[MH-announce] Dubbing and world release of MH
Ryoko Toyama (ryokot@rocketmail.com)
Tue, 13 Apr 1999 04:20:11 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <19990413112011.6935.rocketmail@web1.rocketmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 04:20:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ryoko Toyama <ryokot@rocketmail.com>
Subject: [MH-announce] Dubbing and world release of MH
To: mh-announce@nausicaa.net
Japanese "sports" newspapaer, Houchi Shinbun ran a series of
articles about Ghibli and Miramax's release of MH.
(Since Houchi is a kind of tabloid, please take any info with a grain of salt,
though it seems that Houchi is getting their info from Ghibli and Tokuma
International)
According to it:
1. It took about half a year, started on July 4th, to coplete the recording of
the English dub.
2. It took about 350 million yen (in $1=Y116 rate, that's about 3 million yen,
though I'm not sure the exchange rate used in this article) to make the
English dub. Of it, the fee for Neil Gaiman (who polished the English script)
was 25 million yen (about $200,000 in 1$=Y115 rate).
3. Gillian Anderson (Moro) recorded at LA studio, while Billy Crudap
(Ashitaka) did his part at NY studio. Both did a superb job, according to the
article. Especially, Billy Crudap worked really hard, sometimes standing in
front of microphone 6 hours a day.
4. Miramax held private screenings of MH for Leo DiCaprio and his father three
times. They both loved the movie, and since his father is an anime, especially
Miyazaki fan, Miramx thought that they could easily get Leo to play Ashitaka.
However, the mega-hit of "Titanic" changed everything.
5. Miramax also tried to get Robin Williams to play Jiko Bou, and Williams
showed real interest, but the schedule didn't match. Kristin Scott Thomas (The
English Patient), who was offered the role of Eboshi, could not find the time
to do the role either.
6.Toki is played by Jada Pinckett (Scream 2, The Nutty Professor).
7. Mr. Alpert, the president of Tokuma International attented all the recording
session for the English dub.
8. The dub was directed by Jack Fletcher, but Harvey Weinstein, the CEO of
Miramax wasn't satisfied with the result at first. He thought that actors's
performance level wasn't satisfying enough, in terms of expressing emotions.
For example, Clarie Danes (San) had a very difficult time to express the
complex emotion of San. But Minnie Driver who played Eboshi did a superb job
expressing Eboshi as a noble woman. (Miramax wanted British accent from her.)
9. MH will not be cut. Mr. Suzuki, the producer says that it's in the contract,
and he made sure that Harvey "the scissor-hand" Weinstein promised that he
would not cut or change the music. He even made a point by giving Weinstein a
fake Japanese sword. But Weinstein is still calling Ghibli from time to time,
asking if he could cut the film a littel bit.
10. MH will be released in 15 countries; US, Canada, UK, France, Germany,
Brazil, Australia and such.
(My comment: it *might* be just that Disney is just "thinking about" releasing
MH in these countries, but has no concrete plan yet. Houchi tends to report
things in a planning stage as a done deal.)
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com