Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese manga phenomenon Dragonball to the big screen in a movie starring Justin Chatwin and directed by James Wong (Final Destination), Variety reported.
Chatwin (War of the Worlds) will star as Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominating the universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name. James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is on board as the film's villain, Piccolo.
Justin Chatwin plays Goku - the "good guy".
James Marsters will be Lord Piccolo - the “bad guy”.
Jamie Chung as Chi-Chi - Goku's love interest
Emmy Rossum as Bulma
Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi - Goku's mentor.
Joon Park as Yamcha.
Eriko Tamura as Mai - She is a chief enforcer of Piccolo's and a shape shifter. She is an original character for the film.
Texas Battle has an unrevealed role.
Luis Arrieta as Teto - A classmate and friend of Goku. He is an original character created for the film.
Randall Duk Kim as Grandpa Gohan: The adoptive father and grandfather of Goku who teaches Goku everything he knows about martial arts.
Shooting began on December 3, 2007 at Mexico City, Mexico. Locations included the Universidad Tecnológica de México. From January 2, 2008, the crew began shooting at Durango. The crew will move to Estado de México in March for some shots at Nevado de Toluca. Shooting is also scheduled at Los Angeles, California. In adapting the Dragon Ball manga, the futuristic cities were kept, but the anthropomorphic talking animals (such as Oolong and Puar) were dropped. Many of the locations are very Oriental, and there will be some Aztec influence too, particularly from their temples. Many of the female leads and extras will have unique hairstyles, including Rossum, who will wear a blue wig to resemble her anime counterpart. Chatwin, however, will not wear a wig as the director felt his hair already resembled Goku's.
