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

Trying to keep up...

Well on my point of a Phase One movie ending on Kurono's death, its justifiable for a sequel as Katou would be there to swear he'd bring Kurono back. With there being one hunt (as I believe as previously commented, shortening hunts cheapens their impact and 2 hunts will make in film terms without the Gantz room and in-between bits about 1 hours 30 to 2 hours. I would not like Gantz to end up in four hour movies to justify all the plot elements. It would alienate people and just bring in hard-core fans and in the west, we're pretty few.

That said, I agree with changing the plot would alienate fans also. My idea of crunching Phase One into a film was just to justify there being a realistic number of films to the franchise. Otherwise we'd be like Bond running up 20+ movies then have a reboot with Daniel Craig as Kurono...

As for important points for a movie then while keeping fans happy, the character intros should be kept the same in their arcs at the very least.

So we have for Phase One;

1) Kurono and Kato meet at the start and get "attacked by a train"
They meet the other Gantzers such as Nishi in the Gantz room. Some time after this the whole team dies apart from Kurono.

Around here the first arc ends.

2) After, Izumi is introduced as a transfer student who knows about Gantz. Tae is introduced via the Game of Life as in the manga.
The Shinjuku massacre introduces the new Gantz team and Izumi as a antagonist (after Nishi was). Kurono becomes leader with Izumi rivalling for leadership. The Vampires are introduced. The Tae hunt happens.

(If we cruch it down, the Shinjuku massacre would cause Kurono to care for Tae instead of the Shorty alien massacre. This would make up the second arc)

3) Takeshi comes into the room after his controversial introduction. The final hunt of this Phase happens.
Katou is brought back after the hunt.
Tae is brought back.
Nishi is brought back.
Kurono gets 100 points and is freed. He meets Kikuchi and secrets of Gantz are revealed.
Izumi and then Kurono are killed by HS, Katou swears to bring Kurono back as HS and Kill Bill "hitch lifts" to the Gantz room.

This would make up a feasible Gantz trilogy for Phase One whilst being faithful enough to the manga. Btw, Im a graduate of a film course from University so I know about writing scripts and filming et al. To be fair, Im pretty happy with the points above as they do work.

The US probably won't do it (although comic adaptations are big hits) unless other manga adaptations were successful first.
Dragonball is well know all over the world and has a big fanbase, but the way they have been doing it, it'll probably not be a hit.
And it'll be some time until Alita is made. So there won't be more adaptations coming from the US (first one has to pave the way).
I don't know why the japanase don't do adaptations though. Mangas and animes are part of their culture so it should be logical to try real life movies for many of the series, but they don't do it. For whatever reasons.
They could at least give us some animated adaptations for some series in the quality of the final fantasy children advent (I'd actually prefer that). Great quality but still very similar to the manga/anime origin and a much better way to do it than in real life (for most series).
Dragonball animated that way for example would've been much better than a real life film.
The characters (body, hair and face) can look like they do in the manga. A human can never have such a hair, face or body so there is no point in trying it.
Plus you get japanese sound if it's done by them.
But they don't seem to be interested in real-life or animated adaptations.
Maybe one day. Gantz won't be at the beginning of the list though.

Originally Posted by ikari

...This would make up a feasible Gantz trilogy for Phase One whilst being faithful enough to the manga. Btw, Im a graduate of a film course from University so I know about writing scripts and filming et al. To be fair, Im pretty happy with the points above as they do work.

Your point/s are well taken but I maintain that the trilogy should remain Onion, Takana and Buddah. I don't think any other arc need be explored in just a trillogy format. Now if you want a second trilogy you can introduce Izumi, Tae, Cherry and the others. You know like Star Wars. Though I'm not certain which arcs I'd make major events, probably Shinjuku, Dino, and Oni with Tae and the vampires as secondary. Then you'd have a third triology for the conclussion. There's more of an oportunity to include more than one hunt in the second trilogy IMO.

Oku's already laidthe foundation, whychange it.

even if Gantz Live Action were to see the light of day it would be such a crapfest that you would have wished it never happened.

