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Appleseed Director Aramaki to Attend D.C. Screening
posted on by Egan Loo
The Kennedy Center's Japan Festival has confirmed that director Shinji Aramaki will introduce his Appleseed: Ex Machina sequel film when it plays in Washington, D.C. on February 17. Aramaki also directed MADOX-01 and the first Appleseed film based on Masamune Shirow's manga; co-created the original story of Megazone 23; and contributed to the designs in Genesis Climber Mospeada, Bubblegum Crisis, Gasaraki, the 2003 Astro Boy series, s-CRY-ed, Witch Hunter Robin, Wolf's Rain, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow.
The festival, which is officially titled "Japan! culture + hyperculture," will feature the East Coast premieres of Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second and Appleseed: Ex Machina. It will also hold the American premieres of the two Genius Party anthologies with producer Eiko Tanaka and directors Shinichiro Watanabe, Kōji Morimoto, and Mahiro Maeda in attendance. The Katsucon convention is talking place in the same city and weekend this year.
On a related note, the promoters of Appleseed: Ex Machina are holding a contest for fans to mix their own trailers for the film. The winner will win a trip to Wonder Con, a San Francisco pop culture convention affiliated with Comic-Con International. The contest's website is hosting the entries that have already been submitted, and the deadline for submissions is February 7.
Image © 2007 Masamune Shirow/Seishinsha, Ex Machina Film Partners
