There’s a new Dragon Ball Z film coming out in 2013 co-written by Akira Toriyama!

As announced in my previous breaking news article, a new DBZ film is in development.

French website Manga-News.com is reporting first details about the new Dragon Ball movie.

The film will be animated, not live action.

The movie will take place at some point during during the 10 year break after the Majin Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z. It will be written as part of the official timeline between chapter 517 and 518 of the manga.

The script will be co-written by Akira Toriyama, who has never been so deeply involved with the animated portion of his series before.

Some of the other main talents involved have previous Dragon Ball experience, including director Masahiro Hosoda, who directed some episodes of the Cell Saga in DBZ.

The main screenwriter is Yusuke Watanabe (Live Gantz, 20th Century Boys 2) and the main animation director is Tadayoshi Yamamuro, who has worked on Dragon Ball before. It looks like it will be animated by Toei, as expected.

On the poster is a note from Akira Toriyama Sensei himself, next to his iconic Tori-bot likeness.

Toriyama says:

It’s rare, or I should say, it’s the first time, that I’ve been deeply involved with the animation from the scriptwriting stage. It had been a while, so there was a lot I’d forgotten, but as expected of the creator of the original work, I was soon able to get back into the tempo of things, at least. For this film, while leaving the atmosphere of the original intact, we’ve added just a little bit of modern flavor, so I think it will be an enjoyable work of entertainment, just like old times.

The poster also points to a new movie specific website, at www.dragonball2013.com that redirects to a Toei sub-page with some placeholder content there at the moment.

UPDATE ON JULY 14: The site has launched, and currently features a News section stating that the movie has been announced in Weekly Shonen Jump number 33, with a note by Akira Toriyama sensei.

When will the New Dragon Ball Z film come out?

It will premiere March 30, 2013 in theaters across Japan with a “super” wide release!

So now that we know, it’s time to get excited. Leave your comments below!

Welcome back Goku! Let’s do this!!

Update on July 27

A new Teaser Trailer has just been released at the Saikyo Jump Festival.

Check out the awesome! What do you think?!