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Live-Action Film of Kaiji Manga to Open Next Summer
posted on by Egan Loo
The Watarase Film Commission, a non-governmental organization that supports film production efforts in Gunma Prefecture northwest of downtown Tokyo, posted a casting call on its bulletin board for a live-action adaptation of Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Kaiji gambling action manga. According to the posting, live-action Gokusen director Tōya Satō will direct the summer 2009 movie for the distributor TOHO, and Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note's Light, Battle Royale's Shuya) will star as the title gambler Kaiji. However, the movie has not been officially announced, and the posting was pulled from the bulletin board shortly after 2ch forum users discovered it on Wednesday.
The casting call had asked for 70 men between the ages of 20 and 40 to be extras. The extra will play contestants of the "restricted rock-paper-scissors" game which is being waged aboard the Espoir gambling ship (as seen in the beginning of the manga, pictured at right). According to the posting, shooting for the scenes will take place on six days between November 11 and December 9.
Kaiji has already been made into a television anime series from October 2007 to April 2008.
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