realistic ironman?

A look at the Exoskeleton Robotic Suit by Raytheon, under development for the U.S. Army. It’s a wearable robot that amplifies its wearer’s strength, endurance, and agility. The May issue of Popular Science likened the Exoskeleton to the Iron Man in the movie of the same name and suggested it blurred the lines between science fiction and reality.

AstroBoy Hair make up

The two make up artists is standing by... there are around 20 people waiting for the make up

see the astrboy-hair!! good demo.

The booth is smaller then i expect and the way how the video being showed is not that good.

Astro Boy Hair Makeovers Offered at Comic-Con Int'l

From the producer of Madagascar, the director of A Shark's Tale and the studio that brought you The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes the big screen versions of Astro Boy and Gatchaman, (a.k.a. Battle of the Planets). Both films are due out in theaters worldwide in 2009.

Imagi Studio's bang-zoom version of Osamu Tezuka's iconic robot boy seeks to reinvent Japan's most beloved cartoon character for Western audiences. Intriguingly, Yoshitaka Amano, the original character designer for Gatchaman will also be at Comic-Con. Coincidence? Mmmaybe.

Will these new versions soar to new heights or crash and burn? Drop by booth #3530 and see concept art from the film now in production and get a contact high from the possibilities.
There will be a Astro Boy Hair Makeovers Offered at Comic-Con Int'l

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea Trailer

宮崎峻新作.

ASTRO BOY at COMIC CON/SAN DIEGO

IMAGI STUDIOS AND SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT BRINGING FEATURE FILM ASTRO BOY TO COMIC CON/SAN DIEGO

Los Angeles, July 16, 2008 – Imagi Studios and Summit Entertainment will be at COMIC CON in San Diego, booth # 3530, introducing its upcoming CG-animated motion picture ASTRO BOY. The film's director, David Bowers and producer, Maryann Garger will be attending Comic-Con on Saturday, July 26, and will be available for media interviews at booth # 3530.

A special-edition ASTRO BOY oversized BAG will also be distributed to anime fans on a limited basis at the show, July 24-27 at the San Diego Convention Center. Visit the Imagi booth #3530 between 11 AM and 4 PM on Saturday, July 26, for our "ASTRO BOY Hair Makeover." Fans will be transformed by getting the superhero's iconic, black pointed-hair look!

Slated for worldwide theatrical release in 2009 from Summit Entertainment, ASTRO BOY will feature the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Nathan Lane and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role. David Bowers (SHARK TALE) is directing from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris, with Maryann Garger producing (MADAGASCAR).

ASTRO BOY was created by the "god of manga", Japan's Osamu Tezuka, in the early 1950s. The iconic character has since found wide popularity around the world as the hero of three acclaimed animated television series spanning over four decades, besides being one of the top licensed properties for merchandising. Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist. Our hero embarks on a journey in search of adventure in a netherworld of robot gladiators before he returns to save Metro City. ASTRO BOY is the second CG-animated feature film from Imagi Studios, following on the success of its 2007 box office hit, TMNT.

Imagi's first theatrical movie, TMNT was released in March 2007, opening #1 in U.S. box office revenue, only the third time in history that an Asian-made film has achieved that honor. Imagi has development operations in Los Angeles, California, and CG production studios at its Hong Kong headquarters.

Will Hollywood gild the Japanese lily?

by: Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

They flew actor Emile Hirsch in from Paris, directors Larry and Andy Wachowski from Los Angeles and a gigantic, British-made IMAX screen from Canada. The screen and its massive banks of speakers were hoisted into place by no fewer than seven cranes. A parade of Japanese celebrities, including internationally renowned actor Hiroyuki Sanada and the top-heavy Kano sisters, posed before a life-size model of the Mach 5--the groovy, gadget-rigged racing car at the heart of Speed Racer, Japan's latest anime property to undergo a Hollywood makeover.

At the movie's Japan premiere in Tokyo Dome, I was given a vertigo-inducing tour of the IMAX projection tower, which loomed above the floor and the audience. The equipment looked sleek and vaguely sterile, like props from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and my chief concern was not falling into the seats and people gathering below.

