Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Manga Movie Madness


Leonardo DiCaprio and his production company, Appian Way, are setting their sights on making comic book movies. Not just any comics though, famous mangas and anime!

Appian Way has been picking up classic heavy-hitters from the world of Japanese manga and anime — most notably “Akira” and “Ninja Scroll” — to develop into live-action feature films.

“We’re waiting for the final draft of the script [for 'Akira'],” DiCaprio told MTV. “I’m a big fan of Japanese anime — that and another project called ‘Ninja Scroll’ we’re trying to get developed and made into a movie, and I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we’re going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we’re not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape.”

DiCaprio made it clear that he will only be producing these films and will not act in either of them.

“Ninja Scroll” is one of the most popular anime movies outside of Japan, ranking alongside the classics “Ghost in the Shell” and “Akira.” It’s a dark and gruesome story, following Jubei Kibagami, a ninja who finds himself on a quest to defeat the Eight Devils of Kimon. The villains include a hunchback, who boasts a wasp’s nest as his deformity, a giant man with stone skin, and a woman with snake tattoos which can come to life.

I already mentioned the Akira film here.

I am a fan of both anime films and will definitely be seeing how the live-action adaptations compare with the anime.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!

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