Thread: Do you think GANTZ could work as a live action movie?

Originally Posted by Cali

Tom Cruise would make a fine Nuri.

Well I want Vin Diesel to play Ball Man. I think he can pull it off if he works at it

I think Gantz could work as a live-action, but could only succeed if it met certain conditions.

It would have to be made in Japan since: IMO though Americans have money they're not that good at adapting foriegn material recently (The Ring and Grudge series, Dragonball, etc), some North American companies/audiences are generally against producing/watching gory & sexy movies, and there probably would be A LOT of changes o aliens and stuff.


I can only really imagine the opening/ending for Movie 1 if it were in conventional Western narrative style.

Opening scene shows Kurono's exciting daily routine and goes directly to meeting Katou at the station and their deaths. The Onion mission has a weird, dreamlike quality until the dying begins. Nishi acts as the experienced, mysterious figure who suddenly dies like a noob. Angst with Kishimoto. Movie goes up to the Buddha mission ending; the movie ends with Kurono resolving to continue fighting so he can revive his friends in a monologue over shots of his leaving the room.

Interesting, but for non-Gantz fans who will want to know more about the Gantz itself, some Kikuchi stuff will be needed. Obviously crunching Phase 1 into a 2 hour film is impossible, so some stuff will need to be cut out or re-done.

With a film aswell, the highest number of hunts should be 2.
If I was making a Gantz film, I would have the hunt in real-time with about half hour of stuff at either end. A vampire ambush will be included at the end of the hunt with HS introduced. Obviously the Kikuchi revelations will follow the hunt. Plus, the ending of Phase 1 (Kurono being killed by HS, the others going to the next hunt, Kato wishing to revive Kurono) will be a good ending.

This ending above will then mean that the hunters will find out about 100 points in the scoring of the film's hunt (either from a hunter getting 100 points in the hunt or them finding out from Izumi/Nishi). As such the film would not be completely faithful to the manga (20 volumes crunched into a few hours would not work perfectly) but it would be a coherent tale that doesnt pack too much stuff in.

I just wish the manga finishes before the movie comes out. IMO If Oku sensei receives too much royalties on his work, he might retire early and not finish the manga.

It would also look great if it was in 3d(not live action) animation too.

^Yeah, but talking about a movie right now is only for the fun of us fans... I don't think it's happening anytime soon, if ever.

The length and number of arcs in the manga would demand a Hellsing-style OAV series anyways.

Originally Posted by ikari

With a film aswell, the highest number of hunts should be 2.

I agree with that in a sense. There should eb at the most 2 MAJOR hunts, unless they do a training montage like deals to show the team getting better but that imo would cheapen the epic nature of each hunt.

Originally Posted by ikari

(Kurono being killed by HS, the others going to the next hunt, Kato wishing to revive Kurono) will be a good ending.

I would not like that end to the movie. The main hero dying (and yes Kei would be the main hero) is not the way to go especially since the movie would have to appeal to non Gantz fans as well. That should be saved for the beginning of the second movie. If you do that in the first one then it's a guarantee that there wont be a sequel.

They'll have to chop it up a bit.

Personally I think they should do the Onion alien hunt very quickly, 10 minutes at most just as an intro to how things will go. They show up, kill little alien, big alien sees them do it from across the street, kills the loser, chases Kei & Katou, blah blab blah.

Skip Tanaka alien hunt& go straight to Budha alien hunt. That will be the first major hunt to be shown since everyone but Kei dies nearly everyone. Let Nishi die on this one too...early.

Skip Shorty Aliens (I'm sure they can introduce Tae without the classroom massacre), and introduce the new members with the Dino Alien mission (the second major hunt and last hunt of the movie). End with Kei victorious. Introduce the Vampires by having them kill all the black guys (damn that sucked lol) and you have something to look forward to in a sequel

In the sequel they can start with the mission where they fought the giant horse dudes...sorry, can't remember the names...just to show that the others improved and Kei is the leader. skip the Tae alien hunt and go straight to the Oni hunt.

Wishes Katou back, regular life stuff, vamps go nuts on Izumi & Kei...and the final hunt of movie 2, Nuri.

Of course they'll put in some everyday stuff, but they don't need to get too detailed in every movie. The average persons attention span isn't long enough and a lot of stuff that we may feel is major will just get lost on them and take up unnecessary time.

Just an idea, I could be wrong

^No no no, I agree with most of your ideas but skipping the Tae mission (and it's not Tae "alien" hunt, by the way) is way wrong, because that's one of the strong points of the plot, it's the turning point for Kurono, and personally, I think movie 1 should end with that.

It'd be like this: 1st mission: Onion Alien, just like you said, then we skip it to the Budha mission, and have a few adaptations, such as Kishimoto being the one to forget about the suit, or maybe another filled survivor from the Onion alien mission (say, Hojo recruited from the start). Then we'd have Tae and Izumi's introduction, with Kei being unsettled by Izumi's desire to go back into the room. Kei doesn't care all that much about Tae but thinks about Katou trying to sabe the Onion kid and goes to Tae rescue, and then the dino mission occurs. There, Kurono proves his worth by defeating the enemies without a suit. And then we can either have the Tae mission happen soon after the dino mission, or a small development to make the romance between them more credible, though that might take too much time (the dino mission is a long one too).