As I've noted before in this column, last summer's Transformers, based on a Japanese giant robot toy and anime series, was itself a giant at the global box office. Leonardo DiCaprio has signed on to adapt Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira as a live-action film, and Spider-Man Tobey Maguire will do the same to Robotech, another anime originally produced by Tatsunoko Production Co., the company that first created Speed Racer.

Titanic titan James Cameron is making Battle Angel from a manga called Gunnm, Steven Spielberg will remake Mamoru Oshii's anime classic Ghost in the Shell, and even Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka's seminal kid robot from the 50s, arrives in cinemas worldwide next summer, bolstered by the voices of Hollywood heavies Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland and Nathan Lane, among others.

Hollywood's zeal for Japanese stories can be attributed to the protean talents of Japan's artists. But it's also a sign of the American movie industry's lust to crack potentially lucrative rising global markets, such as China and India.

As Americans are wont to say: "There's gold in them there hills."

While I watched Hirsch and costar Christina Ricci swerve and soar through a plethora of high-tech special effects, gold and money were very much on my mind. An estimated 120 million dollars was poured into the making of the movie, and piles more were spent on its supersized debut at the Dome. All that bedazzlement and star power doesn't come cheap.

The irony, of course, is that their source material does.

In Japan, manga and anime were and remain comparatively low-budget entertainment media. Thick manga comic books are still printed in black-and-white on thin and easily thumbable lightweight paper stock. Anime producers maintain low overhead, paying their staff minimum wages to work long hours and offering lean marketing outlays. With few exceptions, the studios themselves are located in suburbs far west of central Tokyo.

What many in the domestic industry wryly call "the curse of Osamu" has outlived the artist: In the '60s, Tezuka sold his work to Japanese TV networks cheap, partly to get it seen, and partly to destroy his competitors. We now call such draconian practices "dumping."

But the low-budget, homemade nature of anime is a key component of its charm and aesthetic appeal. The overstuffed narratives of the original Speed Racer, for example, were an intimate reminder to Western kids like me that storytelling is a messy, wildly original business, an inherently democratic domain. We weren't choosing anime over American shows in the '80s because of soft power or coolness: We watched Speed Racer, Transformers, Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) and Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) because they made us feel like we were a part of the process.

In short, they were interactive stories.

Hollywood isn't evil, but it is a top-down business. Executives approve, directors and celebrities are contracted, and lots of money gets tossed into the mix.

But what seems to be missing in Hollywood's current Japanophilia is an understanding of love. Like early rock 'n' roll, punk, and hip hop from the Bronx and East L.A., Japanese pop culture appeals to us today because it's honest--and a little quirky. And if you neglect the quirks, you lose everything.

Kelts is a Tokyo University lecturer who divides his time between Tokyo and New York. He is the author of "Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S." (www.japanamericabook.com), now available in an updated paperback edition. His column appears twice a month.

source: Daily Yomiuri

AstroBoy interview...

please see the ASTRO BOY – Exclusive Interview with Director David Bowers and Producer Maryann Garger at collider.com

another interview at IGN:AX08

Batman Poster

I like all Joker series posters, this is one of my favorite!

Cutting-edge Concept to Design Concept Car

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car has skin, skeleton, blinking eyes

This angry-looking skinned beast is the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model. GINA, which stands for Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations -- whatever that means -- is shelled in a textile fabric wrapped around a carbon fiber and metal frame. This means that the skin and skeleton can bend and contract like, well, real skin and skeleton. For instance, the doors bend up, the headlights are exposed like eyeballs under eyelids, and the hood opens from the center like some sort of gaping maw to expose the engine. Even the interior is skinned and modular: only the dash displays that you need at any item are available via openings. Don't get too excited, though -- this is purely a concept and nothing you'll see in a showroom any time soon. We can dream, though, right?


