Warner Brothers division New Line is in negotiations to pick up the film rights to ‘Astro Boy’, based on a 1950s manga and anime created by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is described as the Japanese Walt Disney and his creation has endured all these decades, last popping up on the big screen in 2009. The new picture will be developed by Animal Logic Entertainment, Ranger 7 Films and Japanese firm Tezuka Productions.
The new movie will be written by Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore, who previously scripted ‘San Andreas’ and the Bruce Willis action vehicles ‘The Prince’ and ‘Vice’. Passmore also contributed to the ‘Red Dawn’ remake.
‘Astro Boy’ (originally named ‘Mighty Atom’) follows the adventures of a powerful robotic boy created by a scientist named Doctor Tenma (or Doctor Astor Boyton II, in English translations) to replace his deceased son.
The character Astro Boy possesses seven super powers: super strength; flight; laser eyes; super hearing; the ability to translate any language; retractable machine gun hips; and intuition that helps him determine if someone is truly good or evil.
‘Astro Boy’ was one of the earliest anime imported to the United States, along with ‘Speed Racer’. Of course since then, there have been countless Japanese anime translated for U.S. audiences including ‘Battle of the Planets’, ‘Shogun Warriors’, ‘Voltron’ and ‘Sailor Moon’ just to name a few.
In 2009, Imagi Animation Studios released a CGI animated film version starring Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy and Nicholas Cage as Doctor Tenma. The movie also featured the voices of Charlize Theron, Ryan Stiles, Eugene Levy, Donald Sutherland, David Alan Grier, Alan Tudyk, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning.
The new film, which will at least in part be live action, is reported to be a “four-quadrant” film, meaning that it is intended to appeal to all audiences, men and women, under 25 years of age and older.
Are you intrigued by the idea of a new ‘Astro Boy’ movie?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
