Live-Action 'ASTRO BOY' Film In-Development

Hollywood Reporter has news of another anime series getting turned into a live-action film that being the iconic Japanese series Astro Boy.

You might remember that Hollywood already tried to make an Astro Boy movie in 2009 with disastrous results.

 The animated film barely made $40M worldwide while costing $65M to make this of course doesn't include all the money spent to promote which would likely mean the film ended-up costing that studio at the very least $100M in losses.

Making a live-action film based on these numbers actually sounds insane to me unless this film is going to be made for the Japanese market. The biggest hurtle would be that the show hasn't aired in North America in over a decade and the character would likely be unknown to the aimed demographic. We already saw in 2009 what happens when kids aren't aware of the source material or don't embrace it.

This is also coming from someone who grew-up watching the anime series in the 80s and reruns in the 90s. The material works best in it's animated form and it's live-action counterpart would be super expensive to put together.

 It would honestly come down to the creative team that puts the film together as THR reveals a search for writers is about to begin.



SOURCE: THR

Teaser For New GHOST IN THE SHELL Anime Film Coming In 2015 With A Score By Cornelius

CrunchyRoll has word from the official Ghost In The Shell website that a third untitled anime film will be coming out around summer 2015. I have no idea when it will or if it will be released in North America but it would be a good idea to at least have a limited release. I'm stoked to see what direction they'll be going here, since it's apparently linked to the four-part Ghost In The Shell Arise prequel series with the same writer and director.

Japanese pop artist Cornelius is scoring the film which is beyond cool. I was a big fan of his music in the early 2000s but haven't listened much in a long time. He helped a bit with the music for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim, so he's not a stranger to film. It's possible the music in it's short teaser is from him. Cornelius also scored the series Arise which is currently on Netflix.

It's excellent timing but we really need to see this film getting promoted in the U.S.. Mainly, because Dreamworks' needs to get the word out the mainstream about this property since they are aiming to release a live-action film. Having director Rupert Sanders and starring Scarlett Johansson it's release could come sometime in either 2016 or 2017. A first person shooter game is also in the works, and will hopefully be released worldwide before the live-action film's release.

I loved the original film and liked the first viewing of the second film Innocence, enjoying only a few scenes in the sequel with return viewings. I couldn't get into the series because of the inferrer animation style but I'm sure there is plenty of awesome episodes there.

Below is the teaser poster and trailer for the film. The trailer doesn't show much, but it cements the film is coming. While Ninja Scroll 2's release has been delayed for years and no sight of release date.

SOURCE: CHUNCHYROLL

Jaume Collet-Serra Talks AKIRA Vision And Reaffirms Trilogy

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra's is slowly rising to the level of studio blockbuster. His first batch of films included horror flicks House of Wax and Orphan, the usual type of films a new director get's offered in Hollywood. He's recently found a muse in Liam Neeson directing him in the awfully dull Unknown, this weekend's trapped-on-a-plane thriller Non-Stop and action flick Run All Night.

Non-Stop hits theatres this weekend, and I've actually heard nothing but positive things about it. Bloggers such as Devin (BadassDigest), El Mayimbe (LatinoReview) and Frosty (Collider), have given brief but positive reactions from their recent screenings. Folks like these usually have a good radar for poorly made films, so their keenness for the film is a good sign.

Why it a good sign? Before Non-Stop and Run All Night were put into production, Jaume was attached to direct Warner Bros' live-action Akira adaptation back in 2011. A much beloved manga and anime film, which some consider the best in both mediums. The budget had been reduced a couple of times, but the $90 million was too expensive for the studio. The director would confirm last year that he was still going ahead with directing Akira, after he completed Run All Night. He talked to ComingSoon about his vision for the film, which might win over fans or just anger them (over comments of the "terrible" characters). Jaume also confirms previous talk of Akira being turned into a trilogy.


Collet-Serra: It's great that they're waiting for me. It's different, because you have to be respectful of the source material. Otomo adapted his own work from a manga into an anime and both things are completely different and genius. The only way to do a live version of "Akira" is to take the spirit and adapt it. It will be as different as the anime was from the manga.

CS: What worries myself and a lot of the other fans of the property is you have elements that are commercial and sexy, like the motorbikes or the jaw-dropping futuristic backdrop, but for the most part it's a very cerebral work. How do you maintain the essence of that without diluting it into essentially "Blade Runner: Mark 2"?

Collet-Serra: I think you cannot make a movie about "Akira" and hope that everyone understands it. Like everything else, you have to make three or four movies in one where there's the essence somewhere. If you're a fan, you already know what it's about and you'll see it's part of the same world, but trying to oversimplify it would be a mistake. I think if at some point a character tries to explain it to the audience at the end of the second act, that's a problem. It's more like an existential opera. It's something that can only be explained in the manga, and even in the anime it's hard to follow.

