Dragonball Live-Action Film to Release on April 8th, 2009

Humberto Saabedra

IGN has confirmed that the long-awaited American live-action adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball story will be moved up from the April 10th release date confirmed last month to the Wednesday before the Easter holiday to allow for competitive advantage before the release of films from Disney and Paramount for that weekend.

The film was originally scheduled for release last August 15th, but the studio decided to reshoot and ramp up post production work after a leaked teaser trailer appeared, which upset many fans and had the effect of alienating casual viewers.

The movie is based around the story of Goku and his quest for the six remaining dragon balls (he possesses one) to fulfill his dying grandfather’s wish to keep them out of the hands of the villain Piccolo. Piccolo wishes to use the dragon balls to take over the world.

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Journalist since 2006, initially covering the retail wireless sector before pivoting to anime and manga trade reporting in 2008. Founder and publisher of AnimeNews.biz (2008–2017), followed by a 13-year tenure at Crunchyroll News (2011–2024) and launching K-Comics Beat with Comics Beat in 2024. Now stripping away consumer noise to build independent, data-backed intelligence desks focused on cross-border licensing telemetry, production committee balance sheets, and industrial supply-chain forensics.

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