Justin Chatwin and James Marsters to Star in Dragonball Z, Stephen Chow Producing

Posted by on November 14th, 2007   Filed under: Movies, TV
Source: Coming Soon

Big news for the upcoming live action Dragonball Z movie this week. I’ll admit to being somewhat curious about the project, although up to this point I’ve been unable to get my head around how they could pull it off without it being a complete farce. Now, however, it seems that there may be hope after all with the confirmed involvement of Stephen Chow as a producer! It’s unclear exactly how “hands on” he will be in this role, but I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that Kung Fu Hustle is the closest we’ve seen to Dragonball Z in a live action setting thus far.

The other big announcement is that the two lead roles have been cast: Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds, The Invisible) will play Goku, and James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will play the villainous Piccolo (yeah I know he wasn’t really a villain in DBZ… just go with it). James Wong is also confirmed to be directing. I’m starting to believe that this movie has potential, let’s just hope it doesn’t get squandered. The projected release date for Dragonball Z is August 15th, 2008.



  • DBZ is crack for kids, so naturally I was obsessed with it when I was ten. Justin Chatwin as Goku? Is he planning on gaining 50 pounds of muscle? At least they didn’t cast Justin Long.

  • I’d rather have a under the radar cast than a star-studded one. Although I’m not sure what kind of buzz DBZ could generate, I’m excited the project is moving forward and relieved that Stephen Chow is on boards. Shaolin Soccer was the movie that revealed to me a that a DBZ movie could actually be done.

    As far as the storyline, seeing Piccolo as a vilain that doesn’t make much sense, I mean, we’re not seeing a young Goku, are we? I’d like them to follow the Saïan earth invasion but this is confusing to me!

  • Sun Go Long aka Terrence

    Cool.cool.

    I like the looks of it. Especially with creative comedian turned Director Stephen Chow holding the fort. His Shaolin soccer and Kungfu Hustle are the living proof. Crazy jokes at times, but serious, superb graphical fight scenes during critical times. That is Dragonball (e.g. if it is Steven Spielberg, it will turn out to be just a little humor at times, and save the rest for gigantic, blown-up Piccolo fight scene!! chucks…)

    The second cooliest part is the cast. I am surprised by Stephen’s decision to use the 2 hollywood stars instead of some Hong Kong or Japanese celebrities. This goes to show that he wants to bring it on a global stage (vying for Hollywood stars award like Ang Lee, huh? Hope Stephen can “break the mountain” as well Hehe…). As for Justin and James, they can definitely deliver in terms of their looks. Justin has got the innocent “Goku” look and James’s face is stern and not to mention his square jaw that looks like Piccolo (but he needs to be more cool and talk much lesser than his spike’s role). Another reason for Justin might also due to his young age. Fans wouldn’t want to see this Goku older than the comical Goku (Sai ya Jin gets old extremely slower than humans. Hello! Master Yoda!?) Acting wise, I leave it to this famous, award winning Japan Anime’s fans to decide their fate…haha.

  • Jabba the Hutt

    Woah!!!

  • Kasuriin

    Yes, yes, yes! I’ve seen a lot of people trashing it lately, but we got to give this movie a chance. Can’t wait to see it! But if they should a giant Piccolo fight scene- I’ll shrink down into my seat because I’ll be embarrassed for going see it. I just can’t imagine that scene being in there, but oh well! lol

  • Kasuriin

    New News. A Mexican actress named, Camila Sodi, is playing the role as Bulma. I saw a picture of her. She’s very pretty and I can see her playing as the character.

  • This movie is going to be sooooooooo cool! I can’t wait to see Justin Chatwin as Goku…. Kamehameha

  • I think it may work- I initially hated justin chatwin as goku because in war of the worlds I wanted to kick the crap outta his whiney ass. He’s annoying to me. But he could pull of goku if they are planning on bulking him up- WHY on earth is vegeta not in this movie…I mean come on….this should be based on the namek saga- they can remove all the bullsh*t and get straight into a good storyline.

  • The one

    There will not be a vegeta, no gohan, no frieza, no cell, …. It’s not a movie about dragonball Z it is a movie about dragonball. The begining, with goku running around with a tail and a red stick.
    That’s why they say: villainous Piccolo. Piccolo and goku where enemies at the beginning.
    It will be weird seeing Justin Chatwin play a 10 year old….
    Why can’t they not just start directly with DBZ??

  • GonFreaks

    If there is fighting, I sure as hell hope that we dont see any fists in keeping with the DBZ tradition (did they fight that fast in DB?) Dont like the part about Justin Chatwin keeping his original hairstyle ‘because the director felt it looks like goku’s’….

