Lupin III Coming to Hollywood 238
Secret anime ninja writes "A story in today's Toronto Star says, "Master thief Lupin the Third, a comic book hero in Japan for more than 30 years, will soon make his Hollywood debut." The story goes on to say that it's been optioned by the producer of Minority Report, Schindler's List and Jurassic Park." Lupin III is currently airing on Cartoon Network and several Lupin movies are available on DVD. Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Miyazaki is a great movie.
Question (Score:2)
Re:Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Question (Score:3, Funny)
And that the girl's so top-heavy her head could fit in her torso about 3 times.
Re:Question (Score:2)
The idea of Mr. T with skinny legs is making me laugh.
Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
Lupin the 3rd is basically a story about the exploits of four legendary thieves and an Interpol investigator who's constantly on their trail. They seem to try to rob and rip people off more for the challenge of it then for the actual money (though, they do seem to enjoy the money as well). Central to Lupin's character is that he doesn't seem to be a killer, just an unorthodox thief.
Lupin (pronounced Loop-ON, I believe) is the grandson of a legendary criminal, and has taken on his legacy of performing impossible crimes under the very nose of authorities many times. His main ability seems to be his quick wit and extreme intelligence when it comes to stealing things. He (as well as the rest of the crew) is a fairly good master of disguise.
Jigan is a guy who tends to wear a suit and a dark hat, drinks an awful lot, and is a damn good shot with a revolver. He's generally a rather pragmatic figure who tends to just like hanging out with Lupin, because Lupin's an interesting guy.
Goemon is a legendary swordsman (a kind of stereotypical samurai), who also enjoys just hanging out with Lupin and Jigan. Of all the characters, he is probably the most outlandish, performing rather impossible feats with his sword. However, it would not be difficult to mute this down to reality's level.
Fujiko (not positive on the spelling of these names by the way) is who Lupin is particularly smitten with. She has rather um...large breasts (sorry, there's really little else to say, since they're kind of central to her character). Of the 4 criminal characters, she is probably the most in it for money. She is probably the best at disgusing herself, and will often backstab multiple people just to get more money for herself. She often attempts to pull one over on the other main characters to enrich herself. Jigan and Goemon aren't too fond of her, but put up with her because of Lupin.
Zenigata is the Interpol inspector who has gotten pretty good at figuring out where and how Lupin works, but he has some behavioral problems so the local authorities tend to not believe him or comply with him fully when he makes requests. As such, he's usually there to witness Lupin's hijinks, but he never seems to catch him. Also referred to as "Pops."
That's the basics of it. Its a pretty fun, though simple show.
Re:Question (Score:2, Informative)
This has been your totally useless trivia moment.
Re:Question (Score:2)
"Lupin", being French, is pronounced like "loop Ann", accent on the "Ann".
Goemon's sword is supposed to be a legendary sword that can cut anything. Some of the humor is seeing him cut a tree in half or something like that. And he's annoyed each time he uses it on an object instead of a person--which is all the time since it's not a violent show. "Once again, I cut a worthless object."
You got it right: "Fujiko" is the correct way to spell her name in Roman letters. She cares more about money than Lupin does, a lot.
steveha
Some minor corrections. (Score:5, Informative)
Also, Lupin will be smitten by whichever single female the writers put in the plot for that day. He's not really obsessed with Fujiko...she just happens to be in range more often than other women. Lupin has his heart swiped as often as he swipes stuff.
Jigen Daisuke is Lupin's main sidekick. Looks exactly like Abe Lincoln, and is vicious with his gun...as long as he has his hat.
Goemon has a love/hate relationship with Lupin and Jigen. Sometime it seems like the group is begrudging friends, other times it seems like Goemon's only there to get paid. His katana cuts through anything. (In the intro to the PS2 game, he cuts a suspension bridge in half.)
