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Palm Beach International Film Festival to Screen Chocolate Underground

The 2012 Palm Beach International Film Festival will screen Chocolate Underground, the anime adaptation of the novel Bootleg by Alex Shearer, on Monday, April 16th at 6:45 p.m. at the Muvico Parisian 20 theaters in West Palm Beach, Florida. The film opened in Japan in January 2009.

The film and the earlier net-streamed version follows two English boys named Huntley and Smudger as they create a bootleg chocolate factory after a new political party called Good for You announces a Chocolate Prohibition law. Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Kimi ni Todoke) and Trance Arts (The Prince of Tennis) premiered their anime version on Japanese mobile phones in 2008 on Valentine's Day. The theatrical release added 20 minutes of new footage. Takayuki Hamana (The Prince of Tennis, Library War) directed the project.

The New York International Children's Film Festival also screened Chocolate Underground last September. The film held its American premiere in Washington, D.C. in 2010, and was screened at the Royal/t café and gallery in Culver City, California in July.

Thanks to RC for the tip.