Lost Xevious CGI Film

This is the main shmups forum. Chat about shmups in here - keep it on-topic please!
Post Reply
User avatar
namcokid47
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 4:05 am
Location: Everglenes

Lost Xevious CGI Film

Post by namcokid47 »

I thought this was an interesting topic so I decided to make a thread on this. During 2002, Namco teamed up with Japanese company Groove Corporation to create a 75 minute CGI film based on Xevious. For some reason, the film was never shown in theaters and was relegated to being shown at a summer road show in specific locations across Japan. There was a planned release for DVD and home media, however there's a rumor that the owner of the company stole all of the money and movie masters and vanished, leaving Groove to go out of business and cancelled several films and home media releases, including this film. Apparently the film itself is pretty terrible (and judging from the few images that exist online I'm honestly not surprised), but it would be interesting to one day find this thing.

There is apparently roughly 10 minutes of footage from the film on a Groove Corporation promotional DVD, but the disc itself goes for like $80 ~ $120 on auction sites, and I'm sure not many people are willing to shill that amount of money to get 10 minutes of footage from a movie that supposedly isn't that good.

Does anyone else have any more info on this? I'd be interested to hear.
"I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi." - Darius II
User avatar
professor ganson
Posts: 5163
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:59 am
Location: OHIO

Re: Lost Xevious CGI Film

Post by professor ganson »

Fascinating! Sort of surprising (or doubtful) that there was enough interest in Xevious in 2002 to warrant such a project.

Here's hoping the promo film will get uploaded to youtube one day. Or even better: that the original film resurfaces.
User avatar
namcokid47
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun May 13, 2018 4:05 am
Location: Everglenes

Re: Lost Xevious CGI Film

Post by namcokid47 »

Xevious has a huge following in Japan, so I could see this happening. Honestly if the discs were much cheaper than I would probably buy one and upload the footage to YouTube.

I just think it's so weird that a movie based on a pretty big franchise in Japan just vanishes out of thin air. Not to mention how the CEO of the company hasn't been found in like a few decades now.
"I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi." - Darius II
User avatar
professor ganson
Posts: 5163
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 3:59 am
Location: OHIO

Re: Lost Xevious CGI Film

Post by professor ganson »

Yeah, this real-life story would probably make for a better film than the Xevious film which was lost!
Post Reply