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Producer: Script for Anime of Satoshi Kon's Opus Manga Being Written
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Anime producer Masao Maruyama reported at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on Monday that a script is being written for an anime adaptation of Satoshi Kon's OPUS manga. Maruyama did not state if an anime project has been officially green-lit, or if staff members or a studio has been assigned.
Maruyama also added that Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine), Kon's unfinished film, will remain uncompleted and unreleased.
Maruyama previously expressed a desire to work on an anime adaptation of OPUS at his new Studio M2 in July last year. A source from Studio M2 later clarified that he did not issue an official statement and that a project had not been green-lit.
Composer Susumu Hirasawa, a frequent collaborator with Kon, later revealed last October that he had been asked to compose the theme song for the manga, but did not clarify if the song was for the same proposed project that Maruyama had discussed earlier.
The OPUS manga ran from 1995 to 1996 before Kon made his directorial debut with Perfect Blue in 1997. Tokuma Shoten reprinted the series in 2010 with the "illusive ending" to the story that was not printed during the original magazine run. Dark Horse Comics published the two-volume series in one omnibus volume in 2014.
Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent, Paprika) passed away in 2010. Madhouse announced later that year that it had resumed production on Kon's final film Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine) but the project remains unfinished. Maruyama left Madhouse in 2011 in order to finish The Dreaming Machine, but had no updates of the project as of January 2017, as he has found "no way" to complete the project without Kon.
Source: Renato Rivera Rusca
