John Ledford (ADV CEO) and the Eva Live Action
kango...@gmail.com
Explosion".
"From Pokémon to Full Metal Panic, the anime industry is doing
everything the rest of show biz isn't: embracing technology, coddling
fans-and making a killing."
Daniel Roth discusses the current state of the anime industry in the
west, the approach to piracy, new technology and fanatical otaku. The
article centres on John Ledford, CEO of AD Vision; primarily his
business strategies, his encounters with fans at his door at 2am and of
course, the live action Evangelion movie. The article goes on to
mention fan-subbers, the entertainment industry and various ADV
acquisitions. In discussing otaku (extreme anime fanatics), Roth gives
brief mention of the live action evangelion situation:
"Since 2003 [Ledford's] been shopping the idea of making a
live-action version of Neon Genesis Evangelion, [...] Ledford signed on
the Weta Companies, [...] to come up with plans for what the Evangelion
world might look like. But instead of micromanaging the project,
Ledford had Weta answer to two Evangelion fanatics at his company."
Through badgering and extensive communication with Weta it shows that
ADV are taking this film very seriously. This isn't going to be a
cheap knock off; ADV simply cannot afford to offend the great majority
of their customers. And to that means it seems they want to do things
right, with or without Hideaki Anno.
"Richard Taylor, Weta's co-founder, says he's never experienced
anything quite like it. Twice a week he'd have a conference call with
the fans at ADV, sending them renderings of his designs for things like
the 100-foot-tall robots and getting in return their encyclopedic take
on the interpretations. "These are people who could be considered
scholars on the world of Evangelion," says Taylor. "We had to appease
them and find their approval."
It follows on to mention a meeting between Taylor and a proposed
producer at the San Diego Comic-Con in an attempt to 'jump-start'
the production. Budgeting is also mentioned and it seems ADV has raised
$100m of the $120 million they need.
The fans are also make themselves heard - a lot. Even more so than
those who enjoyed Lord of the Rings:
"We get a lot of e-mails, a lot of letters from people around the world
about Lord of the Rings. But we get 25 e-mails about Evangelion to
every one we get about Lord of the Rings," says Taylor. "And Evangelion
has not even been made yet."
A fan even consulted Taylor during his meeting with the producer,
asking whether or not anything was being done about the movie:
Taylor turned to the producer and said, "This is why we have to do this
movie."
Source: Fortune.com
Thanks to Derek