Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope

There is a new live-action DBZ project in development called Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope. It is written by myself and produced by Robot Underdog.

Dragon Ball Z has incredible potential as a live action series, and I don’t believe that it’s impossible to succeed with it just because others have failed.

We’ve seen glimpses of how to do it right elsewhere, but no one has ever taken the time to gather the best people together and concentrate a serious effort toward doing DBZ justice.

Until now.

As a fan of the series and the only Dragon Ball scholar in the world, I know these characters and the world they live in well. I also know how disappointed everyone was with Dragon Ball Evolution, so I’m excited to have the opportunity to do it right.

I put my name on it because I believe in it.

The Subject

There are a lot of ways to do a live action DBZ project.

For example, you can recreate one of the story Arc’s in a shot-for-shot fashion, adapt one of the Arc’s in a different way to try and create a more dramatic feel, or use the Dragon World as inspiration for a different yet similar depiction with a Dragon Ball feel.

And there are so many different points in the timeline to depict, from the arrival of the Saiyans to Freeza, Cell, or Majin Buu. Who wouldn’t love to see a real life Mister Satan?

Robot Underdog decided to focus on the darkest period in the Dragon Ball Z timeline in order to create a realistic live action depiction that appeals to modern tastes.

Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope is based on the gritty alternate timeline of The History of Trunks TV special, known in Japan as “Defiance in the Face of Despair!! The Remaining Super-Warriors: Gohan and Trunks.”

This is the period where Trunks and Gohan are the only Z-Warriors left to fight against the brother and sister pair of Artificial Humans called 17 and 18. It’s violent and has a lot of dramatic moments to serve as inspiration.

The Format

Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope will be released in 3 episodes that tell a complete story.

Each episode will be available for free online.

Episode 1 will be released later this year.

The Story

It’s my opinion that creating a shot-for-shot recreation of the series in live action form is a waste of time. You might as well just watch the anime.

Instead, we are using the alternate timeline as a launch pad for an adaptation.

It features Gohan, Trunks, Bulma, and the survivors of this world as they try to stay alive against 17 and 18. There are a lot of fight scenes, a few jokes, and the DBZ personality you guys expect.

Since I wrote the entire script I know things about the story that others do not, but I can’t reveal too many specifics at this point.

Suffice to say that I have written a script I believe will make Dragon Ball Z fans happy.

I’ll reveal more as development progresses.

The Progress So Far

Robot Underdog has put forth a tremendous effort to cast the best actors and talent in Los Angeles. They screened hundreds of candidates for each role and have gathered some top visual effects artists in the movie industry, including a VFX Artist who worked on Transformers: The Ride in Universal Studios, as well as an original theatrical composer.

You can see the crew at Robot Underdog here.

Pre-production is in full swing for episode 1. They’ve secured locations inside and outside of the city, began development of the costuming and makeup, and taken some behind the scenes photographs to show the process.

The first trailer for Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope will premiere this Monday, March 3, 2014. So come back to my site on Monday afternoon to see it in action.

Be sure to follow Robot Underdog on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Go share the project with your friends, and get excited for DBZ live-action done right!