarcade.com/namstore/index.asp

I'll get some pictures up soon.

[RocShemp]

Thanks, Jack. Can't wait.