    Hope they don’t screw up the pronunciation of Kamehameha… or neglect to put that move in… damm so many things to hope they dont screw up… where’s Toriyama when u need him… he needs to be the creative consultant on this!

  • Rettan

    Well Duh, In the Manga of DBZ Piccolo is a bad guy, DBZ begins when Piccolo and Goku are in the Tournament, which is the end in Dragon Ball on tv ya know… I have a good hope for this movie… However, I dont know how many movies it will take to have the entire story of DBZ x.x

  • Xoro

    This movie is just so crapped up. I wonder how on earth did Fox get its hands on the production rights in the first place, seeing how the Japanese are now mobilizing boycotts against the movie.

  • Olivia

    You guys who are hoping that Stephen Chow can save the day can just give up all hope now. Chow’s got his hands full with CJ7 during the filming session for DB, and now that the DB filming has ended, there is absolutely nothing that he can do to make this movie look good.

  • Hi there Olivia,

    Producers don’t usually direct, so whether filming has ended or not is irrelevant.

    I happen to know Stephen Chow changed a few parts of the script, gave the OKAY to the cast and crew, and trusts James Wong.

    Also – he will be involved somewhat in post production (special effects and the like).

    You can’t say he has no involvement in the movie just because filming is done.

  • shut up

    you all anooying me. wining about why vegeta aint in why goku is adult why piccolo is evil. if you ar fan ud know about the sags but it sems ur dojnt sos dfu and let me tell u.

    ONE GOKU WAS 15 WHEN HE THOUGHT EVIL PICCOLO AKA DEAMON KING. vegeta was not there retards. 2: chatwin might have been whin and crap on woar of teh worlds. but its cating not his real life u dipshits. 3:goku wanst buff agisnt deamon king piccolo he was small 15 u rtards. not buff as in agisn tpicccolojr in tornoment. 4: piccolo never whent big vs goku .

    HE ONLY WENT BIG HENHE THOUGHT PICCOLO JR DEAMON KING PICCOLO SON.

    THIS IS DEMON KING PICCCOLO SAGA. NOT PICCOLO JR GET THAT IN UR HEADS OK GOKU WAS SKINNY AND SMALL IN DEMON SAGA. AND GROW AND GOT BUFF IN PICCOLO JR THIS IS KING PICCOLO SAGA GOT THAT

  • lol

    This movie is just so crapped up. I wonder how on earth did Fox get its hands on the production rights in the first place, seeing how the Japanese are now mobilizing boycotts against the movie.

    Posted by Xoro on March 7th, 2008

    xoro how can yous ay this movie isc rap it isnt out let no ones seen it no trailer. so bow can you say its crap when you havent see n it ucant ur jsut hypercret now get life i thought lotr and the ne hulk film would be crap couse the perosn playing thbruce banner in hulk 2 is diffrent but isaw teh trailer and its 100 times better then hulk one. so until uv seen trail or film proof tosay tis crap dont

  • Xoro

    so some people think that after all these dumb set photos, the trailer’s actually going to be good!?

  • Eezy

    Clearly the whole idea of DragonBall as the first movie and not DragonBall-Z, is to setup a series of movies. later on we’ll prob see the rest of the sagas in the movies to follow and again guys Picollo(DBZ) and King Picollo(DB) are 2 diff characters.

  • hey stephen chow ma fav actor from shaoilin soccer, he is the greatest of all but closer to jackie chan, chow is an angle,for making the real action/adventure movie-“DBZ” so power in its name I m ready for 15th august 2008 although in “INDIA” it is a “INDEPENDENCE DAY” BUT I M OK WITH IT I’LL SEE THE MOVIE AN BUY THE DVD’S THANK YOU @@STEPHEN CHOW@@

  • Xoro

    Listen, all you fans of Stephen Chow:
    STEPHEN CHOW IS NO WAY INVOLVED WITH THE LIVE ACTION DRAGONBALL!!!!!

    He was just put on the staff list to trick fans into watching the movie! Fox is simply playing outright forgery!

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  • ¡uoodS

    find it it a little funny in this article that they mention Piccolo as not really being a villain in dbz. When if fact he is in fact the main antagonist of DB.
    So far from what I’ve seen of it its one of the very few things they’ve done right imo.

  • SaltineKraken

    (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will play the villainous Piccolo (yeah I know he wasn’t really a villain in DBZ… just go with it).

    How about not?
    The Piccolo depicted in this abomination looks like Quan-Chi from Mortal Kombat. Or is it just me?

  • LOL have you seen the trailer..near the end justin shoutin kamehameha.LOL..he sounds like he’s trying to crap the words out of his arse!! dearrryyy meee! :D