Take this with a grain of salt, but Film Junk is reporting that an anonymous source claims Fox execs are so unhappy with footage of their upcoming live-action Dragonball adaptation that they’re actually considering shutting down the project altogether and cutting their losses. Now, I totally believe the part about the footage being terrible. Any time you hire a former cast member of MTV’s “Real World” for a role you know you’re in trouble. But I have a really hard time believing they’d completely shut down something they’ve put so much time and money into already. So before all the 12-year-olds start to cry and the manga purists throw a victory parade let’s wait for some confirmation one way or the other.

Update:

Bzzt, they changed their minds.

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Everyone’s favorite over-the-top, head-explode-y fighting series is back with a new movie focused entirely on the original main character, Kenshiro. The 5-part “Shin Kyuseishu Densetsu” series of “Fist of the North Star” movies started in 2005 and has included re-tellings of established events as well as in-depth coverage of subplots not previously covered by the original manga or anime releases/TV shows.

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Inspired by a best-selling 2002 novel by Kenichiro Nakamaru, Takahumi Motoki‘s upcoming weight-loss comedy Rock ‘n’ Roll Diet! follows the exploits of a tubby family man as he attempts to regain his former svelte rockstar glory. In the movie Gun-san (Daisuke Shima), a former rocker and current owner of rock ‘n’ roll bar “Gun’s” has recently started packing on the pounds. Now 42 and completely accustomed to wearing loose-fitting jersey outfits, his eldest daughter (Haru) is ashamed of him, his second daughter (Saaya) makes him the butt of her jokes, and his wife (Junko Mihara) becomes nostalgic for the old days. However, Gun-san is convinced that his big belly is simply a sign of his own happiness. That all changes one day when he meets a brash female guitarist named Nana (Nao Nagasawa) who drunkenly calls him out for letting himself go and losing his rock ‘n’ roll spirit in the process.

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The official website for Masahiko Nagasawa‘s Tengoku wa Mada Tooku (roughly “Heaven is still far away") is now live and features a full-length trailer. In the film, which is based on a best-selling Maiko Seo novel, Zexy CM girl Rosa Kato plays Chizuru, an office lady who’s literally given up on life. Unlucky in work and in love, Chizuru makes the decision that she’s going to end it all in a place she doesn’t know. She takes a taxi to a remote area and checks into a small bed and breakfast situated in the heart of a mountain. The proprietor of the bed and breakfast, a self-sufficient, upbeat man named Tamura (Yoshimi Tokui) greets her when she arrives. Over the course of her stay time seems to stand still as Tamura and other local villagers gradually restore Chizuru’s will to live.

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For the past few years and without really giving it too much thought I’ve been under the impression that “Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers” had some sort of inherent flaw that led to the general lack of media buzz and web coverage that would (or should) normally come from a movie with names like Satoshi Miki, Juri Ueno, and Yu Aoi attached. Fortunately I was dead wrong about that. This is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time and offers a unique, childlike approach to cinematic absurdity you just can’t get from anyone else but Miki.

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