Dragonball movie officially confirmed; set for summer ’08

After many months (and for thousands of Dragonball fans, years) of speculation, it has finally been confirmed by Twentieth Century Fox that a big-budget live-action version of Dragonball is set to hit the big screen come August 2008. Helming the project will be “Final Destination” director James Wong, while the leading role of an adult Goku will be played by Justin Chatwin (mostly known for his part as Tom Cruise’s angsty son in 2005’s “War of the Worlds”) and James Marsters (“Spike” from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) will be playing the “villain” Picollo.

It’s vaguely stated that this will be an adaption of Akira Toriyama’s uber-popular manga, though the many press releases seem to indicate that the film will be splicing together various elements from both “Dragonball” and “Dragonball Z”, rather than faithfully retelling Goku’s journey from young punk to legendary Saiyan warrior. James Kyson Lee (Ando from the US TV series “Heroes”) is apparently auditioning for the role of Yamcha.