I think the Tae mission should be put in the first movie because it'd make a great ending, with Kei vowing to bring back all his loved ones.
It should be right after the dino mission, though that'd kill the training scenes with the team, they'd still feel bad going against him since he was the hero of the previous mission.
The problem would be having a suitless Kurono in the Tae mission, or maybe that could work out to show his suitless bad-assness since he'd be suited up for the budha mission.
Anyhow, to speed things up, the dino mission could happen on Shinjuku street and then Tae would wake up and notice strange things happening; it wouldn't have to be exactly like the manga in which she takes a picture. We could have her identifying Kurono after he saves her from an alien - ring alien style - and then Gantz wanting to silence her due to that.
Also, she's going back to her house, with Kurono's suit in hand or in her bag, and since he's sent first, that could make up for him not having the suit in the room.

Also, Nishi should die by the hands of the minions, while trying to get an easy kill while someone else is dying, and the small minions should come first instead of the two big ones and then the giant budha.
Kurono would then wonder if the missions are getting tougher, if those aliens are really strong, or if it was just bad luck.
As for the Kishimoto and Sakuraoka deal, we could cut a lot of it, though it'd dim the fanservice.

@ Ikari:
I can relate to most of your points too, but stretching phase one into three movies is a bit too much in my opinion.
Also, only one hunt per movie wouldn't do. The Onion alien mission can re real quick, twenty minutes at most, because they are just two aliens.
As for the other missions, the quantity of enemies would make them take too much time, I know, but if we are to consider your idea of movie one ending with the budha arc, there'd have to be adaptations already, even if it was only the onion alien mission and the budha mission.
All in all, it'd be close to what I have suggested, though more feasible, since it'd leave the dino mission for the second movie.
However, I'm concerned about how people would welcome movie 1 ending with Kurono alone only. The only possible goal to keep them waiting for more would be him saying something like "I gotta find a way to get out of that room", but that'd take away the impact of his loneliness.
For that matter, I still consider Kurono Vowing to revive the others would make a better suitable ending.

Anyway, I guess all of our ideas are too unpolished, since we're thinking about the events in a general way, but we'd have to know the exact actions, take into account the off-room interaction, as well as the mission briefing, and how much time that'd take.

@ Feanor:
There is a 20th Century Boys Japanese-made movie already... The first part was released last year. I can't remember the scheduled date for the two others, but you can check it out on imdb.

Taking that into consideration too, 20th Century Boys has way more stuff - since the action bits in Gantz can take volumes of manga but not as much on film- and 22 volumes, and it's to be adapted into three movies.
Of course, most of us would like the story to ramin as faithful as possible, but that deviates a bit from the purpose; being an adaptation, surely some things will have to change.
Also, breaking phase 1 into 3 movies, and then trying to do the same with phase 2, which we still don't know what's all about; since the catastrophe itself hasn't happened yet and Katou's "leadership" was cut short, the Nuri mission is just a phase 1 mission with another team... wouldn't really be a good move, budget wise.
So we have to keep all that in mind, folks.

I agree with you Cali, but after I made some 22 minute scripts for a new Gantz series based around "The Transfer Student" and following chapters, though everyone is saying the hunts can take up twenty minutes, the main bit of action with the Shorty hunt took 20 minutes without Kurono getting ready in the room (about 2 minutes). As he was quickly sent into the mission, the Gantz room bits are going to be long themselves. The hardest part of adapting the hunts into a movie thats watchable is the set-up time and the scorings.

The start of Gantz would introduce Kurono and Kato in the train station, then move to the Gantz room where Kishimoto and Nishi are introduced, all that will take a while. Each episode of the Gantz anime without opening and closings are 22 minutes. The first four episodes of the anime are a short film (and a whole arc) in itself. This shows how Gantz is more suited to a Hellsing-like OAV format rather than having numerous films. My idea of a trilogy above was trying to get a full-formed trilogy in point. Obviously its sketchy as I wrote is as I was replying.