Fujiko is a female character from Lupin's past who hangs around his present to get her share of the loot. It's implied that they had something going on before the comic started but it's never really revealed if this is only in Lupin's mind, or if Fujiko actually agrees upon this. She's a tease and uses her...ample skills to fulfill her role and is basically in it for the money, though if it comes down to it, she'll begrudgingly choose saving the guys over getting away with the loot.
Zenigata is an inspector that runs around trying to catch Lupin. If he does, it's never for more than a couple minutes, kinda like the A-Team. Zenigata will declare various little truces with Lupin, especially in the movies, because he sees that Lupin's trying to stop a greater evil. (usually for money/the girl.) This allows for Zenigata to look like he's still doing work, instead of just chasing Lupin all the time.
Castle of Cagliostro is the Lupin film most fans will recommend you watch. It's good stuff. I also enjoyed "The Legend of Harimao's Treasure" and "The Fuma Conspiracy".
Re:Some minor corrections. (Score:2)
Corrections to your slightly off-topic reply. (Score:2)
ARC System created the Guilty Gear series, not Sammy. Sammy is only the publisher. Guilty Gear XX is also the third (full) game in the series, following Guilty Gear, and Guilty Gear X.
"he looks a lot like jigan, but more cool"
He's got no hat, no gun, he's a vampire, and he has a girl that appears every once in a while. Het's just got similar hair and a beard. If you're looking for anime characters to compare him to, Slayer is much more similar to Shocking Alberto (In terms of attacks and attitude, though he looks a bit like Cho-Katsu Komei, as well.) from Giant Robo.
Second, if you're a fan of the Rurouni Kenshin saga, almost nobody refers to it as Samurai X. In fact, if you went ot Anime Expo and said that, you'd likely get slapped by someone...probably some overweight guy in a Sailor Moon outfit.
Samurai X is the name they gave to the 2 prequels they did to the series in the US. The licensed series is still referred to as Ruroni Kenshin, I guess the difference in whoever licensed the movie and the TV series.
Re:Question (Score:2)
Toshiro Mifune as Goemon.
(maybe 15 years ago. . .
My impression from watching several episodes on Cartoon Network is that Lupin isn't really a thief, per-se, rather, he tends to prefer foiling other criminals' plans by either stealing from them, or pre-emptively stealing something that the other criminal was going to steal - and later the valuable object or money ends up getting returned or destroyed anyway.
(seems the insurance companies are the big losers here).
One other observation -
Castle Cagliostro was an awesome movie - and Steven Speilberg is quoted back in the 80's as claiming it to be the greatest action-adventure movie of all-time. I don't think he's too far off.
Lupin games (Score:2)
Although I watch a lot of Anime and have been doing so for many years (my first one being Space Firebird 2772 [imdb.com] back in 1980) I first came to know of Lupin III through this pretty cool and unusal game called Punch the Monkey [lupinencyclopedia.com]. It's a non-violent game based on your skill to press the various PS buttons to the rythm of remixes of the original Lupin III music and animated flicks. For even more Lupin III games check this out [lupinencyclopedia.com].
Cheers!..
Anime fans (Score:1)
Re:Anime fans (Score:2)
Castle of Cagliostro is great! (Score:3, Insightful)
Recommended!
As for life-action: we'll see it when we see it... I doubt Hollywood can do it, the character of Lupin the 3rd doesn't seem to fit any of their stereotypes.
Re:Castle of Cagliostro is great! (Score:2, Insightful)
I really have a hard time visualizing who could pull off the character, though. Jim Carrey is the first one that comes to mind, but do we even want something like this?
Re:Castle of Cagliostro is great! (Score:2)
Re:Castle of Cagliostro is great! (Score:2)
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore... (Score:1)
Re:Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore... (Score:1)
I was going to post it myself, but Requiem beat me to it.
Funny (Score:4, Funny)
Will a french adaptation be made after that?
Re:Funny (Score:2)
Re:Funny (Score:2)
Search your favorite bookseller for Maurice LeBlanc (the author) if you want to read the inspiration for this series.
