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The Ring?/Dreamworks/Katzenburg comment on Miyazaki




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Neilworms



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 155
Location: Chicago IL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:09 am Reply with quote
I decided to start this on a new threat since most likely it will develop into a completely seperate discussion. :)

Gatsu,

First of all what is "The Ring" and why has dreamworks treated it badly??? (Is it mabye a HK film??)

Secondly Jeffery Katzenburg, head of Dreamworks animation division, offered this to say about anime and Miyazaki in particular.

"Japanese animation is the envy of the world," Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of DreamWorks, said on a recent visit to Tokyo to introduce a Japanese- dubbed version of "Shrek," his company's successful animated movie. Praising "Chihiro," Mr. Katzenberg said of Mr. Miyazaki and his work, "What I like about it is that it is so much a part of mainstream moviegoing here."

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/03/movies/03JAPA.html (yes I do relize that this is the same article that had the infamous literacy comment attached to it)

Hopefully these comments are a sign that at the very least DW will pick it up for a limited theatrical/home video release. Anything would be better than what Disney has done with Miyazaki's other films.

Another point to add is that Katzenburg has been rumored to be flirting with Katsuhiro Otomo, to do a joint US-Japanese production for years now. It definetly shows that he might have some interest in this stuff.

At least Miyazaki's contract will not allow him to produce a catastrophie like "Warriors of the Wind"
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:21 am Reply with quote
"First of all what is "The Ring" and why has dreamworks treated it badly??? (Is it mabye a HK film??)"

The Ring is a successful Japanese horror film franchise-among other things. (In some cases, it's been called the Asian answer to the Blair Witch Project.) For more details, go to http://www.somrux.com/ringworld/ . Dreamworks recently got the re-make rights to it. And they haven't indicated whether they will ever be releasing the original movie on dvd-and with the Japanese track. So all we might end up with is a Westernized version of a Japanese product, much like that stupid William Shatner-hosted Iron Chef.

Not to mention I've never seen a Spielberg film that wasn't catered to Western audiences. Anytime he makes a movie with people of different nationalities, he's always stuck with a WWII setting, as if other countries besides the U.S. didn't exist before and after that time. (Unless you consider "1941" and the upcoming "Memories of a Geisha"[And no I haven't seen it, but any movie that has the name of a traditionally submissive role for a Japanese woman in its title is definitely not going to define the Japanese culture objectively.] a three-dimensional view of the Japanese. It's kind of ironic, too, since A.I.'s success in the Japanese box office saved it from failure.) In conclusion, I don't want them to buy the dub version only, and try to pull a Princess Mononoke on us like Disney did.

""Japanese animation is the envy of the world," Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of DreamWorks, said on a recent visit to Tokyo to introduce a Japanese- dubbed version of "Shrek," his company's successful animated movie."

Notice Shrek was dubbed in Japanese over there. If he doesn't trust Japanese audiences to see his film in its original language, who's to say he'll trust American audiences to see Sen No Chihiro in its original language?

"Another point to add is that Katzenburg has been rumored to be flirting with Katsuhiro Otomo, to do a joint US-Japanese production for years now. It definetly shows that he might have some interest in this stuff."

I read.

"At least Miyazaki's contract will not allow him to produce a catastrophie like "Warriors of the Wind""

It may not be cut, but I wouldn't want to find out that the dvd Dreamworks releases is dub-only.
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Neilworms



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 155
Location: Chicago IL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:23 am Reply with quote
You may have a point about the language issue. I stumbled across an article on Japan Today's english website. (http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=newsmaker&id=30)

For the Japanese version of "Shrek," Katzenberg and his team have done something very unusual — they have personally handpicked the Japanese voice cast. Popular TV star and ad campaign girl Norika Fujiwara takes the Cameron Diaz part, while Masatoshi Hamada has the Mike Myers role.(I need to look these people up on the seiyuu database)

I'm currently not so worried about their being a lack of a Japanese track, but their being at least some kind of release. We should be worring about that detail later (and hopefully Nausicaa.net will put on a campaign as great as the one that they put forth for the Japanese track to come with Mononoke) it would be better if it were at least released resonably well in English, than not released at all. We all know that it is very unlikely for Miyazaki to let Katzenburg mangle his work too much.

In fact Gaiman ended up only having about 40% of his script intact after Miyazaki and Stephen Alpert looked at it and made parts of it closer to the original translation.

The article that I found also appears to be a source for that NYT article that I quoted from earlier, here's the missing lines of the quote.

...mainstream movie going here." [Says Katzenburg] "There is so much talent in Japan. Some of them already work with us in California, but I want to do a lot more collaborating."

Maybe his current dubbing of "Shrek" is a sign that he wants to have a similar project, on Sprited Away. If Japan gets a Japanized version of that movie, (one of the most successful American animated releases this year) then we will get an Americanized version of (with approvial of Miyazaki of course) Sen (japan's most successful animated release ever). These recient comments could be proof of such a thing.

