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Deadline: Arc Entertainment Acquires Oshii's Live-Action Garm Wars Film

The entertainment news website Deadline reported on Wednesday that film distributor Arc Entertainment has acquired the U.S. rights to Mamoru Oshii's Garm Wars: The Last Druid live-action film. The film is slated for an October 2 release in U.S. theaters and video-on-demand (VOD).

The Nakamura Group Advantage describes the film's story:

Taking place in a world of war known as Annwn, Garm Wars sets the scene with clone soldiers from 3 military tribes, in a bloody and perpetual battle of air, land and technology. One clone, Khara, finds herself separated from battle and on the run with unlikely companions. In seeking to know more about their joint existence, the fugitives instead find an unrelenting truth and the greatest battle of their lives.

The English-language film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival last October as part of the festival's Special Screening Section.

The film is the first live-action English-language film by Oshii, the director of the first two Ghost in the Shell films, The Sky Crawlers, and the live-action film Avalon. Tokyo International Film Festival states that the film uses "Hybrid Animation," a technique to combine CGI and live-action filming.

Geoffrey Gunn (Fangs of War) collaborated on the English-language script, and producer and Production I.G President Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers) once again worked with Oshii. Ken Nakamura (Fangs of War, Provocateur), the CEO of the Nakamura Group Advantage, also produced the film with Tetsu Fujimura (Tekken), the head of the Japanese movie business consulting firm Filosophia. Lon Molnar, the head of the visual effects studio Intelligent Creatures, served as the VFX supervisor.

Oshii began development on the film over 15 years ago, just after finishing the first Ghost in the Shell film at Production I.G in 1995. The Japanese company Bandai Visual had unveiled the project in 1997 under the tentative title of G.R.M. The Record of Garm War (Garumu Senki). Oshii postponed the film and announced it again in 2012, stating that, "At that time, the digital environment needed to realize the visuals was too undeveloped, and I was unable to create and release this film to the world."

Thanks to Daniel for the news tip.