Re:Funny (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Funny (Score:2)
More like Rupan III (Score:3, Informative)
In some countries, the maker of Lupin III can't publish under the title Lupin III because of trademark problems [shizukapress.com]. In those countries, he becomes "The Wolf" (literal translation of "Lupin") or "Rupan III" (transliteration of kana).
Swell... (Score:1)
Lupin ? Hollywood ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope Hollywood does a better job with Lupin than with The Ring... I don't have much hope, touch, since Lupin is 1) animation and 2) based on humor.
Maybe it will be better than scooby-doo...
Re:Lupin ? Hollywood ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the comparison with 007 is really valid in this case. Whenever I watch Lupin III, it feels really similar to watching 007, if he had a set of good friends he hung out with, and he was a master gentleman thief.
Having said all that, I won't be seeing this movie, as interesting as it might be. A tight budget means entertainment tends to get cut first.
Ringu (Score:1)
I'm not really looking foreward to a live action Lupin 3 movie, since I'm a huge fan of the manga....and live action just doesn't seem to fit.
However... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:However... (Score:1)
Re:However... (Score:4, Informative)
The movie is based on a play by Alan Bennett called "The Madness of George III". The popular story in the UK is that the movie's title is different from that of the play because it was thought the American audience might mistake it for a sequel. While not wholly true, director Nicholas Hytner has confirmed that it was "not wholly untrue" and it is now widely held that this almost certainly did play a part in the titling of the film. In the UK it would be obvious to anyone that "George III" referred to King George III, but it was felt that elsewhere this might not be so clear and that adding "King" to the title might help. While this explains part of the title change, it glosses over the dropping of the "III", adding renewed weight to the original theory.
Distribution Deal (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Distribution Deal (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Distribution Deal (Score:2, Funny)
KFG
Lupin (Score:3, Interesting)
Humor just doesnt translate like action does.
The premise is solid enough to make a good movie. Just so long as some good writers write a good script in english, and dont try to translate some old scripts.
Re:Lupin (Score:1, Interesting)
One episode that aired a few weeks ago, Lupin made a reference to "Who Wants To Be A Millionare." However, the episode seemed quite dated, making me believe that it was something the English VA director decided to add in, as opposed to something that was in the original Japanese script.
Besides, just because something is popular doesn't mean its good. Just look at Dragonball Z. =P
Re:Lupin (Score:2, Informative)
Even as newer Lupin comics, movies and TV shows were produced, the artist kept the same style.
Good translations can though. (Score:2)
I'm not saying you don't have a point. Myself, I'd just rephrase it as, "Humour is a lot harder to translate than action."
Re:Lupin (Score:2)
I hope it doesn't suck =( (Score:1)
Re:I hope it doesn't suck =( (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, know what you mean. Guy's probably got a wife, kids, mortgage, bills to pay... DAMN HIM! Damn him to HELL!!
Seriously, if it helps, imagine him as the Linux-loving, MS-Bashing SysAdmin forced to run NT because of his job in the Fortune 500.
...or can only artists "sell out?"
Hurray for Hollywood (Score:1, Funny)
Lupin Moive (Score:5, Insightful)
But a live action Lupin movie? And from Hollywood, no less? Has anyone here seen G-Savior?
I think that, because it's Lupin, I'll hold on to a little hope that the fruitcakes in Hollywood won't mangle it, but I'm afraid that my hope is misplaced. They might try a live action "Cogliostro," which wouldn't be bad, but would probably insult the greatness that is Haiyo Miazaki (just like I'll bet they'll snub him at the Oscars).
Another sad option is that they'll try to turn this whole thing into another "Hudson Hawk." They could try to turn it into an action flick (almost making Jigen and Goemon the stars as opposed to Lupin), but then they'd offer the part to not-so-awesome "action stars" like Vin "I Look Good Standing Next To Hot Cars" Diesel or Duane "The Rock" Johnson.
