From: http://www.monkeypeaches.com/0404M.html#040416B

Having been planned for so many years, filming of the big screen adaptation of Japanese manga series Initial D, a story about street car racers, will finally begin this summer. According to Hong Kong's Oriental Daily, Taiwanese singer Jay Chou will play the leading role Takumi Fujiwara, and Anthony Wong will play his father Takumi Fujiawara, the role once belongs to Andy Lau. Edison Chen will play rival racer Ryosuke Takahashi and Shawn Yue will take a brand new role. A Japanese teen actress will play the female lead. The movie is helmed by Infernal Affairs Director Lau Wai Keung.

Shooting of the big screen version of Japanese comic book INITIAL D, produced by Hong Kong Media Asia Group, will start the coming summer in Singapore and Malaysia. Andy Lau will play the tofu shopkeeper Takumi Fujiawara, a car-racing ace and Yong actor Chan Gun-hei will play his son. Media Asia has asked Toyota to rebuild three AE 86 cars, which will be used for the filming. A white color AE 86 was used for tofu delivery and car racing in the original comic book as well as the anime. Writers and the author Shigeno Shuichi are still working on the script and casting of other characters are yet to be done. By the way, it will be co-produced by Jackie Chan.

I hope that eventually there will be a translated U.S. version on DVD or something.

I'm sure well get a subtitled version. We do get the subtitled versions of Initial D TV episodes usually about a month after they air on tv. And now that tokyopop has brought ID to the states, I'm sure we'll get the movie.

somebody'll sub it. this is old news too, i wonder if any progress has been made on production?

Dayom...
Itsuki really looks like Itsuki!!!

hahaha bandwidth thief!

Haha... that is awesome.

In Super Mario Bros. terms... this would be a 1-Up!

Sorry to say, but i will be disappointed in this movie.. Chinese movies usually tend to screw up the story... The special effect's usually suck... And i HATE Jay Chau...

Oh yeah, btw my FOERST post...

I guess my judgement is from past experience of chinese movie's... I havent really watched them for along time now, so they might've improved... We shall see in the future i guess...

It might suck really bad, but I'm going to hold all judgements until I see it. There are *some* chinese movies that are actually good [i.e. hero]. I'm interested to see what jackie chan does with it.

If all else fails, at least we will get to see all the bad ass cars in their non-animated form!

p.s. welcome to the forum! where in the midwest are you located?

yea, i'll at least give it a shot and hope for the best .
sounds kinda cool so far though, i hope they get it over here soon.

It will be a difficult jump to the big screen with live actors.

We've all grown to love the carTune how it is... so innevitably, we'll all be walking into it with certain expectations that won't be met. Should be interesting tho! I wonder if it'll be anything like Thunderbolt (another Chan-racing movie (discontinued... good luck)).

I want to see how they translate Itsuki to live action.
LOL!

nobody wrote:It might suck really bad, but I'm going to hold all judgements until I see it. There are *some* chinese movies that are actually good [i.e. hero].

you saw Hero? How'd you see Hero? I wanna see Hero!

I saw Hero too. I have it on DVD but when Jerry asked to borrow it I couldnt find it so he bought it too. Now we both have it (when I find mine). I think that was a GREAT movie. Although Im having a hard time seeing some of the initial D charaters as chinese like Takumi or Keisuke. They look like they are kinda manga versions of 90210. I wonder what Mako and Sayuki will look like. Bunta was always the coolest though. Too bad I dont smoke any more or I would try to light my cigarette mid drift lol. (in a parking lot of course I wonder if the guy that plays him will keep his eyes closed all the time?

I'm wondering who they will get to actually drift the cars and what kinda crazy shat they will pull.