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Gurren Lagann/Kill la Kill's Nakashima Pens Live-Action Terraformars Script
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
An official website for the live-action film of Kenichi Tachibana and Yū Sasuga's science-fiction manga Terra Formars opened on Friday, and announced that Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill) wrote the screenplay for the film.
In addition, the website announced that 39-year old actor Hideaki Itō will play the lead role of Shōkichi Komachi in the film. More cast and story details for the film will be announced at a later time.
The film is scheduled to open in theaters in 2016. Pre-production for the film took two years, and filming will begin in mid-May. 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.
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.
[Via animeanime.jp]