If Hollywood were smart, they'd drop the idea entirely. But they're not smart, they're money hungry, so they'll jump all over it and turn it into overproduced fluff. Still, I have hope that somehow, someway, by some wild twist of fate, Hollywood can overcome it's current stigma and actually make a good flick based on an excellent Anime...
Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:1)
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:1)
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:1)
How could you hate a movie with villains named after candy bars?
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:2)
If I knew how, I'd make my phone ring like the handcuff beep.
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:2)
(although, I suspect, all the people who like it just spoke up on this thread)
"Hey mister, are you going to die?"
"Exact change? Exact change?!!"
(and don't forget that the music played by the handcuffs is the same as the president's phone in the Flint movies)
Re:Hudson Hawk was bad? (Score:2)
"Bunny! Ball ball!"
Of *course* it was bad, but dumb is *ok* (Score:2)
It's not "Plan 9" [wavsource.com] level of badness, it's more like a "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" [lineone.net] level of bogus [lineone.net] dumbness (though I though Bill&Ted was better as an entertaining dumb [lineone.net] movie.)
Better Than Disney (Score:1)
1) Port over one of the movies and dub it all to crap, probably casting either Hollywood's bigshots, or some no-name actors/actresses.
2) Redo the entire thing in American Animation, screwing around with all of the character's backstory and personality until they have no relation to their Anime counterparts, AND probably casting either Hollywood's bigshots, or some no-name actors/actresses.
I do wish Hollywood the best of luck with creating Lupin. I do plan on seeing it when it comes out and hope for the best. But, judging from how they are doing American Comics and Games in the Movie Genre, I do not think the Import "Lupin the III" would be as great as most anime fans want it to be.
Oh, and before I forget, one of the Lupin Movies is own by Miyazaki (sp?). If he owns it, than Disney definally has it (Seeing as had they brought all of the rights to all of Miyazaki anime movies), which means that Disney might try something to get in on this Lupin Movie Action. Scary thought to see Hollywood and Disney duke it out over some Anime 007. Eh, what can you do?
CliffHanger (Score:4, Informative)
Monkey Punch = Kazuhiko Kato? (Score:2)
Jon Acheson
Official website (Score:4, Informative)
And I quote
Ahhhh, the old exploding bear trap on the ass trick!
Waiting for the comic book (Score:2)
Didn't "Road to Perdition" have a comic come out, based on the movie, which was based on the comic book?
Check out http://www.anime.com, scoll down to the bottom, click on Feb2003, and the first pick will be Lupin for all those who want to get the DVDs.
Castle of Cagliostro (Score:3, Insightful)
For me the definitive Miyazaki scene is in Tonari no Totoro, when they're at the bus stop, and Totoro shows up. That moment when they're standing there in the rain, and she loans him her umbrella. There's so much that's good in that moment -- wonder, kindness, etc. -- and it all fits together perfectly.
Re:Castle of Cagliostro (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Castle of Cagliostro (Score:2)
Re:Castle of Cagliostro (Score:2)
Live action Lupin? Bleah. (Score:2)
Re:Live action Lupin? Bleah. (Score:2)
Rupan Sansei: Nenriki Chin Sakusen
Lupin III: Strange Psycho-kinetic Strategy
Theatrical release: 1974 (Toei)
Japanese title: Nenriki Chin Sakusen
Comments: This is the live-action version of Lupin III. The actor portraying Lupin wears a white suit and has an "L" tattoo on his chest. The rest of the Lupin cast is in it except for Goemon. Zenigata does not have his trademark hat and works with two assistants.
Let us not forget... (Score:2, Interesting)
Obviously, this version was based directly on the original French work. Not a samurai in sight.
Re:Let us not forget... (Score:1)
Castle fairly sucks (Score:1)
No, actually it's pretty damned mediocre, both for Miyazaki and Lupin. Of course, it's hard to keep it fresh with 20-something movies and over 100 TV episodes, all with the SAME plot and jokes.
Still, for my money, In Memory of Walther P-38 is a far better example of Lupin done right.
