Anime Expo - Escaflowne Panel

By Chris Beveridge     July 05, 2001

By "The Lizzard"



Panelists: Egan Loo, Jerry Chu, and the VP of Bandai Ent (whose name I
couldn't catch)



- Dubbing is now complete on the Escaflowne movie -- same cast used for

film that was in the TV series (Noooooooooooo, dear god not Brian

Drummond as Allen!)



- On August 19 they will begin the sound mixing with the original sound

crew in Japan



- They expect to have a final theatrical print in early September



- Theater version will be dubbed, not subbed



- TENTATIVE release date for film in North American theaters is

September 21 (later the date was given as Sept 22, so take your pick)



- Will release in San Francisco Bay Area first; may do special

promotional events there leading up to it



- The official English-language Esca movie site (www.escamovie.com)

should actually have something on it within 2 to 4 weeks



- Escaflowne toy figures will not be released this summer but are

stilled planned for later this year; only figures planned right now are

Van, Hitomi, and Escaflowne



- Too early to say what extras will be on the R1 release of the Esca

movie



- R1 movie release will probably be 3rd quarter 2002



- The MAY put Korean dub track on R1 release; depends on what they are

given by Bandai Japan



- Fox has a 7 year contract on the Esca TV rights and they haven't heard

of any plans for Fox to sell the rights to anyone else (i.e. Cartoon

Network)



- Some of the original creators (no names given) want very much to do a

sequel (didn't indicate if that was sequel for the movie or series)



- In episode five, how do Allen and the others get back on the Crusade

from the Vione, considering that Hitomi, as an athlete, barely made the

leap? Jerry Chu: "They jump better than her."



- Which Dragonslayer is Biore? Egan Loo: No character design was

actually ever associated with the name.



- R1 release not likely to be DTS because there is little support for

DTS in theaters (I guess they're talking about the dub here -- wouldn't

a DTS track for Japanese still be possible?)



- A request was made by the panelists for people to email Anime Village

to suggest cities where fans would like to see the movie released; they

want to try to send it where they know they have support



- Jerry Chu: "We will do the best we can to release the film as widely

as possible."



- No box set for Escaflowne series currently planned



--

The Lizzard