Paul Dini and Joe Asakura

Paul Dini Explains What Happened at Imagi

Some time ago, Paul Dini was chosen to write the screenplay for the Imagi Gatchaman movie. Then, without warning, his name vanished from all mention and mention of Gatchaman vanished from his Web site. In this interview from 411mania.com, Dini explains what happened... well, as much as can be explained, anyway:

"I was working on it in the fall of 2007, I guess that's when the writer's strike was, and I worked on it from August to December of that year with Kevin Munroe, the director, and a very good art team. And I was contracted kind of a period of around that time, and then we made our presentation to the rights holder and then they said they were undecided on how to go at that point and my deal was essentially up, so they said OK we may call you back, we may go a different way. So I have no idea what if anything of mine is in the movie, the finished picture. I know that Kevin was let go a few weeks after that, and I think the project went into some sort of turnaround development at some point. Toward the end it was getting more and more confused. The more that Kevin and the artists and I were more united in our take on the picture, new producers came in that were less sure of anything and very antsy about everything. So I don't know, the whole thing sort of spun out of control. I left once my deal was up and basically, that was that. We'll see what happens. I think they proceeded with different writers and different producers. Definitely, they got a different director, and we'll see what ultimately comes out of it. I've seen the same trailer that everybody else has seen, and I did recognize some of the same basic setups and scenarios from some of the storyboards that we worked on together, but that's about it."

Click here to read the entire interview.


Condor Joe Joins the Fray in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom?

A member of the Shoryuken Forum unearthed a list of filenames for images in Capcom's Japanese Web site. In addition to the main characters, there is images/oncharactor_btn_joe.jpg

Hmm...

The image is not available yet, but I'd keep an eye on the site for when Joe makes his debut.

Gatchaman Episodes and Artwork

I'm posting this from Dragon*Con in Atlanta. There's no Gatchaman news to be found yet, but we're getting a lot of "Where did you get those shirts?" inquiries on our GatchaCon (San Diego) T-shirts from previous years. We're telling 'em to Google the Tatsunoko Fan Club Web site and see if there are any extras for sale. We haven't met any fellow fans from the Gatchamania forum or the fan who was supposed to come dressed as Berg Katse, but it's a very, very big con.

A couple of news items of interest:

Gatchaman II and Fighter Episodes Online

There is a Korean Web site offering episodes of Gatchaman II and Fighter online. They are in Japanese with Korean subtitles (no English, sorry), but the episodes are complete. Choose the episodes by episode number. There are two episodes missing: G-II #48 and G-Fighter #4, and the site can run slowly if there are a lot of users. But they're free!

Gatchaman II: http://tinyurl.com/ksdarp

Gatchaman Fighter: http://tinyurl.com/lzx6ew


Amano Gatchaman Art for Sale

If you were wondering what to do with your extra $20,000 inheritance or lottery winnings, you can pick up an Amano Original piece for 1,890,000 yen, excluding shipping and handling of course. If that is out of your price range, you can pick up the "Amano Galaxy Members Cards" for 1,090 yen or the Amano Galaxy Postcard Set for 2,100 yen.

New art: http://amanogalaxy.com/p/html/ag/#go

Amano Galaxy Goodies: http://www.ggood.jp/p/category/top/detail.php?c=top&ca1=amanogalaxy


Also, check out the rest of Amano's links for Gatchaman art he has done over the last few decades.

Thanks, Tatsunokofan, for both updates!

ADV is no more

ADV, the company responsible for releasing the Gatchaman series in English, is no more.

Today, the company posted a notice on its Web site describing the liquidation of its assets. Part a sign of the economy, and part a sign of the times, it's not unexpected, but still sad.

News link: http://www.homemediamagazine.com/studios/adv-films-sells-assets-16906