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NEWS: Japanese Highlander Anime Trailer Posted Online

GW: Honestly, this is a first time, for many, many people. I don't know many people who have tried to make a Western franchise, property into an anime film. I think that the Wachowskis did it with AniMatrix, but they did it with shorts. And, I think going to someone like (Yoshiaki) Kawajiri san... First of all, he seldom directs a film that is not his own script. But, we lucked out, because we're all big fans of his, and he was a fan of Highlander. It was really interesting to be able to take the Highlander franchise to him and give him a script to read that he actually liked. He made a lot of changes on it, but liked what we had done.


GW: We recorded all the voices first, then send them to Japan for them to put into the story reel. All that was done first, because, this movie was drawn to English.


SG: Are there any examples of compromises that make for good stories?

GW: Yeah, there was a lot. In the original script, by David, there was never a virus. When we sent the script to Kawajri, It came back and he had created a virus. And that was what Marcus (the villain) unleashes on the world at the end. In David's original story, Marcus had been taking all the children of the city and enslaving them to produce different things for him. There was more of a slavery story. Then when Kawajiri came back with the virus and not the children, David agreed. He bent . I think he wasn't very happy about doing it, but he agreed to do it.

There were a couple of issues with how we perceived Amergan (Colin's mentor) and how he perceived Amergan. And I think a lot of the design was very Japanese. That's what they do and that's what they prefer. And you have to let them have their creative take. We always wanted to make the right anime, with the right Highlander influence, but it had to be a good animation film. It had to be a good anime.

There were a couple of character design issues and we all came back and eventually realized we had to make small tweaks to make us all happy.

As far as the story goes, the biggest issues came at the end. Kawajiri had a director's cut that is much longer than the original film we're putting out. It wasn't so obvious in certain issues. When you see the director's version compared to the US version, we have opening monolog cards that come up to start the story, telling you what's going on, giving some background. There's some narration in the beginning. They don't have that in the Japanese version. There's about seven or eight additional scenes in the Japanese version that we cut out in the US one, just for timing, and just for pace of story. That was the big issue. I'm sure Mr Kawajiri was really unhappy about the cut, but this was what the other producers thought was best for everybody.

SG: I thought that this was one of the better paced anime action movies that I've seen in a while. It doesn't spend to much time on any point, or cut out explanations, or rush through. Who decided on the cut that was used?

GW: It was a collaboration of the producers, Peter Davis, Tom Gray, Bill Panzer and myself, and writer David Abramowitz. We all went through a screening of the original one. I think Peter Davis really felt that the movie was a little too long, and was not clear enough. Bill (Panzer) had issues as well. We ended up working with a really great editor, Jeff Werner. We all sat in a room with him for two weeks and made our edits to the film. I took it and presented it to Kawajiri and he didn't like it. He didn't want us to cut his film

He didn't like it at all. I totally understood and respected his position, and basically, I humbled myself and asked him please to consider these cuts and consider how we tried to keep the authentic feeling and view of the film. But, you can be the judge when the director's version comes out, which will probably be out later this year. See both versions, and you can see the differences where the length and timing of it changes.


There were a couple of inserts that we added to help give a little clarity. Like in the opening to Highlander, you see the war where they are fighting, and you see him die as a Kelt. That's not how the Japanese version opens at all. It's completely different.


SG: The movie resembled a lot of American R-rated action movies, with the sex scene and such. Was that from the script? Was it a goal you tried to achieve with the movie?

GW: That was in the script, but the way he did it was much more artistic, and beautiful. I think he did a real nice job with that scene. With the candles and the church. I think it really established Dahlia as a character.

[Ed: so, the sex is in the American original script.]


In the Japanese version, the director's version, there is a middle area where they are at Stonehenge and Amergan is speaking to Colin about what he is. In the director's cut, it is longer and more descriptive. In the US version, we cut that way down because we felt that enough had been established of Highlander. People knew it. And enough people know of it. We didn't think that anybody was going to get lost even if Highlander was an unknown entity to them.