Not long ago, the live-action TV-show of One Piece was announced and to be honest, we kind of have mixed feeling about the whole idea. After all, to date, live action adaptations of anime have yet to show any promise.
It seems though the adaptation will go ahead and based on the reports coming in, it’s set to be really, REALLY expensive. How expensive? Around US$9-10 million per episode! That would essentially set a new record for a television series production costs.
Marty Adelstein, the man who will be producing the live-action series, proved that this humongous figure could be true in a recent interview.
In it he said:
“I’ve been a fan of One Piece for the past twenty years. To be entrusted with such an important work by Shueisha and Mr. Oda is an honor. It’s with great enthusiasm that I will give my all to make One Piece a success. I think that this project could set a new record for the most expensive drama series in TV history.”
Considering the weird and unusual body shapes that the One Piece universe characters have, it wouldn’t be a surprise that a good amount of that budget would be spent on recreating the character’s bodies.
Despite that, however, many fans are still worried about the adaptation. With 870 chapters since the series was first launched by Eichiro Oda 20 years ago, the sheer amount of characters and the extent of the story line will be a challenge to adapt.
Hopefully, with this supposedly big budget given to the adaptation, it’ll turn out better than many of its fellow anime predecessors that have fallen into Hollywood and western hands.
