It may have been seven years since Dragon Ball Evolution came out, but it looks like screenwriter Ben Ramsey is still sorry about it. With the writer behind The Dao of Dragonball, Derek Padula, looking to put together a book called USA DBZ, he has a chapter dedicated to the film from Fox and contacted the original writer to try and get a little more out of him on about the film for the book.
“I knew that it would eventually come down to this one day,” he wrote. “‘Dragonball Evolution’ marked a very painful creative point in my life. To have something with my name on it as the writer be so globally reviled is gut wrenching. To receive hate mail from all over the world is heartbreaking. I spent so many years trying to deflect the blame, but at the end of the day it all comes down to the written word on page and I take full responsibility for what was such a disappointment to so many fans. I did the best I could, but at the end of the day, I ‘dropped the dragon ball.’”
“I went into the project chasing after a big payday, not as a fan of the franchise but as a businessman taking on an assignment,” he continued. “I have learned that when you go into a creative endeavor without passion you come out with sub-optimal results, and sometimes flat out garbage. So I’m not blaming anyone for ‘Dragonball’ but myself. As a fanboy of other series, I know what it’s like to have something you love and anticipate be so disappointing.”
Check the site The Dao of Dragonball for a few more excerpts from the letter!
The film was released on March 10th, 2009 and had a $30 million budget but brought in $57.5 million worldwide and currently retains a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was directed by James Wong, who hasn’t directed anything else theatrically but continues to work in TV as a writer and director. He’s currently a writer and co-executive producer on Americna Horror Story and did some writing on the recent X-Files revival. His last directorial work was on the 2010 short-lived TV series The Event, where he was also a writer and co-executive producer. Wong goes back a way with Fox as he was an integral part to X-Files during its original run and was the co-creator for Space: Above and Beyond as well as an executive producer and writer on Millennium.
And because we must…
Thanks for sharing my article with your readers, Chris!