Alphonse keeps vigil over Tokyo Bay in the upcoming live-action Patlabor project. It has been reported that Mamoru Oshii will be involved in the project, although there are no details as to what his role will be. Cast and crew members are as yet unannounced, but the visual effects will be handled by Omnibus Japan.
Below are some images of the actual Ingram unit in location around Tokyo bay. As far as the look of Ingram is concerned I think the filmmakers have done a fantastic job, right down to the truck that carries the mecha. The unit might not be able to perform moves, but its very physical presence allows for great lighting reference when re-creating the CG version. And good reference goes a long way.
The next big question on everyone’s mind now is of course the casting, which will make or break the show. Personally I’ve always thought Hiroshi Abe will make a fantastic Gotoh-san.
I’ve visited numerous Japanese forums to find out more information regarding the official casting, but there’s no news as yet. The comments on the forums however, are amusing to read – here are some reproduced in English :
“Gotoh’s casting is the most important !! We’ve mentioned this a thousand times !”
“Anyone dressed in that bright orange uniform is sure to look like cos-play. Just because we want to remain faithful to the original doesn’t mean we can’t change a thing or two.”
“Noa’s role should go to Goriki Ayama !”
“Goriki’s way too tall ! Noa is short.”
And so on.
You might also be interested in these items :
Up-close With The Patlabor Live-Action Mecha Unit
The Next Generation Patlabor Trailer
Patlabor Goes Live-action in 2014
Patlabor Pulsation – Akemi Takada Art Book Review
Patlabor AIR – Akemi Takada Art Book Review
August 17th, 2013 at 11:26 pm
Nice! Too bad they can’t create some to clean up the Nuclear Mess!
August 18th, 2013 at 3:43 am
Unfortunately, since the Labors are manned and not actually robots, I think they’ll be of little help to the clean-up even if they did exist… :[
August 18th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
i think Noa’s role will be easy, and someone only mentioned her for her haircut, which isn’t a hard thing to do. your Gotoh choice was pretty great; his facial structure is perfect, and he’s not a bad actor, either.
August 20th, 2013 at 1:57 am
Izubuchi’s original designs struck a great balance between mechanical detail and smooth industrial forms. The parts were lean and simple in the way that real industrial objects are.
I feel like the new design (while an improvement of what we saw in the promotional poster earlier) has too much extra “realistic” mechanical detail, like in the Transformers movies. Like they went to a junkyard and welded random things together. Especially for the shoulders of the new design.
I really like that they made a full size version of it, it gives me confidence that the labors will look good on screen.
August 20th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Zack – I’ll be super thrilled if they actually do cast Abe-san ! Will stay tuned to the casting news for more updates.
Jason – I think you’re quite right regarding the “clunky” look of the labor, something that was not that obvious to me until you pointed it out.
By comparison, the Ingram in the anime is sharp and streamlined, giving it an aerodynamic look, but subtle changes in the design here (the live-action version) whittles down that sleek form factor. Granted, they must face challenges re-creating it in real life, which may be why they had to compromise in some areas.
Just out of curiosity, are you working in the film/animation industry ?
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:29 am
In high school I wanted to do animation but freshman year in college I switched to architecture. :p Architecture overlaps with film and animation in some ways, but those things are just interests now. 🙂