News
GKIDS Licenses French/Japanese Anime MFKZ (Updated With Video)
posted on by Karen Ressler
GKIDS announced on Thursday that it has acquired the North American distribution rights to Studio 4°C and Ankama's Mutafukaz film. The company plans to release the film theatrically in English under the title MFKZ on October 11. The company began streaming an English-subtitled trailer.
French video game and comics publisher Ankama and Japan's Studio 4°C (Tekkon Kinkreet, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc) are co-produced the film based on Guillaume "Run" Renard's Mutafukaz comic series. Renard himself directed the film with Tekkon Kinkreet animation Tekkon Kinkreet animation director Shoujirou Nishimi. Shinji Kimura (Tekkon Kinkreet, Steamboy) served as art director.
The project was first announced in 2011, and the staff announced in 2015 that the film was slated for release in 2017. The film screened at Annecy in June 2017 and at the inaugural Animation is Film Festival in October 2017.
Renard's original comic series is set in "Dark Meat City" — a "pre-apocalyptic American urban jungle" — and revolves around Angelino, a young man whose scooter accident results in the acquisition of supernatural powers. Ankama's official website for the comic stated that it is inspired by science fiction of the 1950s, hip hop music, and wrestling.
Titan Comics released the first volume of the original French graphic novel in English-speaking countries in 2015.
Source: Press Release
Update: Video added.
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