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Animated Castlevania Movie Sounds Promising 74

Posted by Zonk from the cue-vampire-killer dept.
Via GameSetWatch, a link to the official blog for the animated film Castlevania: Dracula's Curse. The story for the film is being written by the iconic Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary), and the blog has tidbits of information from the writer about what we can expect with the film. Encouragingly, the movie is very much not aimed at children, will probably be just the first of a planned trilogy, and is generally based around the story from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. From the GSW post: "He explains, grinning: 'To make it work as a film, I had to introduce new backstory, and I went through five drafts of the premise and three of the full outline to get the material where [Koji Igarashi] wanted it. He remains absolutely passionate about Castlevania. After eight rewrites of pre-production material, I remain absolutely passionate about beating the crap out of [Igarashi] in a dark alleyway one day.'"
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Animated Castlevania Movie Sounds Promising More

Animated Castlevania Movie Sounds Promising

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  • Could be expensive (Score:4, Funny)

    by Hoi Polloi ( 522990 ) on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @09:10AM (#19036133) Journal
    I don't look forward to pumping rolls of quarters into my armrest's coin slot just to see how the movie ends.

  • I'll be the first to say it... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ProppaT ( 557551 ) on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @09:11AM (#19036163) Homepage
    Certainly sounds more promising than the live action movie in the works, which should promise to be as true to the source material as...well...it won't be. Ugh...too bad Warren Ellis isn't writing the live action movie script...
    • Honestly, I think Van Helsing is about as close to a loyal film adaptation of Castlevania as we're going to get; it has all the right monsters, but is just shy by a bullwhip and a recognizable soundtrack.

      I look at it this way: at least Uwe Boll isn't going anywhere near it.

  • Video Game Movies.... ulg (Score:4, Funny)

    by Applekid ( 993327 ) on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @09:13AM (#19036191)
    Has any movie based off a video game not been basically a big F.U. to the original material?

    Super Mario Bros., Doom, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil... it goes on and on.

    Next thing you'll know Keanu Reeves will be cast as a Belmont, and Christopher Walken will be Dracula. *shudder*

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sciros ( 986030 )
      Yeah there really hasn't been a movie based on a game that ended up being any good... although Street Fighter was good for a laugh and most of the parts were well-cast (folks take that movie seriously for some reason...). But yah can't think of a good one. The best so far is probably Silent Hill, but it's nevertheless quite unsatisfying as well.

      Well, a good one's gotta come out sooner or later. If Goldeneye and Riddick can be the exceptions to the games-based-on-movies-suck rule, then maybe we'll eventua
    • >Resident Evil I'm really begining to think I'm the only person on the planet that liked that movie and that the rest of you have all turned into everything-by-Paul-Anderson-sucks zombies... Ironic ain't it!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by faloi ( 738831 )
        Nope, you're not the only person. I also sorta liked the original Mortal Kombat. It wasn't going to win any Oscars, but it wasn't a bad action movie.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by maxume ( 22995 )
          Mortal Kombat was good enough that they pushed back the original release and bought better special effects to go with it.
    • FFVII: Advent Children. Oh wait, that was a big F.U to my intelligence and wallet. ;)

      Better to watch that either muted or in Japanese then you can ignore the painful English dialog and focus on the pretty rendering.

      • Advent Are-you-fucking-kidding-me (Score:5, Interesting)

        by CelticWhisper ( 601755 ) <celticwhisper@Nospam.gmail.com> on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:50AM (#19037787)

        ...And the complete lack of a plot?

        Advent Children was among the worst movies of the year, and you are spot-on in your recommendation to watch it muted. With all due respect, however, your suggestion of switching to Japanese dialogue is, in this geek's eyes, a shade misguided as watching in Japanese solves nothing--the problems run deeper than voice-overs or language itself. I saw both the English and Japanese versions, having fallen prey to fans of the film telling me "it's better in Japanese, trust me, see it that way." So I gave it a whirl, figuring at least the worst that could happen is I'd lose another 90 minutes of my life.

        Fool me once (The Grudge/Ju-On), shame on you. Fool me twice, just shoot me in the head.