CS: And we all have that original anime, it's there, nothing can sully it, so if you were going to do it in live-action one would hope you would bring something new to the table. What is it you are bringing specifically that is going to make it yours?

Collet-Serra: I hope that I can bring strong characters. In the original source material, I don't think the main characters are the protagonists. What I'm hoping is to bring characters.

CS: That's true. It's one of those strange stories where you literally never see the main character that is the namesake of the film!

Collet-Serra: Nobody's interesting. Tetsuo's interesting because weird sh*t happens to him, and Kaneda is so two-dimensional. That's part of the Japanese culture, they never have strong characters. They're used as a way to move the other philosophy forward.

CS: They're ciphers.

Collet-Serra: Yeah. So hopefully in my version that will be strong, and you'll have a story that happens in that world that will show you a little bit of the mystery. Then, if you're interested, they'll make "Akira 2 & 3" then you can get deeper into it. I love the world, a lot of people love that world, so why wouldn't we indulge in it a little bit and see how it would be if it was real? Like you say I don't have to explain everything, but wouldn't you like to spend two-hours in a world of "Akira" and follow a character and be like, "that's cool"? That's all I want to offer, is two-hours in a world you can actually feel. We're working on it.


I wasn't convinced when Doug Liman (Bourne Identity, Mr And Mrs Smith) was hired to direct Edge of Tomorrow, which is another manga adaptation based on All You Need Is Kill. The recent trailer has sold me on the film. I'll hold off judgements on Jaume making Akira, until we see some footage and images from the project. Because it could be a very similar situation, and he might actually have an unique vision for the film. 

Casting has always been a bit of a hot-topic with Akira, as Warner Bros. was exclusively looking at young white actors. Whitewashing the cast and relocating the Japanese-set (very important to the story) story to Manhattan. At one point Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy, On The Road, Mojave, Unbroken, Inside Llewyn Davis) was offered the lead role (via Twitch) with Gary Oldman (Robocop, Dark Knight Trilogy, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, Lawless) and Helena Bonham Carter (King's Speech, Terminator Salvation, Fight Club, Lone Ranger) also in the mix.

Hedlund recently tried to nab the John Connor role in Termination: Genesis, which would include a three-picture deal. He instead signed-on for the part of Hook in WB's Peter Pan origin film Pan from director Joe Wright (Hanna, Atonement), alongside Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard. Some are saying that Garrett might still be attached for Akira, but I'm not entirely convinced.


SOURCE: COMINGSOON

First Footage From Prequel GHOST IN THE SHELL: ARISE

Kise Kazuchika Directing GHOST IN THE SHELL: ARISE

Twitch is reporting that development on a third anime film based on the Ghost In The Shell manga is on it's way. The film entitled Ghost In The Shell: Arise will be directed by Kise Kazuchika (Blood: The Last Vampire, Neon Genesis Evangelion). Details are unknown at this point but it's title could be a speculative clue. It's possible Arise could mean the resurrection of the Major or even a cyborg uprising. There had been a live-action film in development-limbo over at Dreamworks with producer Steven Spielberg attached. That project has a script written by Jamie Moss only to be replaced with Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Avatar) but hasn't been mentioned in a very long time.

'AVATAR 4' A Possibility, So What Happens With 'BATTLE ANGEL'?

It's starting look like James Cameron might be putting hold Battle Angel: Alita to focus on a numerous amount of Avatar sequels. As he recently talked to NewYorkTimes revealing that he wants to make Avatar 4. He confirms that his main focus will be the Avatar franchise and won't be developing or producing any new projects. James is currently writing Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 which is expected to start production in a year or two.

"I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the 'Avatar' business. Period. That’s it. I’m making 'Avatar 2,' 'Avatar 3,' maybe 'Avatar 4,' and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts," Cameron said about his future plans. "And that all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the 'Avatar' landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing. I’ve done five documentaries in the last 10 years, and I’ll hopefully do a lot more. In fact, I’m doing one right now, which is on this, the Deep Sea Challenge project that we just completed the first expedition. So that’ll be a film that’ll get made this year and come out first quarter of next year."

Last month Cameron told MTV he still intends to direct Alita but with three time-consuming sequels to Avatar can we really believe he'll be able to fit it in? On the other hand, with Avatar 2's 2014 release date being changed could Alita (with a completed script) end up going into production first? Cameron did shoot test-footage for Alita a while back and was finishing rewrites on the script while Avatar was originally shooting (wearing a Battle Angel tee on set in the above image), so anything is possible.