Pook's Place

Yu-Gi-Oh! Live Action Movie
Part 3: Shooting Locations and Directors
By Pook

            5.26.04  So it seems that the more I write these articles, the more realistic the idea of pitching an idea for the movie becomes.  This week, I’ll handle where the movie should be shot, and who would be the best director to helm this immense project (that is, aside from me ^_^). 

            The latest trend in shooting American movies is to not shoot them in America at all.  Naturally, shooting in Japan would be the best idea for this, but it isn’t feasible.  The Japanese movie industry is a massive powerhouse, and I’m sure that most of their movies are shot in Japan, and it would make for movies fighting for space.  The nice thing about this is that there is no actual Domino City (sorry for those who thought it might be real), so for those locations, and studio lot can be decorated – for example, Back to the Future, Gremlins, and Bruce Almighty were all shot at the exact same location on the Universal backlot in Los Angeles, at “Clocktower Square”.  So that’s the easy part. 

            The tricky part is Duelist Kingdom, naturally.  There has to be a wide variety of field-types (forest, ocean, etc.) for the duels to take place at, and there is NO WAY I would want all of the locations to be digital like in the new Star Wars movies – in case you didn’t know, the upcoming Episode 3 uses NO locations; all digital.  So where to shoot?  Lots of movies are now shooting in Canada, because it is close to America, but less expensive.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been there in probably nine or ten years or so, so I don’t know the geography too well (sorry readers from Canada, but you do have a very nice country!)  So because I am not as worldly as I’d like to be, I’m going to suggest New Zealand – it’s where they shot all three Lord of the Rings movies, and those movies were gorgeous.  It’s got just about every sort of landscape needed, and it is an island, but I just know that people would say, “Why is Yugi dueling in Middle Earth?”  Yeah, he sort of looks like a hobbit, but come on. 

            So I’ve got another suggestion – Ireland or Scotland.  I visited Scotland about eight years ago, and I think it’d be perfect.  There are big, lush fields, there are plenty of lakes (or lochs), and they have castles!  Ireland doubled for Scotland in Braveheart, in case you didn’t know, so that would also be another great location.  Plenty of shooting locations.  But, of course, the wide shots that show the entire Duelist Kingdom island would probably have to be a much smaller island, or digital (in this case, I don’t have a problem, because you wouldn’t have the actors in a shot that far away, and those can look convincing). 

            Now for what will probably be the hardest call for the entire movie – the director.  There are so many wonderful directors out there, and of course, I have my wish list for this project, but at the same time, you’d have to be realistic, meaning that you probably couldn’t get Steven Spielberg to do a franchise movie like this.  Sorry.  So let’s see who might work:

            Peter Jackson (LOTR Trilogy, upcoming King Kong remake) – OK, this one is a long shot because he’s now hot-property, but just look at the way he used the LOTR mythology and turned it into the most respected trilogy in decades.  This movie may be too kiddy for him, but then again, he goes love fantasy.  He’d be my 1^st choice for director, but again, probably wouldn’t do it. 

            Ron Howard (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind) – Oscar winner, former child actor, lovable bald guy.  He works well with child actors because he was one himself, he can do the family stuff as well as the serious stuff, plus his movies are very successful.  He’s easily my 2^nd choice, because I love most of his movies.  Plus his brother, Clint Howard, could play Bonz. 

Chris Columbus (Harry Potter 1 &2, Mrs. Doubtfire) – He’s got lots of experience working with kids, and his movies are usually relatively big budget (something very important for a movie of this scale).  However, some say that he’s sort of losing his touch, and is getting spoiled by big Hollywood projects.  Personally, I don’t agree with that, and I think that he’d really be able to deal with a lot of the human drama of the movie, as well as the interesting duel scenes. 

Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors, In & Out) – This guy is the best.  First of all, he IS Yoda!  He’s also Miss Piggy, but she is a far inferior Muppet compared to the greatest Jedi in the universe.  But his movies are always filled with heart.  He might be just a little grown-up for this, because some of his movies have more adult themes, but at the same time, he’s directed Sesame Street movies.  Might be hard to get a hold of, but could work. 

Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men 1 & 2)/Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1 &2, Evil Dead Trilogy) – I’m putting these two together only because they are very similar.  Both have made amazing comic book adaptations over the past few years, and have handled different types of genres.  We know they can both translate comic frames into film frames, and between the two of them, they’ve pulled in an insane amount of money to the box office.  It’s not fair to pick one over the other. 

Well, that about does it for the first movie.  I’m going to hold off on doing a movie update for a few weeks, but next time I do one, I will address what everyone has been waiting for – The Battle City movie!  Sequel time, baby!

And by the way, thanks to everyone for the deck suggestions.  I went for an awesome Water deck, with a Fire side deck – elementals are fun.