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Flashjeff
Oct 2, 2004, 19:37
Check out this item below. Looks like the folks in Hollywood are copying stuff from Japan again:

Melissa Joan Hart to Star, Dan Gordon to Script Live-Action Version of Hit Manga

Los Angeles, CA (September 29, 2004)--TOKYOPOP Inc. has made good on its pledge to "take manga to the big screen and beyond." The leading North American graphic novel publisher has inked actress Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) and screenwriter Dan Gordon (Wyatt Earp, The Hurricane) for a live-action feature film development project inspired by Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School (SG: RBHS), one of its top manga and anime properties.

"The storyboard aspect of manga is already custom-built for film," said Steve Galloway, TOKYOPOP's Executive Director of Film/Television. "And with Hart and Gordon attached to this story's fast-moving adventures, we have all the makings of a terrific cinematic package for teens."

The project materialized after TOKYOPOP was introduced to Hartbreak Films, the producers of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and other quality family series and movies. Seeking out fun, new starring vehicles for Melissa Joan Hart, Executive Producer Paula Hart reviewed several anime/manga properties before one in particular caught her eye. The SG: RBHS manga called for a strong, dynamic female lead with the same qualities for which Melissa Joan Hart is famous. They immediately began looking for a writer who could do justice to "Ryoko," the manga's protagonist.

"Our journey led us to Dan Gordon," Paula Hart recalled. "Dan took a few weeks reading the material and then delivered a story that had us sitting on the edges of our seats. It is smart, funny and terribly exciting."

Dan Gordon describes the script as "a delicious action/comedy mix of Clueless meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." It's the story of an ancient Samurai warrior reincarnated as a twenty-something-year-old sushi bar hostess. Ryoko discovers she is mankind's only hope in destroying a coven of murderous wolverines who are hatched every 5,000 years and-if left unchecked-will destroy all humanity.

TOKYOPOP and Hartbreak Films are now in conversations with potential studio partners for the project.

Maybe it's just me, but this sounds loopy, then there's the fact that Melissa Joan Hart is pushing 30 (born in 1976), so she'd have a hard time looking like a teenager. In my mnd, this project has got Direct-To-Video written all over it, provide it ever gets off the ground at all. Sheesh!
:okashii:

blu_pengwin
Oct 4, 2004, 10:36
I read about this at sci fi
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-10/01/11.00.film

and I would have to agree with you....I mean they should at least get a asian girl thats under 20 to play the part of a teenager.....

--- :okashii:

jeisan
Oct 4, 2004, 12:25
yeah thumbs down on melissa joan hart for the lead, im sure that want to get some white girl for a US audience, which i think is rediculous, they could find someone way better than her. im really getting tired of US remakes of japanese things. either think of your own idea or subtitle it. i know thats not the case here but still...

blu_pengwin
Oct 6, 2004, 05:38
I cant think of a single reason why they asked Melissa Joan Hart to star ....tokyopop has a really strange idea of what the US wants to see

Flashjeff
Oct 12, 2004, 06:05
I agree with you, blu. The worst part is that Melissa Joan hart hasn't even been in the spotlight for the last two to three years, if not longer. If Tokyopop was hellbent on having an American actress play this part, the least they could've done was tap somebody current, like Lindsay Lohan or Hilary Duff. Hell, even an old fart like me is familiar with them, and so would today's younger moviegoers. Hart is yesterday's news to the nth degree!