Kamala Films has acquired film rights to the big screen adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub. Kazuo Koike’s 1970s Japanese manga comic has been adapted into six films, four plays, a television series, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.
The original, set during the feudal Edo period, chronicles the story of Ogami Itto, the Shogun’s elite executioner. In an attempt to take his position, a rival clan falsely accuses Itto of a crime and murders his wife. Disgraced, Itto is forced to wander Japan with his three-year-old son Daigoro as an assassin for hire, earning the title “Lone Wolf and Cub.” Ultimately, Itto and Daigoro seek revenge on the clan that murdered his wife.
David and Janet Peoples have been brought on to write the script. Fast Five‘s Justin Lin whas already been attached to direct. The scribes have a long and successful body of work including Blade Runner, Unforgiven and Twelve Monkeys. Lin is currently working on the sixth installment of Universal’s The Fast and the Furious.
Several outlets are reporting today that director Doug Liman will be directing the adaptation of a popular Japanese anime novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
All You Need Is Kill was released in the states last year, and is about an alien invasion in which the protagonist sets off to battle, and dies.
He is reborn every morning to fight another day, only to perish again. A female soldier named Bitch of War makes an appearance as well. The book is referred to as being video-game inspired.
Chances are, you are familiar with Liman’s work. He has directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
His latest movie Fair Game stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn and will be hitting theaters November 19. The movie tells the politically charged story about Valerie Plame who was outed by the White House staff as being a CIA operative.
So far, Liman has been able to smoothly transition from one genre to another, which makes us excited to see what he can do with this.
Even though we didn’t get a chance to attend Anime Expo this past week it doesn’t mean we can’t bring you some info on the event. Taking place from July 2-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the expo showcases the latest, greatest and most colorful Anime from around the world.
Of course, where there’s Anime you will find people who love to dress up as their favorite Anime characters. Our friends at LAist have put together a rather impressive bunch of photos that show you exactly what we’re talking about.
We can show you a couple of them here but for all the rest, be sure to head over to the site and their photo pool on Flickr to check them out. After looking at these photos and hearing some of the stories it looks like we ma have to add this event to our calendar for next year. Seems like it was a good time.
Women, you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them — especially if you’re a grown man-child living in your parent’s basement. That is, until now. The “Women of Marvel” is a year-long celebration of, you guessed it, the women of Marvel Comics.
Marvel intends to celebrate women not only in the superhero realm but also the real life creators and artists. Marvel sees us standing impatiently in lines for Avatar and says, “Hey, maybe she’d like to read something to take her mind off of the 3 hour and $18 dollar ticket price.”
First off, I commend Marvel for spotlighting half of the human population. Yes, we women are out there and some of us are geeks. For the past few years I have been reading about Marvel’s company and comic book events.
I found Civil War to be expertly drawn and relevant, I was thankful that House of M was both brief and Wolverine-centric, and I was patient as Skrullacost (aka Secret Invasion) ended in a forgone conclusion. I was ecstatic when Marvel also dedicated a month to my favorite hairball, Wolvie.
Now that I liked, especially the article about the state of the canuckle’s head when he sat down on the couch for some therapy. It’s safe to say I’m excited about some Marvel events and less so about others, which is fine considering events span the far reaches of the Marvel universe.
However, when I heard about a year-long celebration of a gender I am wholly bias about, a smile spread on my face. Maybe it was due to the fact the most recent San Diego Comic-Con was comprised of 40% women or the line of Twihards stretched for miles, but whatever the cause the impact is slowly changing the marketplace for the well-rounded better and Marney (Marvel + Disney) is diving into the deep end.
My former colleagues over at Cinematical have an exclusive look at the reported final poster for the CGI-animated adaptation of Astro Boy. You can head over there for a better look at the poster. In the meantime, in case you’re not familiar, Astro Boy, based on the manga and anime franchise of the same name, takes place in the futuristic Metro City. Dr. Tenma, a brilliant scientist, creates a young robot boy in his deceased son’s image.
The robot is, of course, the super powerful Astro Boy. Once alive and kicking, he has to contend with other much more dangerous robots and unfortunately, some not so trustworthy humans as well. The film features the voices of Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy, Kristen Bell as Cora, Nicolas Cage as Dr. Tenma, Bill Nighy as Dr. Elefun and Donald Sutherland as the President.