That's so flexible on design process and sve alot of time to do the mock-up model!!! more images at autoblog.com

CONTEST: Win a T-Shirt from Astro Boy

source: MovieMaker.com
Astro Boy is still in the early stages of production and the film won't be released until sometime in 2009, but it's never too early to start a contest. We're giving away some t-shirts from the movie and we even have another way to snag a free shirt as well. If you're at the L.A. Anime Expo this week, which runs from July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and you stop by the Imagi Studios booth (#913) and mention MovieWeb.com, you'll get a free t-shirt as well! But if you won't be at the Expo, you can just click below.
Winners Receive: - Astro Boy t-shirt
Or, if you can’t make it to the event, enter here to win one of your own!
you can also enter the contest through http://www.movieweb.com/contests/

Gatchaman OVA Series on Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll has acquired rights from Fireworks International for the North American digital distribution of the 1994 Gatchaman OVA series. The 3 episode series was initially released on American home video in 1997 by Urban Vision. The series will be available for free online viewing and commercial download on the Crunchyroll website beginning this month.

“We are excited and proud to work with Fireworks International and Harmony Gold on this project. Not only do we bring all three (3) episodes of this legendary anime to the public, but we will also be providing an additional gift of free virtual ‘badges’ for people who purchase the download” states Kun Gao CEO and President of Crunchyroll. Gao continues with “we are very pleased to bring another amazing anime series from one of the main pioneers of the anime industry-Tatsunoko Productions.”

Fireworks International Senior Vice-President of Digital Acquisitions and Distribution Jonathan Ford commented, “Crunchyroll is an ideal platform for the re-launch of the classic GATCHAMAN™ title in July. We are excited to bring this title to the Crunchyroll community where the viewers can watch and enjoy this title online in outstanding quality.”

The three (3) episodes are entitled The Dragon King, The Red Specter and The Final Countdown. Fans are encouraged to go online on July 2nd and join the 5 brave young teens (Ken, Joe, Jun, Jinpei and Ryu) as they attempt to foil evil and save the Earth.

GATCHAMAN™ (1994; 144 minutes; Three (3) 48 min. episodes, unrated) is directed by Hiroyuki Fukushima, written by Akihiko Nishiyama, character designed by Yasuomi Umezu and produced by Tatsunoko Productions.

Synopsis:
It's five against thousands in a fierce, fast-action battle to save the Planet. Piloting their prized ship, the GodPhoenix, the Science Ninja Team launch their counterattack against Gallacter's entire army of assassins. The Gatchaman are back, big time! Revamped, stylish and more dynamic than ever, the new GATCHAMAN™ manages to modernize the characters, without compromising the design of the original series. Here are all your favorties - Ken, Joe, June, Rock and Jimmy - with a great new look and killer attitude. This new Original Video Animation (OVA) is sexier, more action packed and completely surpasses the animation in the original 70's series.
read more on activeanime.com

More Heroes on Tatsunoko vs. Capcoms.

oh no! Gatchaman was K.O. by Ryu! I want to see him more fighting technique...

here is the list of characters:
Tatsunoko characters:

• Ken (Gatchaman)
• Casshern (Casshern)
• Tekkaman (Tekkaman)
• Yatterman One (Yatterman)
• Polymar (Hurricane Polymar)
• Gold Lightan (Gold Lightan) [Note: He can only be played solo, and has one life bar instead of two.]

Capcom Characters:

• Ryu
• Chun-Li
• Alex (Street Fighter 3)
• Morrigan (Darkstalkers)
• Batsu (Rival Schools)
• Soki (Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams

Tekkaman and Batsu Ichimonji from Rivial School are new announced caharacters

There is news that the game will be playable next month (soon) in locations in both Tokyo and Osaka — Taito Hey! in Akihabara and Ikebukuro GIGO from July 10th to the 13th and Osaka's SEGA Avion from July 25th to the 27th. Announced fighters for both the Capcom side and the Tatsunoko side include Batsu Ichimonji from Capcom 2-on-2 fighter Rival Schools, Chun-li, Ryu, space knight Tekkaman, Gatchaman and Casshern. In the flier for the arcade location test, it says there will be a new character announced. who else?? I'm curious to know.
more screenshots from my last post
http://www.capcom.co.jp/tatsucap/