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The IFMagazine.com entertainment website reports that film producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly) is developing a live-action adaptation of Sunrise’s Cowboy Bebop multi-genre action anime series for Fox. Stoff told the website that the project is “in the really early stages” since the parties “just signed it the other day.” Shinichiro Watanabe’s original anime follows the motley crew of the spaceship Bebop as it travels throughout the solar system in search of the next job. Stoff promised “a real degree of faithfulness,” and added, “When I met with them in Japan, one of the first things that I brought up was the experience that we had on A Scanner Darkly, and how hard we worked to remain faithful to Philip K. Dick, and that was our big concern here.”

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Yasuharu Ishii’s live-action film finale based on Yoko Kamio’s Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) shōjo romantic comedy manga opened at #1 at the Japanese box office during the June 21-22 weekend. Boys Over Flowers Final earned over 1 billion yen or US$9,631,782 on 400 screens that weekend (Box Office Mojo). As the only manga or anime-based film on the top 10 chart, Boys Over Flowers Final took the #1 spot from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was the top-grossing film the previous weekend. Since the film is tracking about 150% higher than TOHO’s Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu Socrates in Love film (8.5 billion yen or about US$81 million at the box office) in 2004, the Mainichi Shimbun paper reports that the new film may earn over 10 billion yen (US$94 million) in the end.

In the first nine days of the Boys Over Flowers film’s release, over 2 million people have seen it. The movie serves as a finale for Ishii’s two hit live-action television series and one television special that were also based on the manga. All four of these live-action incarnations starred Mao Inoue as the strong-willed girl named Tsukushi who perseveres at an elitist academy and in life after high school. (The manga was previously adapted into a 1995 live-action film that is otherwise unrelated to Ishii and Inoue’s version.) A new manga volume was published in the same week as the film, and it reached #1 on the weekly comic rankings.

Viz Media released the manga and anime versions in North America. The manga has also been adapted into live-action series in Taiwan and soon in South Korea.

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Miyuki Kanbe, an actress best known as the third Sailor Moon in the Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon musical and Kyoko Kakei in the Battle Royale II: Requiem film, died suddenly of heart failure at a Kawasaki City hospital on June 18 at 4:08 a.m. She was 24. In February of 2007, she had to step down from her upcoming role of Eponine in the Les Misérables musical due to poor health, and she had been in and out of the hospital in her hometown ever since.

Kanbe won the role of Usagi Tsukino and her magical girl alter-ego Sailor Moon in an audition with 500 other applicants. She would play the role in this stage adaptation of Naoko Takeuchi’s manga from 2000 to 2001. She then appeared in several television series and movies. In particular, she played Kyoko Kakei in 2003’s Battle Royale II: Requiem and played Hinaka Tachibana in the Kamen Rider Hibiki television series and film from 2005 to 2006. She also sang the first two opening themes for the 2003-2004 anime series Mermaid Melody: Pichi Pichi Pitch. She was said to be in good spirits when she met with her agency’s head in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward on June 9. Even though she left the Les Misérables production before it opened, the producers at TOHO reportedly left a standing offer for her return by saying, “We want you to come back when you get better.”

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Which Hayao Miyazaki film is your favorite? (Suggested by “sadegh2″)

Choices:

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Porco rosso
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Howl’s Moving Castle
I am waiting for Ponyo on the Cliff to come out later this year.
I am a big fan of Miyazaki’s collected works.
I am not a fan of Miyazaki’s collected works.
I don’t think I am familiar with Miyazaki’s catalog.
I have no opinion.

You can vote here.

Production I.G’s Tokyo Marble Chocolate OVA has been named the winner of the feature film category at the 12th annual Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF), which ran from May 21 to May 25. The anime depicts a couple’s unusual Christmas night out and their attempts to find each other after getting separated. Tokyo Marble Chocolate competed in the feature film category against America’s Delgo, Russia’s Prince Vladimir, France’s Princess of the Sun, and Spain’s RH+: The Vampire of Seville.

As the directorial debut of Naoyoshi Shiotani and Production I.G’s latest full-length project, Tokyo Marble Chocolate commemorated the 20th anniversary of both the animation studio and the music company BMG Japan. The film was inspired by two songs from BMG artists SEAMO and Sukima Switch. Production I.G described the plot as “a pure love story, colorful and sweet, yet a bit bitter, just like a piece of chocolate.”

Tokyo Marble Chocolate was the only Japanese entry in any of SICAF’s competitive categories, but several more anime feature films and shorts screened in the festival’s non-juried lineups. Shuhei Morita’s Freedom and Masahiro Ando’s Sword of the Stranger (recently licensed in the United States by Bandai Entertainment) were both screened during the festival’s Inspiration of Asia program, which focuses on directors who are less well-known, but show great potential. They were joined by Koji Yamamura’s Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor and various Japanese CG and experimental animation shorts such as Mirai Mizue’s Lost Utopia, a 5-minute hand-drawn animated take on the Biblical story of Adam and Eve that uses 5,000 frames; Magnetic UFO, a new short created by Studio 4°C and directed by Shojiro Nishimi; and Boneheads, a co-production between Japanese director Hiroshi Chida and California-based animation company Frederator Studios (Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents).

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The anime is currently unlicensed in the US, and available for download/streaming here.

