Twentieth Century Fox is moving ahead with the production of a live action Dragonball movie.  Justin Chatwin (who played Tom Cruise's disaffected teenage son in War of the Worlds) is already in training with the stunt performance company 87Eleven (The Matrix, 300, The Bourne Supremacy) for the role of Goku, while James Marsters (Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will portray the villainous Piccolo.  James Wong (a writer/exec on the X-Files) is directing with Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) producing.  Production is slated to begin later this year with the goal of an August 15th, 2008 release.

Akira Toriyama's Dragonball is Japan's most successful cultural export of all time -- it has generated more than $4 billion in merchandising sales.  More than a decade after DBZ's first home video release in the U.S., FUNimation's Dragonball Z Season Sets are still among the top 5 anime releases of the year.