It should come as no surprise that Freddie Highmore’s Astro Boy is front and center on the poster, closely followed by Kristen Bell’s Cora. Also included in the poster are Dr. Tenma and Dr. Elefun. In addition to the poster, which looks really cool and fun, I also had a chance to see the trailer for the film while watching a movie last weekend. It also made the film look really fun and also made it seem suitable for kids (of all ages) as well.
Sony’s Screen Gems has launched an official website for the Scott Stewart-directed Priest adaptation, giving fans a first look at Paul Bettany in the lead role. Based on the popular manga TokyoPop comic book, Priest is set in a world ravaged by the on-going war between humans and vampires.
Bettany’s warrior priest turns against the Church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. Cam Gigandet co-stars.
Initial comparisons may be visually drawn to the character of Silas, the devoted albino monk Bettany played in The Da Vinci Code, but the creepy, unflinching intensity in the poster clearly makes him perfect for the part. You don’t exactly ask vampires for hostages nicely.
Marvel had a pretty big weekend here in San Diego for the 40th Annual Comic-Con. Among the announcements made was that a new umbrella would form under Marvel’s studio, developing direct-to-DVD Anime titles of some of their classic characters, with comics legend Warren Ellis at the helm.
The first poster was released earlier in the weekend, and now the first trailer has hit the web. Check out the trailer for Marvel Anime’s Wolverine below, Anime Wolverine hits DVD stores (and probably your shelves at home) in 2010, and check in later for another new trailer from the studio.
I realize its been at least a few days since we had anything here about Twilight, so in order to not further disappoint fans of Stephanie Meyer’s creation, I’ve got some new info for you right now. This time around, as first announced by The Flickcast friends MTV’s Splashpage, the long-anticipated Manga adaptation of the Twilight saga will finally, um, see the light of day from Yen Press.
According to the site, Twilight is “officially” coming to comics but sadly, at least for fans of the films, you won’t be treated to super-realistic versions of Meyer’s characters taken directly from the movies. Instead, “certain” features unique to Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon actors such as Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart will influence the drawings by Korean artist Young Kim. Although I’ll bet even though the intent is not to make the characters in the Manga look exactly like the movie’s actors, it will end up looking a lot like them once the Manga is released.
But don’t worry, even if the artist does stray away from the actor’s likenesses, the Manga will still have the Twllight seal of approval because Meyer will oversee every panel and detail of the project. Based on the story’s description in the article, it seems the Manga will be a straight adaptation of the existing stories, which makes sense and is probably the easiest to do. Also, there’s no word yet on how many books are currently planned but be sure if it sells well (and it will) there will be a bunch of them.
Its too bad they don’t have this ready now and can sell copies at next week’s Comic-Con in San Diego right after the Twilight panel finishes up in Hall H. If they did have the Manga ready, you can be sure they would sell every single copy and probably have hundreds of back orders as well.
Over at Sci-Fi Wire they’ve got ten, count ‘em, ten new images from the upcoming action/horror movie Blood: the Last Vampire. The film, a live-action adaptation of the cult hit manga, features the acting talents of Gianna Jun, Allison Miller, Masiela Lusha, JJ Feild and Koyuki. Its written by Chris Chow and directed by Chris Nahon.
In case you’re not familier with the story, Blood: The Last Vampire follows the adventures of Saya, a half-human, half-vampire samurai who’s job it is to destroy other vampires who kill humans. When demons infest the earth, Saya must join forces with a shadow society known as the Council and travel to an American military base where her journey will lead her to face the deadliest vampire of them all.
I don’t know about you, but I think this film looks pretty awesome. Vampires, samurais, sword fights, cute asian girls chopping off the heads of bad guys and all in blood-soaked, slo-motion splendor. What more could you want from a movie?
Be sure to check out the bigger photos after the jump. We’ve also got the first five minutes of the film to share with you as well. Yes, we’re cool like that.
Blood: The Last Vampire hits theaters on July 10th.
My former colleagues over at 
Sony’s Screen Gems has launched an official 
Over at Sci-Fi Wire they’ve got ten, count ‘em, 
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