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Live-Action Terraformars Teaser Previews Story

posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Film project also running contest with chance to appear in the film

The official website of the live-action film adaptation of Kenichi Tachibana and Yū Sasuga's Terraformars science-fiction manga began streaming a teaser for the film on Friday.

Narrator: To fulfill the dream of Martian colonization, humanity transformed certain creatures.
Text: Transforming Mars into Earth: The terraforming project
Narrator: After 500 years, to exterminate those evolved creatures, 15 Japanese individuals are sent to Mars.
Text: Hideaki Itō, Emi Takei, Tomohisa Yamashita, Takayuki Yamada, Kane Kosugi, Rinko Kikuchi, Masaya Kato, Eiko Koike, Mariko Shinoda, Kenichi Takitō, Shun Oguri, Director: Takashi Miike
Narrator and Logo: Terraformars
Text: Opens 2016 Golden Week. Seeking crew! Check the website for details.

The official website also revealed on Friday that it is taking applicants for a contest. Applicants must fill out a form and send in their pictures, with the chance to appear in the film's credits. In addition, one applicant's picture will be used in the film, and will have a minor appearance in the film as part of the BUGS2 expedition. The website will take applications from July 31 to October 31.

The film's previously revealed cast include:

Hideaki Itō (Princess Blade, Onmyoji, Umizaru, Sukiyaki Western Django, Lesson of the Evil) will play the lead role of Shōkichi Komachi.

Emi Takei (live-action Rurouni Kenshin's Kaoru, Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu's Tsubaki, Ai to Makoto's Ai, Clover's Saya) stars as the heroine Nanao Akita.

Takayuki Yamada (Densha Otoko, Bakuman., H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi) as Ichirō Hiruma

Shun Oguri (Lupin III, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa, Detective Conan) as Kō Honda

Kane Kosugi (Street Fighter Alpha, Choy Lee Fut, Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear) as God Lee

Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim, Babel, The Sky Crawlers) as Asuka Moriki, based on Victoria Wood

Masaya Kato (Crying Freeman, 1998 Godzilla, Unfair) as Keisuke Dōjima, based on Donatello K. Davis

Eiko Koike (20th Century Boys, Seppun, Nasu: Summer in Andalusia) as Mina Ōbari, based on Zhang Ming-Ming

Mariko Shinoda (former AKB48 idol, Ouran High School Host Club) as Sorae Ōsako, based on Jaina Eisenstein

Kenichi Takitō (Ryōmaden, Climber's High) as Shunji Tezuka, based on Tejas Viji

Rina Ōta (The Next Generation -Patlabor-, Princess Jellyfish) as Maria Renjō, based on Maria Viren

Rila Fukushima (The Wolverine, Arrow, Game of Thrones) as the new, original character Sakakibara

The non-Japanese team members in the original manga have had their names and part of their characters changed. For example, the Thai character Thien is now Jin Mutō, as played by former NEWS band member Tomohisa Yamashita (a.k.a. "Yamapi" from Kurosagi, Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Ashita no Joe).

The film will finish production next February and open in theaters during next spring's Golden Week string of holidays.

Pre-production for the film took two years, and filming began in mid-May. Filming will then move in August to Iceland. It will be the first time that a Japanese film is shot on location there.

Prolific director Takashi Miike (live-action films of Ichi the Killer, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Yatterman, As the Gods Will, Crows Zero, Mogura no Uta) is helming the project, and Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill) wrote the screenplay.

Tachibana and Sasuga launched the original Terra Formars manga in 2011, and Shueisha will publish the 12th volume on February 19. The manga has 10 million copies in circulation. Viz Media is releasing the manga in North America, and it describes the story:

In the late 26th century, overpopulation on Earth is reaching the breaking point, and humanity must find new frontiers. The terraforming of Mars has taken centuries, but is now complete. The colonization of Mars by humanity is an epoch-making event, but an unintended side effect of the terraforming process unleashes a horror no one could ever have imagined...

After humanity's first manned mission to the Red Planet was lost, a second expedition arrives. The explorers prepare to exterminate the cockroaches that were used to transform the Martian environment. They are shocked to discover that the insects have mutated into giant, aggressive humanoids with one overriding goal: exterminate the humans! But this crew of explorers has each undergone the "Bugs Procedure, " terrifying experimental surgery designed to make them more than human...

The television anime adapting the Annex 1 arc of the manga premiered in September, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired. The companion original video anime (OVA) project adapts the Bugs 2 arc on discs bundled with the 10th and 11th manga volumes. The Annex 1 arc takes place 20 years after the Bugs 2 arc.

The original manga also inspired several spinoff manga, including Manpuku Dō and Kaito Shibano's Terra For Police, Shōta Hattori's Terra Formars wa Oyasumi Desu., Serebixi-Ryōsangata's Oshiete! Michelle Kyōkan, and Satoshi Kimura's Terra Formars Gaiden Rain Hard.

The original manga ranked at #3 on the Da Vinci magazine's list of the best male-oriented comics in the first half of 2013. The manga also topped the male readers category of the 2013 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook. The manga was also nominated for Manga Taisho award in 2013.

Similar to the Terraformars film's character changes, writer Tomohiro Machiyama acknowledged that the live-action Attack on Titan films replaced the manga character Levi with Shikishima, due to the perceived incongruity of a Japanese actor playing a character with a foreign name.


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