        Now, before you revoke my geek badge, I have nothing against Japanese culture or media, my J-console-game collection is extensive, and I watch anime from time to time (albeit not as much as I used to, but still a fair amount--recently it's been Ergo Proxy, which is amazing and available in 720p as icing on the cake). However, no amount of appreciation for Japanese pop culture could salvage this frelling pile of dren.

        It was nothing either way but 90 minutes of pandering pointlessness with a slick CG shine.

        • The heroes were all superhuman and I never once felt the slightest hint of suspense. Is it asking too much to have these characters whom we have come to know and (presumably) love overcome some real adversity and demonstrate some strength of character, whether it be in intelligence, creativity, quick thinking, resourcefulness, or something other than flying through the air in slow motion and smiling/winking at the camera?
        • The writers failed to make me care about Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo's motives, due in part to making them so implausibly, unrealistically man-gorgeous that I was completely unable to take them seriously as antagonists (I know, I know, it's a Japanese cultural thing and it's all over games/anime/manga, but all I can say is at least people know not to fuck with Dr. Doom or Emperor Palpatine), and also in part to the jarring (lack of) introduction we were given to these characters. It's one thing to throw the audience right in the middle of an action scene with the hero facing an unknown villain and then follow the hero as he finds out about who they are, what they want, etc. The way it was done here, though, had all the characters acting as though they had some existing knowledge of the villains and it made me feel as though I'd missed some crucial part of the plot.
        • The Geostigma/SSS was poorly explained almost to the point of passing lip-service instantly forgotten at the onset of the next fight scene. Also, its apparent cure was similarly contrived and forced, feeling like yet another way to stuff in a fan-pleaser.
        • Speaking of fight scenes, some of the camera motion threatened to forcefully reintroduce me to my lunch. The spiral down the side of Orthanc in Fellowship was bad enough, but at least it was over in a couple seconds...almost a full half-hour of it in FF7AC's final motorcycle-chase/action/fight sequence was just unforgivable.

        Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, for as panned and reviled as it is by the fanboys, is at least a respectable exercise in filmmaking even if it has few ties to its namesake game series. This stems from the film taking the time to properly introduce and develop characters, make the audience feel for them, make them seem human, and then string events together in a cohesive, meaningful fashion to form that elusive animal called a "plot." Poor game adaptation, but a decent film with a moderately engaging plot, some funny moments, and characters that seem far more real personality-wise than the planks of wood in AC. I know the character models bungee-jump in the Uncanny Valley, but at least they act, talk, and sound real. Far better than the overabundance of brooding stares and unconvincing overly-emotionally-charged conflict of AC.

        AC, on the other hand, is a "thank-you" to FF7 fans and a "fuck you" to anyone else interested in seeing an enjoyable movie.

        • Spot on with what you said. Like I said. A big F.U. to my intelligence.

          "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, for as panned and reviled as it is by the fanboys, is at least a respectable exercise in filmmaking even if it has few ties to its namesake game series. This stems from the film taking the time to properly introduce and develop characters, make the audience feel for them, make them seem human, and then string events together in a cohesive, meaningful fashion to form that elusive animal called a "plot
          • I could not agree with you guys more. I never cared enough for FFVII to even finish the game on any of many attempts to placate my friends by doing so. Another friend who is convinced that FFVII is about the best game ever and I watched AC and we both came away from it with "pretty" being about the positive thing we could say about it. I was almost completely lost having seen only fragmentary bits of the plot past the second disc, and he, who'd beaten several times was none too impressed either. I wish
        • Sad children
          Fight scene
          Particle effects
          Explosions
          Fight scene
          Big monsters
          Fight scene
          Lots of special moves etc
          Motorcycle
          Fight Scene

          Seriously. I'm a big fan of the FF series (got all of them except the GB ones... but including FF2/NES), but I was extremely disappointed with FF-AC. Plot-wise, I think that even "Spirits Within" was a little better. How about a real non-mangled movie-adaptation of one of the original RPG's... without plot-mangling or fanboy-precedence to large anime boobies and fight-s
    • Personally, I liked Mortal Kombat. At least the first one wasn't too bad. But yes, most video game movies are really terrible. I think that most of them would only work as an animated movie. Things like the Mario Bros movie are terrible though. Makes me want to burn my eyes out. However, I do remember a saturday morning cartoon based off mario brothers. It wasn't that bad. Get some writers together to put a long more involved story around the characters, and you could have something.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by milamber3 ( 173273 )
      Both Tomb Raider movies did quite well so you should not be quite so dismissive.