After 19 years since its debut in 1989, DreamWorks has finally secured the rights to adapt the Japanese manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell into a 3D live-action feature film. Both Universal and Sony were also chasing the rights, but Steven Spielberg himself took a personal interest in it and made sure it ended up in the hands of his company - DreamWorks. Spielberg says that Ghost in the Shell is one of his favorite stories and is “a genre that has arrived and we enthusiastically welcome it to DreamWorks.” This plays off of the announcement from February that Akira, one of the other heralded Japanese anime properties, is being adapted by Warner Brothers as well.

Street Kings screenwriter Jamie Moss has been hired to write the adaptation. Ex-Marvel CEO Avi Arad and Steven Paul, who originally brought the project to the studio, will both produce. A director has not been announced yet. DreamWorks president of production Adam Goodman enthused that Ghost in the Shell is a property “that epitomizes 3-D live-action motion picture possibilities.” A production schedule has not been announced, however it’s likely DreamWorks will be aiming to get this together to follow Akira’s debut in the summer of 2009.

Created by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. Ghost in the Shell is a futuristic police thriller dealing with the exploits of Motoko Kusanagi, a member of the covert operations section of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission, Section 9, which specializes in fighting technology-related crime. Although supposedly equal to all other members, Kusanagi fills the leadership role in the team, and is usually referred to as “the Major” due to her past rank in the armed forces. She is capable of superhuman feats, and bionically specialized for her job - her body is almost completely mechanized; only her brain and a segment of her spinal cord are organic.

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By DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News and KING5.com Staff

EVERETT, Wash. - An Everett-area family is in mourning over a 10-year-old boy who died after being buried alive by his playmates.

In a statement, the family of Codey Porter says he died peacefully at 3:35 p.m. on Monday with his family by his side.

The bizarre incident, which happened on Saturday, may have been sparked by a television cartoon.

Family members describe Codey, a fifth grader at Silver Firs Elementary School in Everett, as smart and imaginative. Unfortunately, it may have been his imagination that led to his death.

“Really articulate. He’s got a really good imagination too. He’s just not a regular 10-year-old,” said Joshua Quantrille, 30, who is Codey’s half-brother.

“They watch a cartoon where there were like sandmasters or something. They can manipulate sand or something like that,” said Quantrille. “He came up with an idea if he were to do this, then he would be able to be one of them. They’re all under 10, so a pretty crazy imagination, you know. They were like hey, OK.”

The cartoon “Naruto” shows the characters using sand as a tool and weapon and could have been what Codey and the others were trying to mimic when he was buried, headfirst, in a sandbox in the backyard of the house.

Quantrille said Codey was buried roughly from his head to his chest. At some point, he began thrashing around, but the children apparently thought he was playing.

Eventually they figured out something was wrong. They pulled Codey out and called the adults inside the home, who administered CPR until an aid car arrived.

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The 7th Annual Japanese Otaku Awards were presented before a standing-room-only crowd at Tokyo’s Loft/Plus One hall on January 5. The organizers describe it as an informal “event of the otaku, by the otaku, for the otaku” to commemorate the things, people, and events that left a lasting impression on the otaku world in the past year. A panel of eight judges, led by novelist/manga creator Hōsai Tsuruoka and columnist/radio commentator Shunichi Karasawa, first nominated several entries in fields ranging from paranormal phenomena to fujoshi (boys-love otaku) interests. Then the panel held a free-form discussion to determine the winners of the awards presented by each judge, as well as one Grand Prix winner.

Grand Prix: Video-sharing sites (Example: Nico Nico Douga)

Hidekuni Shida Award: The Idolm@ster (the videogame that loosely inspired the Xenoglossia anime)

Dorii Osaki Award: Blade Runner 25th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition

Naoki Ishiguro Award: Seto no Hanayome

Hisashi Maeda Award: School Days

Harayasa Tōkaimura Award: Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone

Masumi Kurata Award: Kamen Rider Den-O

Shunichi Karasawa Award: The UFO debate in the Japanese Parliament

Hōsai Tsuruoka Award: Regular Kyaku no Kobayashi-kun

Animedia Award: Yasai no Yousei - N.Y. Salad

While they ultimately did not win awards, the live-action Transformers movie, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, Dennō Coil, Lucky Star, Jump Square, the PlayStation 3 game console, Miku Hatsune, and Toshio Okada all came up during the freeform discussion. The Otaku Awards event will be broadcasted on Japan’s Mondo21 satellite channel in two parts on January 26 and 27.

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The judging committee of the 12th Animation Kobe Awards, which are among the preeminent industry accolades in Japanese animation and media, has announced this year’s award winners on September 27.

Individual Award
Hiroyuki Imaishi (director of Dead Leaves, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann)

Special Award
Isao Takahata (director of Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko)

Theatrical Film Award
Paprika (Madhouse)

Television Award
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (Sunrise)

Packaged Work Award
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society (Production I.G)

Network Award
Second Life (Linden Research, Inc.)

Theme Song Award (Radio Kansai Award)
“Motteke! Sailor Fuku” (Lucky Star opening theme)

The 12th Annual Animation Kobe event will hold an awards ceremony on November 4 in the city of Kobe in western Japan. The judging committee is composed of experts in the industry — notably the editors-in-chief of animation and media magazines such as Animage, Animedia, Newtype, Weekly ASCII and MdM. Previous winners have included Hideaki Anno, Hayao Miyazaki, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Mononoke, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Key the Metal Idol, Voices of a Distant Star, Phatasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI, Fujiko F. Fujio, Leiji Matsumoto, and the theme songs to the Fruits Basket and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya television series.

Source: animeanime.jp