Looking back, I'd have Izumi introduced at the end of the first movie to show what he knows about Gantz and to foreshadow the next movie. Im 50/50 whether Tae should be introduced herself properly, though we could see her in the background or something.

Also Cali, shoehorning Tae into the end of the first film with Kurono vowing to bring back everyone from the 100 point menu is getting a lot into a movie even at LotR length (will an audience sit and watch 4 hours of Gantz at the cinema?). I like your idea , its just putting Gantz into two films (which it would sit at if you want to get to Kappe at the end of the first movie) is going to be very hard to pull off.

Also, about the hunt lengths with many opponents, really only the Oni hunt has potential to over-run. If Im correct the timer stopped at 15 minutes to go when they faced the Oni Boss at the end with infinite time. That makes 45 minutes of Oni hunting and action. I dont really see that as a long stretched out fight.

@ Nu Delic - Two trilogies would make more room for plot developments, much agreed. Listing the hunts of Phase One; Onion, Tanaka, Statue, Chibi, Kappe, Ring and Tae, plus Oni, it makes more sense. Im not sure where the split would come in as there was other stuff like the Shinjuku massacre and the free Kurono.
Really its more realistic for films to arrive as a trilogy. Usually films will lose steam when a fourth film in a series is released.

Looking back at the trilogy I noted, the beginning does need some work, I highly agree. Come the third film though, with the Oni hunt, I dont see there being any problem with the actual hunt come being faithful to the manga. I know I havent written much on the outside world bits, but they can be placed in wherever they fit comfortably. Obviously the end of the second film will have Kurono vowing to bring his friends back as Izumi reveals the 100 point menu to the team.

I think thats all for now

Originally Posted by ikari

Two trilogies would make more room for plot developments, much agreed. Listing the hunts of Phase One; Onion, Tanaka, Statue, Chibi, Kappe, Ring and Tae, plus Oni, it makes more sense. Im not sure where the split would come in as there was other stuff like the Shinjuku massacre and the free Kurono.
Really its more realistic for films to arrive as a trilogy. Usually films will lose steam when a fourth film in a series is released.

That's kinda why I say Onion, Tanaka and Buddah if you wanna do the manga. Too much important stuff in the manga would be left out even if you did 9 films. Probably best to do another city and other non-manga characters in 2 films.

I know you guys might not agree with me but i really think that an american studio would be the best way to get this movie made right and with the right special effects. That being said I feel the best way for the viewers to get the feel of gantz is if the remade the story like the movies took place in like brazil, new york or like italy covering places that the manga doesnt shed light on. That way it is not a huge struggle to try and fit in this long life and death struggle with kurono. I mean I would love to see gantz on the big screen but why see something that has already took place.

Its just an opinion and i'd like to see peoples thoughts

That's why one of the ideas that I found most interesting so far was the movie to be a prequel starting with Izumi being recruited and later Nishi (depending on which of them came to the room first or if they were recruited at the same time).

We'd see another side of Izumi, one that actually cared for others - we don't know how much, we don't know if he was as emotional as Katou or Kurono, but at the very least he led a team, and he had a good damn reason to choose freedom - maybe hinted by his sacrifice to save his stupid girlfriend from HS' slash (had she not interefered, Izumi might have lived).

I think that'd please the fans alright, and also give newcomers a taste of Gantz with all the novelty of "what's this? what's that ball? what are those missions? what's the purpose of all of this?", also having a decent action side, maybe fanservice... (some would believe that to be a must), and some sort of moral struggle.

Originally Posted by Roxas112

...movies took place in like brazil, new york or like italy covering places that the manga doesnt shed light on. That way it is not a huge struggle to try and fit in this long life and death struggle with kurono. I mean I would love to see gantz on the big screen but why see something that has already took place.

Its just an opinion and i'd like to see peoples thoughts

I agree with most of your points except I wouldn't even use any manga characters. The main problem with a US release you couldn't escape corporate infection. That's not necessarily bad I guess but they'd need to dumb Gantz down to justify the financing. To be true to the spirit of Gantz, it would have to be X or NC-17. Any co. with enough cash to do it won't have the balls to do it right IMO.