Attack On Titan is very popular around the world, and has been signed up for a live action movie. The manga and Anime series is so popular in Japan that everyone wants to use it in their marketing campaigns and commercials. So the director of the upcoming live action production was given a chance to put together a Subaru commercial to try out his first Titans on. They haven’t decided yet if these are the way the Titans will be portrayed in the film, but it looks pretty good for a first attempt. Thanks to the folks at Anime News Network for the heads up on this one; they have more information about the movie at their site.
It looks like Dreamworks is going ahead with their live action production of Ghost In The Shell, since they have now brought in Rupert Sanders to direct it. This classic Masamune Shirow cyberpunk story is an examination of what it means to be human in this increasingly technological age, where the line between man and machine gets ever more blurry day by day. The format was originally a Manga he wrote and drew from 1989 to 1997. In 1995 he turned it into the Anime feature film that redefined cyberpunk around the world, inspiring such later works as The Matrix. A second Anime movie, Innocence, came out in 2004, both films based on story lines from the Manga. The TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on the other hand had new stories that were spun off of situations and characters in the Manga, but independent from it. It has gone through 2 seasons and a number of compilations of story lines from the series were re-cut into feature length stand alone presentations, between them ranging from 2002 through 2007. The TV series had some of its stories converted into Manga format, and three novels based on the series were also released. Just last year a new series of prequels began to be created as OVAs with Ghost In The Shell: Arise, and that too has manga versions. This universe is rich and complex, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the live action portions of it.
Life After Beth follows in the footsteps of Warm Bodies, being a romantic zombie comedy. When Beth dies, Zach is devastated and goes into serious grieving. When Beth rises from the dead, Zach sees it as his chance to do and say all the stuff he was too shy to go for the first time around. The critical reviews look pretty good on this one, and the fact that it is opening in theaters nationwide two weeks after it stormed through Sundance is a good indication that it is something special. The Girl at the End of the World just came out, about a couple in a long distance relationship, until a disaster knocks out all technology. They have to travel across the planet to be together, just in time for the end of the world. It isn’t in a movie theater, though, it is being released as a digital download; but I thought it was a great title and wanted to mention it.
There is not a lot coming out this week, but there are a few things. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is animated silly fun, and the only US movie I can recommend this week. From Korea we get The Cat, a story about a woman murdered on an elevator with her cat being the only witness. Park Min Young takes the cat in at the request of the police, only to have strange visions and mysterious events start to happen to her. And from Italy, France, and Spain, Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D has all the sex and violence they could cram in and still get an R rating, with Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing. That last is an interesting choice, since he played Dracula in 2005’s Dracula III: Legacy. And I am not quite sure why the only web site I could find for this Italian movie was in Japan.
The only TV show worth mentioning is Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain, an award winning animated series about trying to take over the world, which was wiped out by the network that bought it for broadcast.
In Anime, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Demon Capital: Set 1 is the only new release, continuing the story of the Nura Clan’s fight against the Yokai. One of the most powerful Yokai, which are somewhere along the demon-monster-spirit spectrum, has returned to Earth after his defeat by the Nura several generations ago. They will have to defeat him again to protect their town and family. These 13 episodes are part one of season 2. There is a cyberpunk classic being re-released this week: Serial Experiments Lain – The Complete Collection. The artwork and animation are amazing, the story is a surrealistic mystery that takes place among the Wired, from a time before the world went wireless. If you haven’t seen this one before, you get another chance. You can also watch it online at the Funimation home page linked here.
The Hollywood Reporter, usually referred to as THR, released a set of interviews at the beginning of this year covering all aspects of the film making industry, each featuring a collection of the top creators within that subset of the art. The one that had me mesmerized was the Full Animator Interview (capitols intended, as are most of the puns I often include, but I do not normally admit to them). If you have an interest in creating animation, or just appreciate amazing stuff when you see it, it would be worth a bit of your time to check this out.
This week we get I, Frankenstein, a movie based on the graphic novel I, Frankenstein which surprised me. When I first saw the trailer I figured it was based on the Dean Koontz Frankenstein series, but I guess it just borrows heavily from it. In case there is a difference, they also have a Motion Comic of the prequel episode.