Heh (Score:1)
Personally, I had the most fun with "To Hell With Nostradamus!", despite the token cute kids.
I still want to see "The $1 Money War", though.
Lupin II casting game, anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Jigen - Edward Norton
Goemon - Hopefully someone Japanese. Or at least Asian. Who was the guy they used for the first Onimusha game? Or maybe Robin Shou?
Fujiko - With a name like Fujiko, you'd have to go with an Asian, though the character looks caucasian... I hate to say change the name...
Zenigata - Fortysomething, Japanese? I really don't know many Japanese live action stars. Sonny Chiba?
What do you think?
Jon Acheson
Re:Lupin II casting game, anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lupin II casting game, anyone? (Score:2)
As for Jigen, go for Christian Slater or, in the rapper-turned-action-star trend, and I'm-gonna-hate-myself-for-saying-this cast Eminem in the role.
I'd rather have Slater personally, but apallingly enough, Eminem just might work in the role. My "only" concern is he's a bit young for the role. Maybe MikeD ? On seocnd thought, definitely a Beastie Boy. (this is either +1 Insightful, +1 Funny, or -1 Wrong).
Zenigata ? Christopher Frantz, let him have FUN with a role for once.
I have no idea who could play Lupin himself.
Re:Lupin II casting game, anyone? (Score:2)
Jon Acheson
Obligatory Haiku (Score:4, Funny)
(whips a plant from back of belt)
"This [ruthvilmi.net] is a lupin!"
Why is it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm.. didn't they do that with The Lion King? I'm pretty sure I've seen a series of a similar theme out here that predates the movie... could be wrong though... I may live in Japan, but I still can't read Japanese
I wonder about the name... (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway story-wise the guy is supposed to be the grandson of Arsene Lupin, hence the number. However, the actual grandson of the original French writer has sued companies airing it for usurping the name, which was settled by changing the character's name.
So, I wonder what kind of deal they have to release a "Lupin III" movie.
Before anybody starts whining that copyrights are bad, just remember that they're going to turn Lupin III into a commercial trademark (it already is in Japan), so it's like Hollywood making millions by distributing "Linux: the movie" and trademarking the name...
Options are options, not guarantees (Score:3, Insightful)
The Patrick O'Brian series I love -- "Master and Commander," due this Nov, is the source of endless hope and fear among fans -- took forever, with O'Brian getting option money for years and years with no film in the works. O'Brian died before anyone went ahead on a movie.
My former brother-in-law has had the option on a book of his sold, he collected somewhere shy of a million dollars on the rights, and the book's option has bounced around between producers for a long while now. Clint Eastwood supposedly liked it at first. No signs of a movie being made.
There are no guarantees. (And as far as it going on "as long as the 007 series," take things a step at a time.)
So doomed... (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, a one-shot movie wouldn't have that effect -- it'd be like trying to do a "Friends" movie (or, for that matter, like doing a big-budget Zatoichi [imdb.com] revival). And can we trust Hollywood to capture what makes these characters appealing in the first place? I'm betting not.
No originality. No imagination. (Score:2)
Or are Hollywood producers so deep-stuck in the ruts of their brains that they won't risk unknown new things???
And those assholes pretend to tell us what to do with OUR computers!!!
Not Just for Anime Fans (Score:2)
The story revolves around adventures of a thief (Lupin) and some travelling companions. The episodes I saw had a lot of people with guns, jokes about sex, and camels. It is a devestating combination.
Lupin III (Score:2)
Whoever has done the translations has attempted to translate the same feel of the show into English; which is very hard to do since Japanese jokes, when translated, usually make absolutely no sense. Sometimes the English jokes are too corney; but at least they tried. I hope the movie remains true to the original (which it won't). Hollywood always has to bung things up for some reason.
Lupin III was derived from the character Arsene Lupin by author Maurice Leblanc. Lupin, the cartoon, being the grandson of Lupin the book. Most of these books are now out of print, but can sometimes be found at used book stores and libraries. About five years ago, Amazon.com offered a collector's version of some of them, which I bought, but I just checked and, of course, they are no longer available.