      Tomb Raider 1, World wide gross $274,703,340 [boxofficemojo.com]

      Tomb Raider 2, World wide gross $156,505,388 [boxofficemojo.com]

      Compare those one of the flops you mention:

      Super Mario Bros, Gross (only domestic) $20,915,465 [boxofficemojo.com]

      Or even a movie that a lot of slashdot users love:

      Serenity, World wide gross $38,869,464 [boxofficemojo.com]
    • Resident Evil wasn't that bad. It pretty much kept very similar to the actual plot line in the video game (minus the STARS characters).

      Whereas Super Mario and Doom did not resemble anything at all from the video game.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pluvius ( 734915 )
      Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was basically a rehash of FF7, but that didn't make it better than your average Hollywood movie. (Which actually made it better than most video-game movies, depressingly enough.)

      Rob
      • The problem with TSW was that it was a rehash of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, while all the Final Fantasy games were rehashes of Laputa: Castle in the Sky. They should've got the people in charge of the Phantasy Star series to make TSW, as they have a lot more experience ripping off Nausicaa.

    • Has any movie based off a video game not been basically a big F.U. to the original material?

      Pokemon? :)

    • Silent Hill wasn't a horrible F.U. It was more of a "screw off".

    • Has any movie based off a video game not been basically a big F.U. to the original material?
      Wing Commander... you should really see it *evil grin*
  • It sounds like making shows for TV is a hell unto itself. Is there some strange doublestandard for cartoons that assumes they're for children which isn't applied to regular programming?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0racle ( 667029 )
      Yes. In America, cartoons are assumed to be for children, even when they obviously aren't (South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, a lot of foreign animated films and TV shows).
  • Be disappointed now, it'll make it easier later. Console yourselves with the original Castlevainia which I hear can now be downloaded on the Wii.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Osty ( 16825 )

      Be disappointed now, it'll make it easier later. Console yourselves with the original Castlevainia which I hear can now be downloaded on the Wii.

      Or Castlevania IV, which is also available on WiiVC. Or even better, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, available now on Xbox 360 XBLA. The earlier Castlevanias are fun, mindless action games, but I really much prefer the Metroidvania style of play.

  • But please don't make it all CGI. Castlevania is a classic series and it needs a classic hand drawn look, like the original Vampire Hunter D had.
    • I agree. Though I don't think CGI would be a horrible idea, hand-drawn would definitely be better.
      • Some shows like Boondocks use a lot of computer animation and look amazing but more often then not CGI just turns into a pricey mess, like the recent TMNT movie for example.
    • Agree with you on Vampire Hunter D. ANd the above poster who enjoys Resident Evil, I think it warranted enough of a following that sequels were even done (enjoy each one when they're on reruns here, maybe because of Milla?), so you're obviously not alone.

      I am a fan of the incredible animated clips in some of these games. Even though I don't play them, I was wishing somebody would put them together so I know what the ending would be, just like back in the Quake Done Quick days.

  • Excellent (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 )
    This sounds promising. I also have reliable insider information that Uwe Boll is to direct the movie.

  • Count me out (Score:4, Funny)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @09:56AM (#19036947)
    I refuse to watch any videogame movie that isn't directed by Uwe Boll.
  • ...to be as bad as any other video game movie. Is there some international conspiracy that prevents anyone from doing this right?

    At least they haven't touched Zelda... yet.
  • Put a bullet in this franchise - please.

