©Hiroya Oku/Shueisha ©2011 “GANTZ” FILM PARTNERS
Mr.Hiroya Oku (Author)
New People Entertainment: What's it like to see your vision on the big screen? When your work translates from page to reel, the director and actors have great influence over the overall impression of the work. As the author, what aspect of the live-action film surprised you or what did you enjoy?
Mr. Hiroya Oku: I love movies myself so I was truly excited when my work became a film. One of my favorite scenes is in the first film, which is the battle sequence with the guardian statues. The way the statues come alive exemplifies the great work of Japanese creators and I thought it was a great scene.
NPE: Who is your favorite character? What do you think about the live-action version of the character in the film?
HO: Kurono is my favorite. Because he is the main character. I felt that Kazunari Ninomiya fit the image of Kurono very well.
NPE: Although films produced along with TV studios are usually more conservative, the film takes it to the edge when creating this violent world of Gantz. How do you think they did?
HO: I think they worked on it very hard and did a great job.
NPE: In the live-action film, the story develops a bit differently and has a different ending from the manga and anime. As a currently on-going manga series, are there any aspects from the film that have influenced the manga?
HO: Not really. But the film contributed to the increase in popularity of the manga in Japan for sure so I’m thankful for that.
NPE: Similar to your previous work “HEN”, the story of “GANTZ” portrays people suddenly being thrown into an incredibly absurd situation. Have you ever experienced any crazy situations?
HO: These sorts of situations never happen in real life, that is why I wanted to see it at least in a manga.
Mr.Takahiro Sato (Producer)
NPE: What was your impression of Mr.Oku and how was it working with him to bring the manga to the big screen? Was there anything he was particularly excited about or worried about?
Mr. Takahiro Sato: It’s hard to imagine from his writing style of “GANTZ” but Mr.Oku is a man of few words and is a kind person. Yet he is very passionate about manga and is a perfectionist when it comes to his work. He is a highly motivated and strong willed person.
When making “GANTZ” into a film, something Mr.Oku said that left an impression was:
“I created “GANTZ” as something that can only be expressed through a manga, something that can be expressed because it’s a manga and I am very proud of that. So I am not expecting the manga to become a film exactly as is nor do I want it to be that way. Please create the film version of “GANTZ”, I look forward to seeing it.”
Manga and film are completely different media. When turning the manga into a film, if we aimed for something exactly the same as the manga there is no point in turning it into a live-action. Mr.Oku understood that and entrusted us with the live-action film. As a film producer, I was grateful to be able to have creative freedom but at the same time felt a lot of pressure to be able to satisfy Mr. Oku who is very knowledgeable about films.
But it was very fortunate that our relationship as author and film producer was one with mutual respect for each other’s field and we had the same goal of creating something great.
NPE: How was it decided to make this manga into a live-action film? How did the planning all start?
TS: Similar to “Death Note”, “GANTZ” is a manga published by Shueisha. I also produced the live-action film for “Death Note” and after it’s success the next manga I wanted to make into a live-action was “GANTZ”. After the release of “Death Note”, towards the end of 2006, I asked Shueisha if we could make “GANTZ” into a live-action film. At that time a different film production company had a hold on the rights so we could not go into production right away but I told Shueisha to contact me as soon as the other company gave up and that I would make it into a great film.
A year later in 2007 the rights to make the live-action opened up and I received a call so that is when our planning and production started to move.
In creating the live-action film, we wanted to create a blockbuster with Kurono and Kato at the center. I proposed the plan to cast Kazunari Ninomiya as Kurono and Kenichi Matsuyama as Kato and Mr.Oku as well as Shueisha gave us the go and in the beginning of 2008 production went into full swing.
NPE: The world of GANTZ is extremely violent. What were some of the difficulties in translating that world into live-action?
TS: When making “GANTZ” into a film, the first thing that came to mind is to not make this a minor film. Whether it’s the GANTZ suits or action sequences, I wanted to incorporate the highest technology and best staff in the current Japanese film industry. In order to do this, we needed to make this a big budget project that would attract a very large audience. But at the same time I wanted to keep the original manga’s theme and worldview in the film as much as possible. So we held back a bit on any direct brutality scenes but through the cast’s actions we tried to capture the fear of violence and the pain of death.
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