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N LITE Announces Chiure: Child of the Sea Animated Film
posted on by Alex Mateo
Multimedia company N LITE announced on Wednesday that it is producing a new animated film titled Chiure: Child of the Sea at its studio in Japan in collaboration with South African animation studio LUCAN. The company unveiled a visual:
The company describes the story:
Inspired by Mozambican folklore, CHIURE: CHILD OF THE SEA tells the story of Chiure, a girl who protects her diminishing sea-side community by awakening a centuries old connection to the ocean and an ancient water God sleeping beneath the earth.
Vanessa dos Santos is writing the screenplay, and is credited for the story along with Christiano Terry and Clayton Koski. Tom Lintern is the watercolor artist. Christiano Terry is the art director.
N LITE confirmed that the new film is on its slate after MFINDA. The company announced the film in honor of the 50th Mozambique Independence Day on June 25.
Christiano Malik Terry, founder of N LITE, also leads N LITE Japan with Shin Koyamada (The Last Samurai, Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior) and Shigeru Igari (former CEO of Atlus). N LITE is producing the MFINDA "AFRIME" or "afro-anime," film, in Japan. Donald H. Hewitt (Spirited Away's English screenplay), Mika Abe (Forest of Piano), and MFINDA creator Patience Lekien are writing the screenplay. The production credits Lekien and Terry with the story. N LITE is partnering with Viola Davis and Julius Tennon's JuVee Productions for MFINDA. Davis, Tennon, JuVee's head of film Melanie Clark, Genco, Inc.'s Tarō Maki, and GKIDS's Eric Beckman are executive producers.
MAPPA's Masao Maruyama (In This Corner of the World, Tokyo Godfathers producer, Summer Wars planner) is producing MFINDA. Gisaburō Sugii (Touch, Jack to Mame no Ki, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie) is directing. Arthell Isom (D'Art Shtajio) is co-directing. U.S. animation producer and distributor GKIDS is a coproduction partner.
N LITE is partnering with GONZO and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse co-director Peter Ramsey to produce two animated projects: a noir thriller film titled Ripper and a sci-fi adventure series titled Hotaru.
N LITE aims to bring black and indigenous stories in partnership with global creators. AFRIME, or afro-anime, is its hand-drawn 2D animation. The company plans to produce AFRIME films and television series. N LITE Japan is working on upcoming projects based on anime and manga IP.
Source: Email correspondence
