Time to mobilize and prevent this travesty.

http://www.kdramastars.com/articles/...ive-action.htm

One of the most popular mecha animes of all-time, Neon Genesis Evangelion is probably going to have a live action adaptation and Michael Bay allegedly is putting his hat into the ring to be the director of the film.

Yes, you've read that right. The Neon Genesis Evangelion live action adaptation is probably going to be directed by Michael Bay.

According to the Tranformers News Center, Michael Bay was asked by journalists if he wants to direct any other franchises after his stint with Transformers and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Michael Bay then responded by saying "I don't know if you are familiar with 'Evangelion' but that's one movie that I want to direct".

When asked if Michael Bay is working on the Neon Genesis Evangelion live action movie right now, he just smiled at the journalist who asked him that question.

Could that mean that they are already working on the Neon Genesis Evangelion live action movie? What do you think about Michael Bay directing Evangelion? Sound off in the comments below!

I doubt it happens but you never know. Big-time directors like Bay usually don't announce their next project in a casual answer with journalists.

I assume he would give it the Transformers treatment, one in which the movie only vaguely resembles the original source material.

Any casting information?

A young Josh Hartnett, e.g. in O, would have been my choice to play Kaoru. An adult Josh Hartnett would be my choice to play Kaji.

I remember Bay saying that he barely wanted to take the Armageddon job, because he wasn't interested in sci-fi.

I don't know if the marketing could counter the nerd rage. People hold Evangelion very close. It could be Bay's critically acclaimed opus and still get hammered by fans.

I doubt the studio cares about the five people that know what an Evangelion is in America.

Yeah, seriously. Evangelion isn't nearly as popular as it was between 1995 and the early 00s.

Is this one actually happening? I've heard supposed remakes of Full Metal Panic to Cowboy Beebop to Akira but I don't see any progress here. What makes this one different?

I could see a younger Shia LaBeouf playing Shinji though, speaking of Michael Bay. He is certainly enough of a whiny bitch to do it.

I think Hollywood mostly realizes a lot of these anime properties don't translate that well to mainstream America. I can only think of a very small handful which could retain the essence of what made them special as anime in a Hollywood production. Death Note being the foremost example.

What about Edge of Tomorrow? That's based on a "light novel", which is basically the literary equivalent of anime.

I haven't seen it yet, so we shall see about that one.

I would like to see a live-action Akira or Evangelion made by a Japanese film studio. The story takes place in Japan, and I'd prefer it with Japanese actors rather then it becoming Americanized.

This x infinity

Well, the Japanese do make tons of live-action movies based on manga which are also given the anime treatment, e.g. RUROUNI KENSHIN, DEVILMAN, CASSHERN, GANTZ, DEATH NOTE, YAMATO and a bunch I've forgotten. I liked the RUROUNI KENSHIN movie a lot, but not the DEATH NOTE or CASSHERN ones. Haven't seen the GANTZ ones yet.

So why hasn't Japan made more live-action film adaptations of their more fantasy based anime and manga properties? The profits wouldn't be enough to justify the budgets needed?

There's a live-action Kiki's Delivery Service in production...

I don't think the profits are there to budget a full cast of characters. And we don't want to end up with a few dozen Power Ranger movies.

They make movie spin-offs of the current sentai (Power Rangers) seasons all the time in Japan. They never make it to the U.S., though.



They're not big-budget, though. They're often just glorified TV episodes or "team-up" specials combining two different sets of sentai heroes. But they do two or three a year and they do show up in theaters.

Have you seen these Japanese live action movies? They're not super low budget but definitely don't have the budgets of similar American movies, and you wouldn't get the global box office that an American movie would have either.

I've only seen the first Gantz movie, which was ok, but I don't think they'll ever do a movie of the full on sci-fi craziness Gantz becomes later. They won't have a LoTR budget for something like Berserk either.

I'm kinda interested in seeing the new Gatchaman movie, though.

And if he does?

People will rant for a couple days and then get over it.

Given the middling business that Pacific Rim did, I'm surprised anyone is considering this. Transformers was a giant brand name, this has the smallest possible cult appeal (I must revisit it someday, but it looks like a lot has happened since I left, remasters, new animation, all kinds of things.). Maybe Bay's name would get people into seats, but it'd still be a tough sell, I would think.