Ask John: Is the Live Action Dragonball Movie Poster Real?

Question:
For the past few weeks this theatrical Poster for the upcoming live action DBZ movie has been circulating the internet. There’s been a lot of speculation that the poster is 100% fake. What do you think? Here are the reasons why I think this movie poster is a fake. 1) 1. A real movie poster must have the director or the creator’s full name. This poster doesn’t have one. 2) The 20th Century Fox symbol on the bottom of the poster is a dead give away that it is a fake. 3) The title of the move is Dragonball, not DBZ. They are using the original name “Dragonball” and not “Dragonball Z.”

Answer:
The supposed live action Dragonball movie teaser image first appeared at Dark Horizons and has been mirrored at Saiyanz Rage.

There’s little reason to assume that the live action DBZ movie poster is official based only on assumed facts and speculation. Acknowledged official theatrical teaser posters for titles such as X-Men do not include any staff or cast names. The Fifth Element teaser poster didn’t even include any text at all, just a big “5.” Thus the fact that this poster lists no production credits does not automatically disqualify it as a legitimate, official image. The title used in this teaser poster is irrelevant as Hollywood movies change names all the time. As near as two months before its worldwide release the third Austin Powers movie did not have an official title due to legal disputes between New Line and MGM over the name “Goldmember” and its intentional similarity to “Goldfinger.” Hollywood film scripts, drafts and titles are famous for undergoing dozens of minor and major changes before the film makes its to theatrical release. And finally, given that 20th Century Fox is, beyond a doubt, the American licensee of the live action Dragonball film rights, the Fox logo on the bottom of the image is not “a dead give away that it’s fake.” However, the awkward implementation of the logo looks unprofessional, which presumably Fox would never have released or approved of, thereby suggesting that the image is fan produced or otherwise unofficial.

However, I think the biggest reason to believe that this poster is not an official, sanctioned Fox image is the fact that promotional art for movies is typically rarely produced until the film is actually at least in pre-production. As far as anyone seems to know, Fox has not yet determined when they’re going to even begin working on a live action Dragonball movie. If there’s not even a confirmed pre-production date yet, it seems unlikely that Fox would have already commission official production art including a teaser poster image.

But regardless of whether or not this poster is a genuine official image professional created by Fox Entertainment, it’s significance is tenuous at best. There’s already no doubt that 20th Century Fox has secured the rights to produce a live action Dragonball movie. Since that’s a certified fact beyond question this image does nothing more than serve its intended purpose as a teaser poster.

Since the movie is presumably not even in pre-production yet, any circumstances surrounding the film likely can and will change, so this poster cannot be relied upon to establish any incontrovertible facts, regardless of whether or not it’s official, sanctioned art. The poster image seems imply Super Saiyajins and the title Dragonball Z, however since nothing is yet confirmed, anything is possible including any elements of Dragonball being included or excluded from the live action film. With that in mind, even if this image is official, it can’t be relied upon to confirm anything more than what newspapers and trade magazines around the world already confirmed months ago- that Fox has plans to create a live action adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball manga.