...Of course I could be wrong.
----

Also, with "The Ring" almost always when there is a remake, a studio will issue the original or reissue the original, in order to make even more profits. So hopefully come summertime (or around the time that "Ring" is released on DVD, the original will follow suit.
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Animan



Joined: 05 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:24 am Reply with quote
"There is so much talent in Japan. Some of them already work with us in California..."

What Katzenburg may be referring to is that some of the artists he has hired are former artists from some major animation studios in Japan. You'd be surprise which studios.

"but I want to do a lot more collaborating."

What he is possibly referring to here is the film project titled 'Ash' (an adaption of a comic book I last heard) with Katsuhiro Otomo set to direct. The film has been on the shelf the past three years now but may still be made.

The project collaboration is actually listed at the AKIRA Restoration website. Go here:

http://www.akira2001.com/html/creator.html

My guess is the the project will still be made somewhere in the future down the line. Both Katzenburg and Otomo seem to be too busy in their other works to be able to get the project started.

You also might be interested to know that, originally, Dreamworks wanted to distribute Rin Taro and Otomo's METROPOLIS for Sony, but Sony decided that they would distribute the film themselves. Dreamworks efforts to distribute a new film like METROPOLIS by Otomo shows that Katsenburg has not been out of contact with Mr. Otomo.

So it was no surprise to me when I heard the Dreamworks was interested in distributing Miyazaki's latest film if Disney decides to back out.

Remember that Dreamworks financed and distributed Nick Park's CHICKEN RUN. So Dreamwork's distribution of other films other than their own is not unusual.
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Neilworms



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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Location: Chicago IL
PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:45 am Reply with quote
To Delirum (whose message was posted under the "what release are you most looking forward to" subject),

Just because Dreamworks dosen't currently have the rights dosen't mean that they've lost all interest in distrubuting the film. I think it is still in a haggling stage, but hopefully something will come of it. Just look at what Animan said, Dreamworks helped introduce the majority of americans to Nick Park and Aardman Animation, it is likely that they may do the same with Miyazaki.

I'm hoping (of course this is just a crazy delusion) that if Sen is successful in america Disney will get off it's butt and start to release Miyazaki's other work (probably not Nausicaä, but his more kid-friendly titles) in order to get back at its main rival Dreamworks for making Sen so succesful when Disney wasn't really able to get much success out of Miyazaki's other releases.

----

"Ash" may be interesting, but I don't know if it will ever get off the ground. The concept sounds a bit too "mainstream superhero" for my tastes, but with Otomo at the helm it may be very interesting. (I've never read the comic of which it is based upon...)

Unless famous anime directors will suffer the same fate as their Hong Kong counterparts (remember Tsui Hark's Double Team, or John Woo's MI:2, shudder) whose films in America were no where near as good as the ones they did in Hong Kong. (Particularly with Tsui Hark, how could he possibly sink so low).

Either that or Otomo will do like Miyazaki, Takahata, and Yoshifumi Kondo* did in "Little Nemo"; quit due to professional differences with the American producers, and be replaced by a mediocre anime director who is willing to conform to american standards. (Those producers were really stupid to let what are now some of the most famous directors in animation go; it killed Nemo's chances of at least being critically accepted.)

*Kondo wasn't really famous but he was destined to become Miyazaki's succesor, sadly he died in 1998, with only one film under his belt, before this could happen.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 11:49 am Reply with quote
"Unless famous anime directors will suffer the same fate as their Hong Kong counterparts (remember Tsui Hark's Double Team, or John Woo's MI:2, shudder) whose films in America were no where near as good as the ones they did in Hong Kong. (Particularly with Tsui Hark, how could he possibly sink so low)."

John Woo did well so far, but that's only cus he worked with Van Damme when people still liked the actor. As for Tsui Hark, his Hong Kong films vary in terms of likeability anyway, so he has a tougher chance of making it here. Ringo Lam chose to work with Van Damme at his lowest point of success(i.e. Replicant), so that's his fault. As for Ang Lee, he was the smartest HK director, and chose not to work with Van Damme at all. :) Anyway, all I want from Tsui Hark is for him to keep his word on a live-action Lupin and a cgi Tetsujin 28. As for Japanese directors making it here, if Kitano can survive a POS like Johnny Mnemonic and still bring one of his own productions to the U.S., there's hope for other anime directors.
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Joshua



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 23
Location: Portsmouth, RI
PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 12:03 pm Reply with quote
Dreamworks has the rights to the Ring as well as the remake rights? Do they have the rights to the rest of the Ring movies?
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Thu Jan 31, 2002 12:06 pm Reply with quote
All I know is they have the rights to the re-make. The link I gave earlier should provide you with all the information on the American staff behind the film. Oh, and while we're talking about live Japanese cinema, Wes Craven is directing the remake of Pulse. (Aka Kairo.)
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