Anyway, these books were fun to read as well, though not as humorous as the Japanese animation, and Arsene Lupin doesn't have cool sidekicks like Goemon and Jigen. I just thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested.
One more interesting bit of trivia. There was a legendary theif in Japan, back in the Edo jidai I think, named Goemon. He got away with all sorts of crimes. I'm sure that is who Goemon of Lupin III was derived from. Unfortunately for the real Goemon, he was caught and the officials of the time boiled him to death in a large pot of water; sort of like they did in the beginning of the book Shogun by James Clavell. Ouch!
Sorry about the rambling.
Great thing about Lupin (Score:2)
Re:Great thing about Lupin (Score:2)
niche info (Score:3, Informative)
If anybody watched the movie about treasure of Caliostro; in the end, you can see the interpol (Internatioal Police, supposedly) cars, but they have "åY¼çZè¦åY" or somesuch written on the side - which is actually "Saitama Police" - Saitama being a Japanese prefecture north of Tokyo.
Now, this was supposedly in the small but influential *country* of Caliostro, which is supposedly in Europe or something, so I couldn't help but chuckle.
ahem, now a piece of *useful* information has been squeezed out of your brain, I feel a bit better.
there is ALREADY a live-action lupin movie. (Score:2)
Lupin III "Nenriki Chin Sakusen" (in english - "Strange Psyco-kinetic Strategy")
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:5, Insightful)
Then you watch something like Cowboy Bebop and you regain some faith in the system.
Bringing it over dubbed and edited can still be good, but only if the company doing it is competent.
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:2, Insightful)
While not faithful to the original dialog, the English dub is pretty faithful to the original intent, tone, and to the characters themselves.
Yeah, I know the dialog's been peppered with cultural references that didn't exist when the show was originally created, but the jokes *work*, and sometimes being able to laugh in the right places is more important than a literal translation.
Besides, the DVDs are in stores now, and contain both the original Japanese language with subtitles, as well as the English dub as heard on CN.
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:2)
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:1)
Puns and wordplay and snappy dialogue doesn't translate.
Re:Cartoon Network (Score:2)
besides that, it's not like japanese is some language of space aliens from alpha centauri. plenty of japanese jokes come across just fine with word-for-word literal translations.
Re:animated or live-action? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:animated or live-action? (Score:1)
Re:animated or live-action? (Score:1)
Re:Homo Tuesday (Score:1, Offtopic)
Na, Dragon's Lair was the best (Score:2)
I wonder where you can find those old games to buy.?. hmmm.....
Re:Na, Dragon's Lair was the best (Score:1)
or you can just keep your eyes open. I had a chance to pick up a working Time Warp (D Lair 2) for 200 bucks. I didnt because the cab was in shitty shape.
Re:Screw that, I wanna see a remake of... (Score:1)
Re:Lupin III is not a good example of Anime. (Score:3, Informative)
Most Americans were introduced to Lupin via the movie "Cagliostro Castle" which still stands today as one of the classics of anime, as well as just being an overall great action film.
With the Lupin cartoon on TV in America, now Americans can see what the original was like. Cagliostro Castle toned the characters down a bit (especially Fujiko.)
Still, if you're a fan of the older James Bond films, along with the Flint spy films and The Pink Panther films, then there's a pretty good chance you'll find Lupin III enjoyable.
Re:Cowboy Bebop (Score:2)
I love both series... in fact, my first reaction to Cowboy Bebop was "Cool! Lupin in space!" as the main characters and dynamics among them are very similar:
Lupin - Spike - protagonist
Jigen - Jet Black - protagonist's friend and helper
Fujiko - Faye Valentine - beautiful woman that is around the protagonists, but has her own agenda.
Lupin was made in the late '60s/early '70s, and anime has evolved a lot since them. But we must acknowledge its influence in what came later... Especially on our space cowboys, where it's quite visible.