Anyhow, there'd have to be a Tae mission, and Kurono would realize he can ressurect Katou and Kishi, and then the first movie would end with him vowing to get 100 points.

As for movie 2, it'd start with off-room development, a brief summary of the first movie - Kurono's remembrance and the vow. And then we'd have the Oni mission. The vampires would also be introduced here, with a few differences such as "but the controller say they are not the targets!" and then the Oni boss shows up and says "That's right, they are not your business, I'll kill every single one of them. Don't interfere!" and that kind of crap.
Then, after the mission, Kurono would go free, the vampires would make a few attacks on Izumi, Nishi and maybe Reika - to compensate for not having the other off-room raids. And then they'd kill Kurono, and the Nuri mission would take care of the rest of the movie.
The end will have Kurono brought back and Nishi showing the catastrophe counter.

As for the third movie... we'll have to wait an see ^^

I'd rather like to see a spin off.

Maybe the story just follows a gantz team in germany, israel or the usa and does not interfere with the original gantz story.

It's just fun, brings gantz more fans, maybe they can get Oku for creating weird abraham lincoln aliens or whatever.

HOwever, i would dislike a real movie about the manga itself, because it would just fuck up, imo

It had to change the story very critical anyway, so they should just create a whole new plot for another team, as i said.

^A spin-off would be fine too, but there'd have to be some sort of meaning.
The good things about following the manga are the key points:

1. Meeting Katou; the influence he has on Kei, because of the influence Kei had on him when they were kids.
2. The Budha mission; trying to eradicate his feelings by being a bitch, feeling the loss of his friends and the despair of being alone.
3. Meeting Tae and Izumi (and the dino mission): overcoming his loss, beginning his redemption by trying to emulate Katou.
4. Tae mission and the 100 points menu: a drive for Kei to remain in battle.

It could end with him going free too... a happy ending, with his memories erased, and the last scene would show the rest of the team on a mission - no need to add Kurono's death nor further cannon events.

Of course, those points are just what I find most important in Gantz and they can be seen through various angles, such as using something "evil" (Gantz) and executing its massacre orders to do good (revive Tae), though that's pretty selfish in itself, so, dunno.

Anyhow, in case of a spin off, it'd be fine with me if it's not only to show battles with no human moral conflict nor anything of that sort.

EDIT:
The best spin-off ideas that've appeared in this thread, in my opinion:

Originally Posted by adrian gt

If i see a gantz movie i have to say it would be an izumi nishi prequel.
A gantz movie has the makings of a hollywood blockbuster.Imagine this the movie starts with izumi walking home he dies plays few games some char devolpment.end 1st half the scene shows a young kid on the roof of his school he jumps he ends up in the room he plays a game or two izumi leaves nishi extremly disturbed players faze in two high schoolers faze in they start the name game. it gets to the smaller highschooler he says his name...Kei Kurono End movie.
in my opinon that would make a great movie.

(aside from the suicidal Nishi part, which I heavily dislike; anime stuff = wrong stuff, IMO. Nishi's cause of death should be the same as manga Nishi, which is accidentally falling while escaping the police)

Originally Posted by Shin_Igami

How about this - rather than trying to turn the whole of the manga, or a gantz team into live action, why not focus on a minor character - e.g. that press reporter as he attempts to unearth the truth about gantz? It would require just the occasional special effect (scenes involving gantzers will either be filmed from a distance, or deliberately sketchy for the purposes of "realism"). It would definitely add to the gantz universe, rather than just rewrap it in a different, and probably mediocre, package

(We could have Kikuchi or another reporter from another place investigating another team as the protagonist, but then shift and see the thoughts of team members, maybe with the reporter coming to the room in the later half and experiencing for himself the insanity of the missions)

Originally Posted by Red Dingo

(...) instead of trying to adapt the manga, they could create a side story set in a city in the U.S. with original characters. That way the movie could technically exist in the same universe as the manga. Essentially the plot would only be similar to the movie in that it focuses around a new comer to Gantz, but it would deal with how a Gantz team operates in America. I think there would be more of an issue concerning the clash of religion in a Gantz set in the U.S.

Instead of an 8th grade Darwinist like Nishi, we'd have a young adult who has been turned into a realist veteran by the game. He would use stealth during the initial area to scope out the targets, having learned to be crazy prepared by Gantz's less than useful target information.

Maybe we'd also have an immature character who tries to use his Gantz suit to be a superhero or use the technology to steal things. How would that turn out.

(Off-room selfish acts are also a good going - and seeing the due punishment in some cases, such as Tetsuo's - aka Zoku/Biker/Thug A)