    For months we'd had a string of press releases on SlashDot about Castlevania handheld games, revivals, "as a classic game", etc. (http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=castlevania) However, a movie announcement now, 20 years after the hum-hum Castlevania franchise first limped through a couple of sequels on the earliest Nintendo systems, is about as good as the timing was on Crocodile Dundee III (15 years or so after the 80's).
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Few people will deny that Symphony of the Night is one of the greatest platformers ever made
        True, it's very good -- but I'd pick Castlevania Bloodlines as the best title of the series.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Osty ( 16825 )

          True, it's very good -- but I'd pick Castlevania Bloodlines as the best title of the series.

          The Genesis game that had no Belmont in it at all? Are you sure you're not thinking of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood instead? That being the Japan-only prequel to Symphony of the Night, and the last (and supposedly best) of the non-Metroidvania Castlevanias. It's also being re-released on PSP this summer, in case you never got a chance to play it.

          BTW, if you really did mean Bloodlines, Portrait of Ruin (the lates

          • Are you sure you're not thinking of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood instead? That being the Japan-only prequel to Symphony of the Night, and the last (and supposedly best) of the non-Metroidvania Castlevanias.

            Actually, Rondo of Blood (PCE) came in 93; Bloodlines (Genesis) in 94; and Akumajo Dracula XX (SNES) in 96. But since XX is a (heavily changed) remake of Rondo, I'd say Bloodlines is the last "true" Castlevania.

            I haven't played Rondo, but, as I recall, Bloodlines was much more fun than SotN.

      • Slashdot gets about one story a month that mentions Castlevania in some way or another, frequently just as an aside to the main subject, and that's "a string of press releases"?

        Yes. In fact, if SlashDot is reliably posting something about Castlevania about once a month, that's a "well-timed and effective string of press releases". In the marketing world, you'd call it "sustaining awareness, if not interest in the 'Castlevania' brand name". (I'd ask you to look up AIDA but I doubt it would help.)

        Here are

  • Warren Ellis (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Cy Sperling ( 960158 ) on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @10:32AM (#19037531)
    I couldn't care less about Castlevania; but Warren Ellis is, hands down, required reading. No self respecting Slashdot reader should pass up reading Transmetropolitan. It is truly fantastic futurist fiction, and damn funny to boot. Spider Jerusalem is my hero.
  • A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk. Have at you!
  • Sooooo, how do you think they'll handle the collection of Dracula's "Ring"? That could seriously bump up the maturity rating alone.

    I do look forward to when it comes out. When I go out in the evening for pleasure I'll get to say "What a horrible night to see a movie!".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Valdrax ( 32670 )
      I haven't played a Castlevania game since the NES days (with the exception of Symphony of the Night), so I don't get this one.
      I hate to ask, but could you explain the joke?
      • The "ring" was originally, well balls. It was re-named in the North American release to "ring" but the image was never changed so you could still tell what it was. Especially considering all the other items like the heart and rib were body parts.

        As nasty as carrying around the heart of a vampire is, there was something far worse you were toting around with you.
  • A young man, armed only with a whip, travels to Dracula's castle to destroy Dracula.

    (I love these games. But... they are going to have to embelish a little...)

    • A young man, armed only with a whip, travels to Dracula's castle to destroy Dracula.
      (I love these games. But... they are going to have to embelish a little...)
      Indiana Jones - a young man armed with a whip goes looking for ancient treasure.... oh he hates snakes - is that what you mean by embelishment?

  • Hope it isn't too much like the game (Score:4, Funny)

    by bcattwoo ( 737354 ) on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @12:42PM (#19039437)
    If it is anything like my copy of the game for the original NES, the movie will freeze up just as he gets to the Grim Reaper and you will be forced to either sit through the whole movie once more hoping it won't happen again or leave in disgust.
    • Not to mention if you hop a little bit going down the stairs at the theater, the world beneath isn't reloaded and you die.
  • Really if you want a Castlevania movie and like symphony of the night I would say pick up Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. D and Alucard are so ridiculously close to each other in actions and mannerisms I really felt like bloodlust was just Castlevania with a different name.
  • Immediately upon reading this post, I hit Ctrl-F to search for "Uwe Boll." Why does that feel like a Freudian tell of some sort?

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